In a proper world, this would be a front page headline and lead to the U.S. taking decisive military action against Iran - since Iran is waging war against American troops in Afghanistan through these indirect means.
Instead, the news is buried toward the end of a story on page four - which not only reflects the desire of the media to down play acts of war by Iran against America, but also reflects the desire of the Obama administration, and Bush's before, to down play the war waged by Iran against America.
In case anyone thinks "war" is too strong a word, consider that Iran realizes in a conventional military fight with America, it will lose decisively. Deploying army, navy, or air force units against America's military would lead to certain defeat. So Iran instead fights us in ways that shield its actions and make it harder for us to respond.
It is a strategy that "works" only because we let them get away with it, literally getting away with murder: the deaths of American soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, where Iran has pursued the same strategy of arming and supporting the forces fighting us in Iraq too.
News reports indicate we respond with special forces units trying to disrupt Iran's efforts, which is certainly better than nothing. But given the preponderance of conventional military power we possess, we should play to our strengths, and coerce Iran to stop its war against us.
For many years, under many administrations, we have let our enemies fight us at low levels of intensity, letting them attack us as they best can through through terrorist attacks and indirect means - while we have not responded as best we can with our military superiority.
Our enemies need to pay a much higher price for such efforts against us. It is time to start now against Iran, given the importance of our efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.
No comments:
Post a Comment