Bad advice
The article “Bomb Iran” surprised me (Opinion, April 21). Can Josh Block be serious in proposing that President Joe Biden agree to attack Iran to destroy their nuclear and military capabilities? In 2002, President George W. Bush designated Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an axis of evil that needed to be restrained. It was at the time an accurate description of the dangers that were developing in the world. Unfortunately, the only action that was taken was the invasion of Iraq, ironically the only country named that was not acquiring a nuclear capability.
We have had three presidents since then, who have recognized the dangers presented by Iran but have avoided taking military action to curtail Iran’s activities. President Barack Obama even led an international consortium to sign the JCPOA [the Iran nuclear deal], which was an attempt to slow but not stop Iran’s acquiring nuclear warheads. President Donal Trump talked a good talk, but despite withdrawing America from the JCPOA agreement did not take any further action to prevent Iran from continuing to enrich uranium closer to bomb levels.
We now have President Joe Biden who, as Josh Block acknowledges, has demonstrated weakness in the Afghanistan withdrawal, in the assistance to Ukraine, in the application of sanctions to Russia and one could add in creating the chaos of uncontrolled immigration at the southern U.S. border. There is no way such a weak president could even contemplate taking military action against Iran. Even if such action was contemplated, the level of success is uncertain because in the 20 years since Bush made his announcement, America has made little effort to enhance our offensive capabilities, while Iran has made significant efforts to hide and harden their nuclear facilities.
Josh Block has made an emotional appeal to take military action against Iran, on the grounds that the world has changed with new alliances between China, Russia and Iran. Their cooperation is not new, it is merely more overt and more clearly anti-American. We have wasted decades as our security has deteriorated, but it would not be enhanced by the actions Block suggested.
STANLEY ORMAN
Rockville
Stanley Orman’s otherwise excellent letter is marred by a significant omission. In discussing President Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA, Mr. Orman states that President Trump ” did not take further action to prevent Iran from continuing to enrich uranium closer to bomb levels.” This erroneous allegation has been used by the Biden administration to blame Trump for Iran’s acceleration of its enrichment efforts.
In fact, Trump did take further action to hinder Iran’s attempts to develop a nuclear weapon and also to hinder its many other nefarious activities. Specifically, Trump restored crippling sanctions on Iran’s economy and fully supported a number of covert operations carried out by Israel to sabotage Iran’s critical nuclear infrastructure, not to mention the elimination of Iran’s arch terrorist, Soleimani, by U.S. forces, furthering our deterrent posture against Iran’s hegemonic plans.
Indeed, statements by the Biden administration to the contrary notwithstanding, most of Iran’s acceleration of its uranium enrichment activities occurred after Biden was inaugurated as president. There should be no doubt that Trump’s posture of “peace through strength” and maintaining a credible military threat deterred Iran from significantly advancing its nuclear weapons project. Now, with President Biden’s philosophy of appeasement and his desperate attempts to reach a nuclear agreement at any cost, Iran is in the driver’s seat again.