The twenty months leading into June were bloody ones for the Middle East. Thousands were killed in an Israeli war on Lebanon that saw whole city neighborhoods and towns reduced to ruins. Regime change in Syria put in power a former al-Qaeda leader who quickly began carrying out abuses against minorities. Regional war nearly exploded several times as Israel tried to provoke Iran into an all-out conflict. And of course, there was the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where atrocities have evolved from the carpet-bombing of civilian areas and the deliberate destruction of hospitals, to an Israel- and US-provoked famine and daily shootings of starving Palestinians trying to get aid.

But for Gen. Michael Kurilla, the commander of CENTCOM, it was something else: an “opportunity.”

“Iran is in a weaker strategic position now than at any point in the last forty years,” Kurilla told the House Armed Services Committee on June 10, the exact same day that Donald Trump — the president for whom he had become a key, pro-war advisor — had transferred hundreds of missiles to Israel for its upcoming attack on Iran.