Far from seeking to de-escalate, Israel and the US talk of weeks’ more conflict and the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, promises “death and destruction from the sky all day long”. Israel believes it has a unique opportunity to destroy an adversary and sees only advantages in persisting until Iran falls into chaos. The US reportedly seeks to support Kurdish fighters to cross the border from Iraq – exacerbating the risk of a chaotic civil war, and of wider fragmentation. The rationales offered by the US for this conflict have shifted as fast as its boundaries have expanded: they include regime change, preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, destroying its ballistic missile capability, or preventing Tehran from retaliating against the US for an Israeli attack.