PBS- Support from the Military for Diplomacy with Iran
As Iran continues to be the headline news, there is now pushing back against the talk of war.
It is clear that war with Iran would be costly, both to us and our allies, destructive, and unnecessary. There is no military solution to the Iranian crisis. At best a military strike would only delay their program while hardening their resolve and possibly convincing them that building a weapon is in their best interest. If they have not decided to produce a weapon now, they most certainly will after being attacked.
Experts, former military officers, and intelligence analysts have all been pushing back the notion of the necessity of strikes to remove the Iranian nuclear threat.
These experts have been showing that proponents of war with Iran are making the same mistake they made nearly a decade previous when advocating war with Iraq. Retired General Joseph Hoar, a Vietnam veteran and former CENTCOM commander is one of the experts that are opposing war with Iran. As CENTCOM commander from 1991 to 1994, Gen. Hoar oversaw enforcement of the southern no-fly zone in Iraq, ground operations in Somalia and the evacuation of US military personnel during the Yemini Civil War. He was an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq and believes, in this interview, the United States needs to have a national discussion on the costs of going to war with Iran:
“Nobody ever discussed eight or 10 years ago, what the cost was going to be for invading Iraq. The cost turned out to be a trillion dollars, 4,500 Americans killed, more than 20,000 wounded and not to mention the 100,000 Iraqis that we killed. This is the kind of toll of war that we need to think through.
Gen. Hoar also discussed the impact attacking Iran would have on oil prices, putting the fragile economic recovery in jeopardy. Cutting off oil from Iran or the Strait of Hormuz would leave Saudi Arabia as the sole exporter of Middle East oil driving prices up to $10 or $11 a gallon.
“The war is being fought in the Persian Gulf, so oil from UAE, oil and gas from Cutter and Kuwait isn’t going out to the Persian Gulf. That’s going to drive oil prices sky high not only here, but in Europe and every place around the world.”
Iran cannot be allowed to produce a nuclear weapon, but the United States has not reached the point yet where attacking Iran is the best option. There is still time for a diplomatic solution to find a mutually agreeable agreement, reducing tensions and preventing war.
