Could Trump Really Launch a War With Iran?
Foreign Policy in Focus
Following the Trump Administration’s missile strike in Syria many of the neoconservative architects of the Iraq War are suddenly hopeful Trump will go further and pursue regime change in Syria, and then Iran. The dominant neocon theme, echoing the long-held position of the Saudis, the Gulf monarchies, and Israel, is the missile strike should be the first step in the implementation of a larger regional strategy to roll back Iranian (and Russian) influence in the region.
A Review of Muhammad Idrees Ahmad’s book ‘The Road to Iraq: The Making of a Neoconservative War.’ The central question Ahmad attempts to answer is: Why did the 2003 Iraq War happen? In one of the book’s most valuable sections, felicitously titled ‘Black Gold and Red Herrings’, he goes through several prevalent explanations/theories and takes them apart one by one.
In 2003 when Khatami made the peace proposal, Iran had just declared a small set of nuclear experiments. As of 2006, it began serious nuclear enrichment activities, though UN inspectors have never found evidence of a nuclear weapons program. As Secretary of State John Kerry pointed out Saturday night, if the Bush administration had accepted Iran’s 2003 proposal, the rancor, saber-rattling, sanctions and the rapid advances in Iran’s nuclear program could have been avoided
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