It wasn't for nothing, I think a lot of us have been pointing out for a while what it is for, while some were too wilfully blind to accept it. A lot of people made a lot of money trading oil up and down predictably. The US government operates in the personal self interests of those with their hands on the lever.
There were also domestic political concerns for both The Israeli and American governments, all of which have essentially vanished from the international media in favor of covering the war instead. I'm also going to venture a long-term prediction, based on how this war has been prosecuted so far: The "president’s reluctance to reignite the war" is not due to avoiding a wider regional conflict in the Middle East. He has already demonstrated that is clearly not a concern of his, and the sheer amount of military assets transported to the Middle East over the past several weeks indicates the US military is preparing for a massive operation against Iran. My prediction is that this operation will not occur until we are closer to mid-term elections, possibly as soon as August, maybe as late as October. The goal will be to manipulate media coverage like a magician's assistant - watch the hot scantily-clad assistant over there to distract you from what the magician is doing to pull off his illusion over here.
Don't get me wrong; this kind of behavior is not limited to the Trump Administration. In August of 1998 the US military launched missile strikes against targets in both Sudan and Afghanistan under the pretense of targeting al Qaeda bases. Those strikes occurred three days after President Bill Clinton provided testimony to a grand jury convened as a result of the sex scandal involving Monica Lewinsky. Bombings against Iraq and Yugoslavia (of all places) were also launched in 1999 during impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. Clinton is largely responsible for the phrase "wag the dog" becoming part of popular American lexicon referencing a sitting President utilizing military actions to distract the public from scandals.
There are other examples, but I think I've made my point, and I deliberately chose Clinton, a Democrat, to avoid the perception of this post being politically biased against Trump. It's not. He is merely the latest among several US presidents to utilize this "wag the dog" strategy, contributing to the multiple global geopolitical crises we are currently monitoring.
There is a "sweet spot" for a major military incident to occur and actually influence the mid-term elections. Too soon, and it loses its shock value and the capability of influencing how people vote. Too late, and it becomes obvious to even the American public that it's an attempt to manipulate them, causing it to backfire. In my mind, September is the perfect month for this politically, but I'm allowing a 30-day variance before and after. We are only four weeks away from entering that window.
