U.S. will be dragged into conflict if Israel hits Iran

The Jerusalem Post reports: A former senior Pentagon official said Saturday that now is not an opportune time for an Israeli strike on Iran, and that any such strike would inevitably draw in the United States.

Colin Kahl, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East until December, said that any Israeli strike that prompted an Iranian retaliation would affect the United States.

“Even if it’s just retaliation against Israel, the Americans will be in it from the beginning,” he said, since the US would provide assistance to Israeli defense and because Iran would see an Israeli attack as inseparable from an American attack.

Kahl assessed that the Iranian response would be far-reaching and include rocket attacks on American embassies in the region, using area allies and proxies and threatening the functioning of the Strait of Hormuz.

“No one should delude themselves that … the prospect of America getting dragged into this is minor. It’s not,” he warned.

Kahl also laid out conditions that he felt should be in place before any country undertook a strike on Iran: that other options such as diplomacy and sanctions have run their course; that Iran had clearly decided to move toward nuclear weaponization; that the military action could seriously degrade Tehran’s capabilities; that an international coalition could be maintained after a strike.

“One reason I’ve been so critical about the Israelis taking action against Iran’s nuclear program is that at this moment they don’t satisfy any of those four criteria,” he said.

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3 thoughts on “U.S. will be dragged into conflict if Israel hits Iran

  1. delia ruhe

    “Even if it’s just retaliation against Israel, the Americans will be in it from the beginning…”

    Isn’t that Bibi’s intention?

  2. Renfro

    “Isn’t that Bibi’s intention?”

    Yep, it is. As the final, complete proof of US zionist and Israel’s domination of America.

  3. Norman

    That old saying; careful what you wish for, probably rings more true today, than ever before. Considering the success rate so far in the 21st century of the U.S. war machine, to go to war with Iran, won’t be a cake walk. The idiots in Washington don’t seem to realize that this isn’t the same as playing the X-box games, blow up the opponent, then it’s O.K. It would be far better for human kind if they defanged the Israelis of their nuclear arsenal. Of course, insanity rules today, so, we shall see.

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