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Disclaimer:  Notwithstanding what you are about to read, I am not a neocon, an Islamophobe, a callous or insensitive monster, or a depraved, unethical, wicked, immoral, amoral dupe of Benjamin Netanyahu.

As far as I can tell, as the war is now being conducted, this is what winning looks like for Israel: sleep deprivation, gallows humor, low-level but devastating casualties, property damage, insecurity, economic disruption, creative YouTube bomb shelter vignettes, and occasional despair.

This is what losing looks like for Israel: October 7, every day, until we are all gone.

This is what winning looks like for the world: Higher energy costs, disruption of capital markets, inflationary pressures, and a possible recession.

This is what losing looks like: higher energy costs, a nuclear, impenetrable, and invulnerable Iran, perpetual Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz and global energy markets, a diminished United States, and an annihilated Israel.

Framed in that way, it appears that all of our alternatives are grim, and our choices  are binary and unpleasant: heads they win, tails we lose. This will be the case as long as we constrain ourselves and our efforts in waging and actually winning the........

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