Dave DeCamp – AntiWar.com Jan 12, 2026
The White House said on Monday that US airstrikes against Iran are “on the table” as President Trump has continued his threats to bomb the Islamic Republic amid protests in the country.
“One thing President Trump is very good at is always keeping all of his options on the table,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “And airstrikes would be one of the many, many options that are on the table for the commander-in-chief.”
Leavitt added that “diplomacy is always the first option for the president,” though Trump backed an Israeli attack on Iran during the last round of nuclear negotiations back in June. “The president has shown he’s unafraid to use military options if and when he deems necessary, and nobody knows that better than Iran,” Leavitt said.
On Sunday night, Trump suggested Iran had reached out to discuss the possibility of holding negotiations and suggested he was open to diplomacy, but also said he was considering “very strong” options. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said that the “communication channel” between Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi remains open.
Axios and The Wall Street Journal both reported on Monday that Trump was leaning toward bombing Iran but was still exploring the possibility of negotiations. However, it’s unclear what sort of diplomatic deal would satisfy Trump as he continues to shift the pretext for potentially launching another war.
In recent weeks, Trump has threatened to bomb or support an Israeli attack on Iran if it rebuilds its civilian nuclear program or “continues” its conventional missile program, and has repeatedly threatened to attack the country if Iranian authorities kill protesters. The Axios report said that if Trump decides to bomb Iran, the strikes would likely target elements of Iran’s government responsible for internal security.
Iran’s position is that it doesn’t seek war with the US, but it’s warning that it will strike back if Trump follows through on his threat. “If Washington wants to test the military option it has tested before, we are ready for it,” Araghchi told Al Jazeera.
The Telegraph reported over the weekend that amid the threats of US airstrikes on Iran, the US military has conveyed to President Trump that it needs time to position assets in the region to prepare for Iranian counterattacks, which would likely involve missile strikes on US bases.
Iranian government sources have said more than 100 security personnel have been killed in the ongoing protests, suggesting there have been significant attacks against Iran’s security forces. The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a US-based and US-funded NGO, has also reported 133 military and law enforcement deaths, among a total of 646 people it claims to have been killed.
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“Israel has not yet learned how to be multicultural. And I think we are going to be part of the throes of that transformation, which must take place. Israel is not going to be the monolithic society that it once was in the last century. Jews are going to be at the center of that. It’s a huge transformation for Israel to make. It is now going into a multicultural mode and Jews will be resented because of our leading role. But without that leading role, and without that transformation, Israel will not survive”.
— Barbara Lerner Spectre, founding director of Paideia, the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden
In diversity is (((our))) strength
The only thing that will deter the US – or any government for that matter – are body bags. It’s political dynamite. It led the US and UK to conceal the scale of casualties in Afghanistan (the number of deaths due to ‘jeep accidents’ was literally unbelieveable).
In WWI the British publics taste for war started to evaporate once the casualty lists started to lengthen (the government stopped publishing them in 1915 and stopped the practice of ‘Pals battalions’ as that was also too revealing).
Iran needs to inflict serious casualties. No token gestures this time. Until Vietnam, America never really had a taste of war (the memory of which has now faded), nor has the homeland ever been attacked.