Offensive logic

In the March 22 edition of The Chronicle, Shoula Romano Horing yet again beats the drum for war with Iran. Horing asserts that President Obama “will never attack Iran or support an Israeli attack before the election because such a war in the oil-rich region would send gasoline prices even higher than they are now.” She states that Obama will only attack Iran if he is in danger of losing the election.

Her facts are wrong, her logic is offensive and her position, that the United States should start a war with Iran immediately, is dangerous in the extreme. Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have repeatedly expressed both strong support for Israel and very clear warnings to Iran on their nuclear pursuits.

As we have seen with devastating results, it’s easy to start a war; but, as former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan said recently on “60 Minutes,” “you never know how you are ending it. An attack on Iran before exploring all other approaches is not the right way.”
Not only did he believe there was more time for other methods to tackle the mounting problem, but Dagan was also skeptical a military strike would cause adequate damage to wholly destroy Iran’s plants and markedly halt the development of a nuclear weapons capability.

“You’ll have to deal with a large number of targets,” he clarified, after saying there may be more than a dozen nuclear-related sites on the military agenda.

Even if a strike were to inflict worthwhile damage, Dagan expressed concern about the repercussions of a possible Israeli mission in terms of the retaliation it might provoke from the regime and its terrorist proxies.

I fear for both Israel and the United States if all avenues are not explored.

Sheldon Roufa
Leawood, Kan.