Originally published in the LA Times:
There’s No Compelling Reason For The U.S. To Go To War With Iran — Yet
Richard Sokolsky, Aaron David Miller
In the last two weeks, the odds of a military conflict between the U.S. and Iran have increased appreciably. The Trump administration has dispatched additional forces to the region and ramped up its threatening rhetoric in response to intelligence reports that Iran may be preparing to attack U.S. interests. Last week, the White House reviewed plans for sending up to 120,000 forces to the Middle East in the event Iran attacked U.S. interests.
The smart money is still betting against a sustained shooting war, a prediction we hope will come to pass. Thankfully, there are signs that the president is annoyed with his secretary of State and national security advisor for getting way ahead of him in planning a military conflict with Iran.
The last thing even Trump’s trigger-happy advisors should want is a purposeless and pointless war with Iran. And the last thing Trump should want is to break his campaign pledge not to drag the country into another war in the Middle East.
Read more at: https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/05/20/there-s-no-compelling-reason-for-u.s.-to-go-to-war-with-iran-yet-pub-79164
