Israel, Iran, US — a fraught, combustible triangle
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Trump unleashed his bully call to Iran Tuesday:
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Let Netanyahu finish his own war. Maybe Xi Jinping can step in and find a way out. Trump, especially with Pete Hegseth heading the Defense Department, could end up backing us into another protracted war.
Donald J. Bermont
Concord
US has given Iran reasons to be hostile to us
It would seem that Jeff Jacoby, in detailing Iran's crimes against the United States without any examination of the causes of Iranian hostility toward us, would like us to imagine that our history with that nation began in 1979 with the sacking of the US embassy in Tehran. We should look further back to 1953 when the CIA and British intelligence, to protect British oil interests, engineered the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh and installed the shah, whose corrupt and repressive regime was supported by the United States over the next 26 years.
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What righteous rage would Americans feel if a Muslim nation overthrew our own elected government and supported a police state for decades?
If we continue to imagine that other nations should passively welcome our interference in their affairs, we will continue to make the world a more dangerous place.
Derek Stolp
Sandwich
Nothing 'brilliant' about a war's unfolding
In his column on Israel's war against Iran, Jeff Jacoby writes, 'Israel's Operation Rising Lion has so far unfolded brilliantly.'
There is nothing now, nor has there ever been anything,
brilliant about the death and destruction of war.
We humans consider ourselves to be so very intelligent. Yet we use this gift far too often to dominate and kill one another. Did we not learn anything from the devastation of the 20th century?
We believe ourselves to be smart, but we are not nearly as smart as we think we are and yet, at the same time, too smart for our own good.
Technology used to be more primitive and its destruction limited. Now we use vast amounts of technology and resources to destroy on a global scale. Until we find a better way to settle our differences globally, we risk the end of our civilization.
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'Brilliant'? War is shameful.
Rick Cutler
West Barnstable
Uh-oh, our hotheaded president is warmongering
Oh, great (
What could go wrong?
Andy Spiegel
Winchester
Media should remember that both Iran and Israel are under attack
The June 17 front-page story, a report from The New York Times headlined 'As Israel attacks, residents flee,' detailed the damage done in Iran by Israel's missile strikes as well as their impact on civilians there. There was little mention of harm done to civilians in Israel.
For example, there is Eldad Tzahor, my friend and downstairs neighbor for the years he was doing biomedical research at Harvard teaching hospitals. He had been continuing his work on heart regeneration and regenerative medicine at the
This is one personal account. In Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Herzliya, apartment buildings were destroyed. Civilians were injured and killed. Others were left homeless.
Israel has been under siege by Iran, directly and through its proxies, for years. It would behoove the media to be a little more balanced in its reporting.
Andrew Fischer
Brookline
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JD Vance said UK has no free speech….so this van is now cruising Cotswolds area waiting for his arrival where he's renting a $11K a week manor for another family vacation — Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) August 12, 2025 Activists in the UK installed a poster in the Cotswolds to greet JD Vance as he takes yet another family vacation — Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) August 12, 2025 Organizers representing groups including the Stop Trump Coalition and Everybody Hates Elon staged the event after moving the planned demonstration to a park in Charlbury, and some attendees carried signs referencing Gaza and U.S. domestic policies. Conversely, former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, a widely known British celebrity who lives in the Cotswolds, seemingly teased those complaining about Vance's disruption, when he posted a video of a peaceful Cotswold scene with the caption: "Utter chaos caused by Vance. How will we ever manage?" 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