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  • Commentary
  • Known Unknowns and Unknown Unknowns: The US-Israeli War on Iran

    External Publication

    March 10, 2026

    John Calabrese
    John Calabrese

    Defense and Security, US Policy in the Middle East, Iran

    Modern wars are fought not only with weapons but with assumptions—and the most dangerous assumptions are often invisible to those making them. Donald Rumsfeld’s distinction between known unknowns (questions we recognize but cannot answer) and unknown unknowns (risks we have not even framed as questions) captures something essential about the current confrontation between the United States, Israel, and Iran.

     

    Read More at Modern Diplomacy

    Photo by US Navy


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