From the “Bad ideas never die, they just get resurrected” files.
In America we would call someone who favors an attack on Iran in order to jump start regime change a neoconservative, a wingnut, a Bush Koolaid drinker or Dick Cheney. In Israel, I’m not sure what label you would apply to a person advocating for a pre-emptive strike against Iran, but I do know that the Jerusalem Post will allocate space on it’s editorial page for him to promote his dream of Iranian regime change through the judicious application of military force:
It is true that, unlike Saddam Hussein, the ayatollahs of Teheran have dispersed their nuclear facilities in heavily fortified underground facilities across their nation. This makes the kind of air strike Israel employed in 1981 to take out Saddam’s nuclear reactor impractical.
THIS DOES not mean, however, that a military option does not exist. Several possible military viable military options do exist. The problem is not a lack of means or capabilities, but a lack of will and fortitude.
“A lack of will and fortitude” is a nice way to say that our leaders have too little testosterone influencing their decision making (i.e., balls) to do what Jonathan Ariel, the Israeli writer of this op-ed believes is necessary: making Iran go BOOM!
(cont.)
… A surgical missile strike against Iran’s few advanced air defense facilities would dismantle them, neutralizing the country’s entire air defense system.
Attacking air forces equipped with the most advanced technological capabilities would enjoy total air superiority, enabling the launching of a sustained prolonged strategic bombing attack.
Such an assault, in addition to causing significant damage to at least some of the facilities, could also jump-start regime change. The sight of US and perhaps also Israeli aircraft flying unopposed over Iran would be highly demoralizing for the regime. Dictatorships, which survive solely on the perception of power and fear, have difficulty surviving such humiliations.
I don’t believe any attack on Iran is now imminent due to the results of the recent US election, and for that we should be thankful. However, as Mr. Ariel reminds us, just because the hard-liners in the US and Israel have been forestalled this time doesn’t mean they are going to willingly surrender their ridiculous vision of remaking the Middle East through the use of air power. Despite the fact that there is scant evidence an attack like the one advocated here would result in a popular revolt against the current rulers of Iran’s government, conservatives here and in Israel continue to believe that the solution to all the problems we face in the Middle East can be solved with cruise missiles and bunker busting tactical nukes.
We may relax for the moment, but let’s not forget this truth. The far right in both Israel and the America is never going to abandon their faith in war as a panacea for our problems in the Middle East. Against all evidence, they will hold firm to their dream of raining death and destruction from the skies upon the “evildoers” in Iran. We’ve merely won a temporary respite. Nothing more.
