@not_a_charmWhat the Gulf keeps coming back to is that Iran has no real way to blunt U.S. and Israeli airpower, so the retaliation could land on its neighbors instead, aimed at economic and civilian targets. That's the fear driving the prep. Trump is reportedly weighing a large-scale strike on Iran's nuclear and infrastructure sites once the midterms wrap, with a caveat: he wants to see if diplomacy can work first, and that came up in a weekend conversation with Netanyahu. On the military side, munitions are being restocked and troops are being pulled from bases that leave them exposed. You can see the readiness elsewhere too, with airport security drills in Qatar and the UAE, classes in the Saudi capital shifted to remote, and embassies cautioning that the situation can flip quickly. A region bracing for strikes that could arrive soon. WSJ, writeup by Daniyal

@not_a_charmWhat the Gulf keeps coming back to is that Iran has no real way to blunt U.S. and Israeli airpower, so the retaliation could land on its neighbors instead, aimed at economic and civilian targets. That's the fear driving the prep. Trump is reportedly weighing a large-scale strike on Iran's nuclear and infrastructure sites once the midterms wrap, with a caveat: he wants to see if diplomacy can work first, and that came up in a weekend conversation with Netanyahu. On the military side, munitions are being restocked and troops are being pulled from bases that leave them exposed. You can see the readiness elsewhere too, with airport security drills in Qatar and the UAE, classes in the Saudi capital shifted to remote, and embassies cautioning that the situation can flip quickly. A region bracing for strikes that could arrive soon. WSJ, writeup by Daniyal