Opponents of potential American involvement in the war against Iran argue that the U.S. should not join another “forever war” in the Middle East.
In fact, this is not a “forever war.” If anything, it is a war to “give peace a chance.”
Iran is the very heart of war and terror in the region. It arms and funds terrorist organizations in half a dozen places: Hamas (Gaza); Hezbollah (Lebanon and Syria); Houthis (Yemen); Shiite militias (Iraq); and of course the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (Iran).
If Iran can no longer do so — either because it lacks the funds and weapons, or because the regime itself disappears — then there is nothing sustaining war in the region.
Already, the Sunni Arab states have come around to the cause of peace. The Trump vision of the “India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor” (IMEC) trade route is waiting to happen. Iran is the only obstacle.
Critics of the war appear to believe that defeating Iran would take the kind of large-scale invasion that saw the U.S. bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq. That is not the case. No one — not even Israel — wants that.
The maximum ambition of the Israeli war effort is to dismantle the Iranian nuclear program. That can largely be achieved with airstrikes; ground forces may be needed to finish the job, but only in one or two small areas.
Even so, Israel’s stated aim is to force Iran to accept American demands and sign a binding deal to end the regime’s nuclear program — not to use military force alone (though that may, in the end, be necessary).
Another way to achieve the same goal would be through overthrowing the Iranian regime. That would not be done by invasion, but rather by weakening the regime enough to allow the Iranian people to do the rest.
The Iranian people are generally sophisticated and pro-American. They do not to be brought into modernity or tutored about self-government. Once the regime no longer crushes them, they can do things themselves.
This is not a “forever war.” Its critics are, like proverbial incompetent generals, fighting the last war instead of the current one.
Israel may have to fight Iran alone. But if it does, it should do so with full American support.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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