For The Last Time, Don’t Hit Your Sister, Or Else…

For The Last Time, Don’t Hit Your Sister, Or Else…

By

Leonard Zwelling

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/07/us/politics/iran-us-israel-conflict.html

Reading this excellent piece by David E. Sanger and Steven Erlanger in The New York Times on January 8 made me sick. It is a litany of examples of opportunities for the United States to actually project power in the Middle East. None of the opportunities have been taken (until the last few days—written JAN 19). Whether it is to unleash the Israelis against Hezbollah or eradicate the Houthis as a threat to US shipping or eliminate the Iranian proxies in Syria and Iraq or get on with the mega-target and end this once and for all before the Iranians reach critical mass with a nuclear weapon, real action is required. Joe Biden is a weenie and a not very bright one either. As was clear when Somalian pirates were raiding shipping off the coast of Africa, we are going to have to go on shore to end this nonsense in Yemen or send the Iranians a powerful message to call off their dogs.

We have been heading for this moment since the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. Now, to make things more complicated, Iran is supplying Russia with drones and China with oil so the Security Council will never be able to resolve the conflicts that threaten to engulf the Middle East—just as Iran wants. The goal is obvious; the eradication of Israel and the takeover of the entire Gulf by the Shia theocracy in Tehran. We have tried negotiation. That was never going to work. We have tried tying up their money and exchanging prisoners. In response, they are enriching uranium. There is no doubt that they will pre-emptively drop a nuclear weapon on Israel if given the slightest opening. It is time to face reality. Iran is a bad actor and threatens the entire western world either by itself, through its proxies, or through its alliances. We have to end their uranium enrichment and oil production and we have to do it now before we cannot.

I find the groveling of Antony Blinken belittling to the United States and Biden’s inability to call out the Iranians even more worrisome. It is no longer time for spot welding, what I call these drone and missile attacks on the Houthis and Hezbollah. They are not the problem. The United States needs to see the activity in the Middle East for what it is, a prelude to World War III. If we want to avoid that conflict we will need to eliminate the major actor in this drama.

This is like a parent constantly warning the brother of impending punishment if he hits his younger sister one more time, have the boy hit the girl, and then just warn him again. Biden is not being taken seriously in Tehran, Beijing, or Moscow and that is very dangerous. The leaders in these places respect only real power and it is time for us to exercise some of it once the Secretary of Defense gets out of his secret ICU bed and is fired.

Time’s up Iran. You are really bad guys and it is time that this is made clear to you. I just don’t see Biden doing anything constructive. It’s sad. Read the NYT piece and weep.