The New York Times reports:

A stark disconnect between reality and rhetoric surfaced on Tuesday as U.S. forces continued their methodical strikes on military targets in Iran even as their commander in chief raised his steady stream of threats directed at Iran to apocalyptic levels.

The United States launched a series of more than 90 strikes on Kharg Island, Iran’s oil export hub, early Tuesday. A U.S. military official characterized the Kharg strikes as “restrikes” — hitting targets that have been struck before to ensure more damage. He said that the United States was not yet striking Iranian infrastructure on the island, which lies in the Persian Gulf off the country’s southern coast.

But President Trump was spending his day delivering an end-of-the-world-style message. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

Gaps between Mr. Trump’s threats and the realities on the ground are often wide. On Tuesday, they were cavernous. Several military officials appeared to struggle to reconcile the military campaign that they said that they were carrying out — namely to degrade Iran’s ability to launch ballistic missiles and drones — with the End of Days nature of their boss’s threats. [Continue reading…]