For more information about this weekends Television Scandal visit us online at booktv. Org. Matthew kroenig is next on booktv. He says it is critical for the u. S. To take action against iran and its Nuclear Program and argues on the worst kind of diplomacy but the west should be willing to take military action if iran does not comply with the agreement it signed in november of last year. This is an hour and 15 minutes. Good evening. I and the International Program director for the world fair council of washington d. C. The World Affairs to a program, in 2013 and accord was signed in geneva, switzerland, the u. N. Security council, germany and iran. The agreement was a preliminary one that would set the path for more comprehensive deal on irans program and ambitions. Both sides seemed entrenched in their respective positions. However diplomacy and negotiation, conventional wisdom says, were the best way to resolve the crisis. As the alternative, a military strike would be catastrophic.
That. We couldnt deter iran from being emboldened. And by definition we cant deter Inadvertent Nuclear War and the highstakes crisis. President bush and president obama didnt agree on a lot in Foreign Policy but they both agreed a nucleararmed iran is unacceptable. If thats the case for nucleararmed iran is unacceptable and diplomacy fails that leaves us with one option the military option. In the book i talk about the military option in the military option isnt a good option either. There are many risks to the military option. The question is it worse or better than deterrence and containment if diplomacy fails . First i talk about the israeli option. Many people may think of the military option think israel would do it and not the United States. The problem with the Israeli Military option is they dont have the capabilities to destroy irans key Nuclear Facilities. There are four Key Facilities to aboveground israel could destroy those in two facilities below ground. Even with those b
And then dry them out the cia succeeded. That it didnt see the global jihad was coming i think is in retrospect a clear failure. Thats looking backwards. Thats a little unfair to the people at the time to make those decisions. And in just a couple of minutes i would like to open this up to questions. Looking out amongst the group, i see a number of people who are deeply knowledgeable and well get some good and even perhaps tough questions. I shouldve mentioned in introducing bruce something that many of you know, and that is that president obama asked bruce to chair a policy review on afghanistan and pakistan. So if you could kind of leave over this story to the Lessons Learned and maybe some lessons that were not learned in our own engagement in afghanistan. I think theres a lot of lessons. First thing i would say though is we are not fighting the soviets more. We did not invade afghanistan unprovoked. We did not go in and kill the communist leader of the country which we have helped
Positive. He was really shocked. Then he asked me to manage his trip to iran to speak with president rafsanjani. Rafsanjani gave him Carte Blanche to go for Regional Cooperation system in the persian gulf. It was in 1990. It was not in 19 2000. It was right after the war. He was almost shocked. He came to washington and washington decline. Therefore you can see from the beginning the iranians have been seeking a type of Regional Cooperation. The foreign minister in 1991, 1992, 1995 he paid a visit to all the gcc countries. That time i was in Foreign Foreign Ministry and he raised iranian willingness to establish such a cooperation with their neighbors. But gcc was not in position because of the u. S. Position, opposition. I really dont believe iran is going to have a dominant role in the region which is the conventional understanding care. Iran has more Regional Cooperation with the neighbors including saudi arabia. Jeff, what i said about the u. S. Departure from the region, i never m
With those of you are unable to get your questions asked. Anchorage you to buy books. Did you find more books . Excellent and i urge you to read it. It is an excellent book. I want to thank him for being such a wonderful guests tonight and all of you for asking questions. [applause] thursday night book tv in prime time featuring but fares and festivals. On feminism from the Los Angeles Times festival books at nine from 2014 freedom fest they debate American Foreign policy. At 1010 name his childhood in miami. The top facebook. Com booktv book expo america. And later at 10 30 p. M. , the Chicago Tribune printers row led faced. Her book about vietnam. Book tv in primetime of this week at 8 00 p. M. Eastern here on cspan2 pitbull. On that next washington journal Foreign Policy and the socalled Obama Doctrine the foreignpolicy initiative. We will also be joined by luke was yeah, Investigative Reporter for the washington examine it to focus on a recent series of articles on congressional in