The deterrence problem: America took its eye off Iran with Indo-Pacific pivot, ex-CENTCOM chief says
As the US and Israel contend with multiple Iranian proxy groups in the Middle East, Joseph Votel told Breaking Defense the US must “hold [Iran] accountable.”
By RIAD KAHWAJI
on February 01, 2024 at 1:32 PM
DUBAI — The rapid escalation of violence by Iranian proxies against the US and Israel in the Middle East since Oct. 7 is the result of a failure of deterrence that reaches back into years of US foreign policy shifts and the lack of direct action against Iran for its aggressive behavior in that time, according to former top US general in the Middle East and other experts.
“I think the problem with all of these strikes (in Iraq, Syria and the Red Sea) is that we have failed to directly hold Iran accountable,” Gen. Joseph Votel, former US Central Command chief, told Breaking Defense. “We need to strike back at the groups perpetrating these attacks, but we also have to recognize that Iran is behind all these attacks, and we must use all forms of national power to hold them accountable.”
Ever since Hamas’s deadly surprise attack on Oct. 7 against Israeli military posts and settlements, Iranian proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen have launched a series of attacks that targeted Israeli territories and US bases in the Middle East, as well as commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
https://breakingdefense.com/2024/02/the-deterrence-problem-america-took-its-eye-off-iran-with-indo-pacific-pivot-ex-centcom-chief-says/
