America’s third Middle Eastern war
By JONATHAN SCHACHTER, YOEL GUZANSKY
LAST UPDATED: 11/10/2010 22:56
Iran and the US are already engaged in a hot, or at least warm conflict.
The reactor building of Bushehr nuclear power plant is seen just outside the city of Bushehr. Photo: Associated Press
Acertain stream of
thought about American foreign policy holds that “the Israel lobby” or
“the Jewish lobby” or just “the Jews” control or manipulate the US, in
part so that it will fight wars on behalf of Israel.
The accusation is hardly new.
The early 20th-century forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
also spoke of the Jews’ purported ability to “respond with the guns of
America.” More recently, Operation Iraqi Freedom ostensibly provided
evidence of this ongoing control, even though polls of American Jews in
2003 indicated that they supported the push for war less than did the
general American population, and even though at least some Israeli
officials reportedly advised against the invasion, having predicted many
of its likely side effects, including the strengthening of Iran.
The
latest version of this conspiratorial canard has Israel and its
supporters agitating for an American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities
to prevent or delay that country’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.
Among their many claims, some more convincing than others, opponents of
such a move typically point out that an attack would embroil the US in
an unnecessary third war with a Muslim state.
THIS ARGUMENT reflects a fundamental misreading of the situation.
Air
strikes on specific targets with the limited goal of damaging or
destroying them is a far cry from the American invasions and lengthy
occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
And, as the documents publicized recently through WikiLeaks demonstrate, Iran and the US already are at war.
The documents reinforce previous assessments, made public through media
accounts, congressional testimony by military and diplomatic officials
and Defense Intelligence Agency and Congressional Research Service
reports, that Iran has played an important and active role in not just
destabilizing Iraq, but in targeting American military personnel.
Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards al-Kuds Force and
Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah have trained, equipped and directed Shi’ite
Iraqi insurgents.
The New York Times and others have detailed some of these groups’
activities, which include the provision of sophisticated weapons systems
(e.g., rockets, mortars, anti-aircraft missiles and explosively formed
penetrators, the latter of which have been disproportionately lethal in
roadside attacks against American forces); training in kidnapping,
sniping and the use of explosives; and initiating and planning the
assassinations of Iraqi officials.
In at least one case, Iranian soldiers allegedly engaged a joint
American-Iraqi patrol on the Iraqi side of the border. Collectively,
these actions are much more actively hostile than simply trying to
undermine American foreign policy through diplomacy; Iran and the US are
fighting a hot, or at least a warm war.
America’s involvement in Iraq has been much bloodier thanks to Iran’s efforts.
The “Israel lobby/wars of the Jews” crowd undoubtedly will see in
Iranian involvement in Iraq a “natural” reaction to the war that
Israel’s supporters “forced” on the US and its allies.
Or they will fantasize that without Israel as a US ally, there would be
no enmity between Iran and the US. Certainly neither the WikiLeaks
reports nor any other evidence will break the distorted,
self-reinforcing logic of Jewish conspiracy theories.
Thoughtful, compelling arguments can be and have been made both for and
against an American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Concern that
such an attack will start an Iranian- American war is not one of them.
That war has been long under way, though today only one of the sides is
armed with nuclear weapons.
The writers are research fellows at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.