Iran,  Iran Nuclear Watch,  Iraq,  Iraq War,  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

John Hinderaker: Mr. President, If I May Be So Bold…

hinderackerweb

John Hinderaker of Power Line listening to author and radio host Tammy Bruce,
December 2005, Beverly Hills, California. Photo by Flap

Power Line: Mr. President, If I May Be So Bold…

Most of our readers know the story of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain at Gettysburg. Ordered to hold Little Round Top at all costs, Chamberlain’s 20th Maine fended off one attack after another. Finally, Chamberlain’s men were nearly out of ammunition and it was clear they would not be able to withstand another assault. Prudence counseled retreat, but Chamberlain’s orders forbade it. The Maine regiment could neither fall back nor stay where it was, so Chamberlain took the only course open to him: he told his men to fix bayonets and prepare to charge.

It strikes me that you, President Bush, are in a similar situation in Iraq. You know (if many liberals do not) that retreat is out of the question. Yet the status quo is untenable. Support for your administration’s policy is evaporating. Iraq is being pacified too slowly if at all, and minor tinkering around the edges–a few more men, some more training of Iraqis–won’t make much difference. You need a decisive stroke. You need to tip the table over. You need to attack.

Here is how you can do it. In late November, U.S. military sources revealed that they had found irrefutable evidence that Iran is arming the militias who are killing American soldiers:

U.S. officials say they have found smoking-gun evidence of Iranian support for terrorists in Iraq: brand-new weapons fresh from Iranian factories. According to a senior defense official, coalition forces have recently seized Iranian-made weapons and munitions that bear manufacturing dates in 2006.

Iranian-made munitions found in Iraq include advanced IEDs designed to pierce armor and anti-tank weapons. U.S. intelligence believes the weapons have been supplied to Iraq’s growing Shia militias from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is also believed to be training Iraqi militia fighters in Iran.

So here is what you, President Bush, should do: take as a model the Cuban Missile Crisis. First John Kennedy, then Adlai Stevenson, laid before the world the evidence, in the form of aerial photographs, that the Soviet Union was installing nuclear arms in Cuba. The proof was taken as conclusive, and, consequently, the Kennedy administration’s actions enjoyed universal support at home, and widespread support abroad.

Do something similar here. Commandeer a half hour in prime time to tell the American people, and the world, that we have clear evidence of Iran’s involvement in killing American servicemen. Show the captured munitions. Explain exactly how they have contributed to American casualties. Display aerial photos of the training camps. No doubt there is much more evidence that can be presented or described.

Read it all……

Flap agrees with you, John, but some logistics first. Iran is not going to sit idly by as America deploys more troops into Iraq or Kuwait.

Does the reader not think that any increased troop deployment or naval presence by the United States might be viewed as as a precursor to a preemptive strike?

The President will announce additional troops be deployed in Iraq to pacify Baghdad. But, the strike will be to seize Iranian oil fields and will be coordinated with Israeli special forces.

The Hinderaker rationale is correct. Flap worries about the military operation sequencing and Iran’s WMDS atop their Shahab-3 missiles aimed at Tel Aviv.

Stay tuned…….


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