Both supporters and critics of the U.S. war against Iran have fallen into serious analytical traps, with each side missing something fundamental about the conflict, a veteran defense analyst has warned in The Atlantic, as "Hvylya" reports.
Eliot A. Cohen, a professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins University and a contributing writer at The Atlantic, has written that "when a war begins, our emotions often overtake our ability to analyze and judge." This partial eclipse of reason, he argued, is on full display in the current Iran war - exacerbated by previously held beliefs about the leaders involved.
The war's advocates underestimate the scale of the administration's political failures, Cohen contended. They may acknowledge the Trump administration "has done a clumsy job of arguing its case" and entered the conflict with only one visible ally, but view these as minor sins. In Cohen's assessment, they are wrong - no congressional authorization, no presidential address to the nation, no coherent messaging, and no alliance management amount to "strategic malpractice" that leaves the country exposed when something inevitably goes wrong.
But the war's opponents miss "one big thing as well: the Iran problem," Cohen wrote. The Islamic Republic's drive for nuclear weapons has been slowed but not stopped by sabotage, diplomatic agreements, and strikes. Iran has developed a large arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones, behaves with "utter disregard for its citizens' lives," and has lashed out at civilian targets in countries that had nothing to do with the U.S.-Israeli attack.
The United States has tried ignoring the problem, retaliatory actions, sanctions, and even a diplomatic agreement that would have lifted economic pressure in return for deferring - not eliminating - Iran's nuclear program. "All have failed," Cohen stated. Those who dislike Trump's approach, he added, "generally fail to provide a plausible alternative."
Cohen called for "a measure of intellectual honesty sorely missing from both sides of the argument" - a demand he said applies both now and going forward, regardless of how the war unfolds.
Also read: Friedman: If the IRGC Holds Out, There Will Be Only One Option Left for Trump.