Thomas Powers writes about the struggle between the executive branch and the Defense Department (and also the struggle inside the Defense Department) over whether the United States will go to war with Iran over the perceived threat from Iran’s nuclear development program.
Does President Bush have the capacity to carry out his threat to neutralize Iran before he leaves office? Powers concludes, “It is too late. With the exception only of the neoconservative faithful, every close observer of the American-Iranian standoff says that the administration’s threats are empty, that the United States does not have the military resources, or the political support at home, or the agreement of allies abroad, to carry out a full-scale attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, much less to invade and occupy the country.” (p.11)
Thomas Powers, “Iran: The Threat,” The New York Review of Books, July 17, 2008, pp. 9-11
Post a Comment