when washington sends aircraft carriers to the middle east, it isn't to dissuade an israeli attack, it's to prevent an attack on israel. nobody imagines that anybody beside iran would be a serious threat to attack israel, and the only way that the americans would feel the need to protect the superior israeli army from the inferior iranian one is if there is a credible threat of russian involvement. it opens the question: was oct 7th really an attempt by the russians to distract the americans from ukraine?

the israelis just randomly bomb syria and the russians do not like it. if the russians felt a need to respond, would it look like a sneak attack by hamas?

the situation is messy, but the truth is that iran is a russian protectorate and is in many ways treated by moscow like a former ssr. a greater russian sphere includes iran. that aligns hamas pretty squarely with moscow, nowadays, which provides the pentagon with a good reason to seek it's destruction.

the russians must have at least known what was going on and the american response indicates legitimate concern about a potential russian distraction tactic. they did this once before.

it's a different analysis, but you'll note that america's immediate response was to send war ships to israel, and that's exceedingly curious.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/us/politics/us-iran-airstrikes.html