Op/Ed: Israeli Clock Ticks

The Israeli clock ticks. The Pentagon anticipates Israel will preemptively strike Iranian nuclear facilities in April, May or June. Iran's nuclear program is close to entering the zone of immunity with Israel being incapable of slowing Iran's nuclear ambitions in any lasting way. 

Iran is not 1981 Iraq or 2007 Syria, not only is the failure of a preemptive Israeli strike guaranteed, but the escalation of the recent tit-for-tat shadow war, of low level assassinations of nuclear scientists and attempts on Israeli diplomats, into a regional war is guaranteed. I fully support Israel's right to self defense, but Israel's nuclear arsenal deters nuclear attack and an Israeli preemptive strike is against America's self-interest.

I, like my grandfather before me, volunteered and fought for our nation in a time of war. However, unlike my grandfather, I was never an American Jew in a Nazi POW camp. People of Jewish decent have been persecuted across the ages, but this persecution does not justify American support for an Israeli preemptive strike. Make no mistake, horrific Iranian EFPs (Explosively Formed Projectiles) were responsible for maiming and killing hundreds of GI's in Iraq and continue to haunt the rest of us, but the American interest should never be subjugated for another nation's.

Iranian sanctions have caused their currency to loose half its value and an impending European Iranian oil embargo commencing this summer will be crippling. Iran's threatened response is to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a passageway for one fifth of the world's oil tankers. A blockade violates international law and the international community will respond. For eight years Iran's mines, navy and air force failed to blockade the Strait during the Iran-Iraq War. Experts believe an Iranian blockade would close the Straight for ten days at most. It is against America's interest for an Israeli preemptive strike to destroy international resolve to stop an Iranian blockade.

Syria, Iran's only remaining ally, is an exploding powder keg. The Arab League's mission has failed and they seek international support. The Iranian hydra has a head in the Assad regime, like its heads in Palestine's Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iraq's Mahdi Militia. It is against America's interest for an Israeli preemptive strike to not only kill international resoluteness for Syria, but cause the Iranian Hydra to retaliate and the Syrian flames to engulf the region.

The Israeli clock ticks. Nuclear power instills national pride and boosts Ahmadinejad's fortunes, just like grandiose American support for Israel boosts an American politician's fortunes. The worst thing America can do is overreact to the threat of a single Iranian bomb. A total of 4,474 Americans died for us to now know that Saddam overstated Iraq's nuclear program.  During the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union had 45,000 nuclear missiles and our safety came from mutually assured destruction. Although an Iranian nuclear bomb is not in our self-interest, an Israeli preemptive strike is less in our self-interest.

Joshua Denton is a Portsmouth resident who served in the Iraq War from the summer 2006 to the summer 2007 as a combat adviser to an Iraqi infantry battalion of 800 soldiers. He is currently using the G.I. bill to attend his last semester at the University of New Hampshire School of Law.