Gates: No Iran War
Well, well, well. What do we have buried here in Defense Secretary Bob Gates' new essay for the Army War College journal, Parameters?
Conner’s axiom—never fight unless you have to—looms over policy discussions today regarding rogue nations like Iran that support terrorism; that is a destabilizing force throughout the Middle East and Southwest Asia and, in my judgment, is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons. Another war in the Middle East is the last thing we need. In fact, I believe it would be disastrous on a number of levels. The military option must be kept on the table, given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat, either directly or through nuclear proliferation.
Emphasis mine, and I was tipped to this by Cato Institute foreign-policy scholar Justin Logan. There's the appropriate bureaucratic wiggle-room here, but this seems a lot like Gates' most public statement of opposition so far to a potential war with Iran. It probably shouldn't be noteworthy that such a sensible position is newsworthy, but, alas, Gates does work for President George W. Bush, after all.
Comments:
Posted 07/29/2008 10:35pm with
Note the following list of Iranian/Aryani imperialist operations through 2008. The sum of these resources Iran now uses to control the Middle East is a considerably larger percentage of GNP that that used by Nazi Germany’s foreign operations at the beginning of World War II but not as large as the percentage used by Socialist Russia during the cold war. Unfortunately, the nationalistic imperialism of each was and is paid for by public loss of resources in each country. Add the cost of nuclear weapons programs, it isn’t surprising that all of these countries deteriorated to the point that warfare became a necessity to stay in power. Will Iran attack its neighbors in order to justify its misuse of resources?
Governing Clique, Supreme National Security Council
Personal political activities of members : 1,,200 personnel @ $11.500/day
Pasdaran police state activities : 420,000 personnel @ $350/day
Quds multi-state apparats: 17,000 personnel @ $800/day
Hezbollah political / military support: 15,000 personnel @$250/day
Hamaz political /military support: 11,000 personnel @ $600/day
Al-Sharqiyah Brigade support : 3.500 personnel @ $200/day
Tajik paramilitary support: 7,300 personnel @ $100/day
Azeri Azarbaijan political groups : 4,700 personnel @$200/day
‘Special Groups’ in Sadr City, Iraq: 300 personnel @$700/day
‘Special Groups’ in Basrah, Iraq: 1,200 personnel @$600/day
‘Special Groups’ in Kurdistan, Iraq: 1, 100 personnel @600/day
‘Special Groups’ in Kuwait: 450 personnel @300/day