Door Number 1, 2, or 3
That in the face of such easy and plentiful access to information we know so little about what is going on is just one more thing to put on the list of Life’s little ironies. The war between the U.S. and Iran is over. Both sides claim victory. It’s a peace deal. It’s a surrender. It was a horse. It was a mule. Tastes great. Less filling.
Does anyone really know what is happening?
I would suggest – don’t believe everything you hear. In fact, don’t believe anything anyone says. I feel like the situation is similar to a winter weather report in Israel. We are sometimes told that it may snow in the Jerusalem area. I believe that when I see it. President Donald Trump is very pleased with himself, Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is wary, determined and steadfast. A whole bunch of people are doing a lot of talking. What is being said is at times scary, at times reassuring, at times contradictory. One thing it is not is clear.
One cannot help but be drawn into everyone’s favourite game show, Speculations. Are all the posturing, the calling out of partners and opponents, the declarations and decisions a real-life attempt at bringing Iran to its knees and actually winning? Or are we witnessing a sting-like operation more likely to come out of a Hollywood writers’ room? Does Trump really believe he can trust Iran, or does he know that he can’t, and all the fist-raising and hand-wringing over what is happening and what will happen is part of a plan to get to the end of this conflict, with as few casualties as possible?
The other game show that appears to be in play is one of my favourites when I was growing up – Let’s Make a Deal. Host Monty Hall – a nice Jewish boy from Canada – would give things away and then offer a trade. The kuntz was that one trades for an unknown. It might be in a box, it might be behind a curtain. It might be a car, furniture or a goat. Ya never knew. The show’s climax was when Monty would ask each contestant who had won if they would trade that win for a shot at the Big Deal of the Day. It’s a gamble, a shot in the dark. To a certain degree, kind of like any deal. How many times in how many movies have we heard the phrase, “We had a deal”?
Why Trump would settle for a deal as opposed to pushing for the sure thing – unconditional surrender – is just more spice in the search for what is really happening. We here have had too many doors, curtains and boxes to not insist on the first prize, the sure thing – victory.