Guest Post- Brig Gen Adams: STOP THE BLUSTER ON IRAN
by John Adams, Brigadier General, U.S. Army (Retired)
Politicians who invoke threats against other countries to make political points with American domestic audiences deserve scorn, not votes. Unfortunately, there’s a shortage of scorn for those politicians and pundits who casually threaten Iran with military force.
Some in the DC political sphere have argued that the price of war will not be high, that the risk of regional war is exaggerated. This is propaganda, not strategic analysis. From an Israeli hard-liner perspective, it may indeed appear that the price of war will be low for them. However, for Americans, the most important question is whether the price will be high for the United States.
Certainly American interests include the security and prosperity of Israel, but also include the security and prosperity of other friends and allies, not to mention ourselves at home. The region, indeed the world, will pay a huge price if there is a regional war in the Middle East.
Israeli hard-liners are clear about their desire to attack Iran. Their fears have less to do with the nuclear bomb per se than with reversing shifting political and strategic trends in the Middle East which they assess do not favor Israel in the long-term.
They assess that an attack on Iran would bring the United States back into the regional military equation in a rapid and decisive way, reversing or at least slowing the current political-strategic trends. However, for Israeli hard-liners, the major problem with an attack on Iran is how to insulate Israel from the consequences. Their solution is to get the United States to conduct the attack, and depend on America to shield Israel from the consequences.
It is not in American interest to be goaded into an unnecessary war by our enemies, or our friends.
Brigadier General (ret.) John Adams retired from the U.S. Army in 2007 and is an independent defense consultant. He is also a member of the Consensus for American Security.
