History Lesson: Iran Beat America In War Game in 2002
The simulation showed that hubris can lead to a terrible down fall even when facing minor hostile powers.
The United States has had a contentious relationship with Iran going back many years, from what’s seen as a U.S.-backed coup in the 1950s to the hostage crisis in the 1970s. More recently, the difficult relationship involved a nuclear deal in the 2010s to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb an agreement which Washington backed out of during the Donald Trump Administration. Throughout all of that, the United States and Iran never actually got into a full-on war.
A year after a U.S. military operation rid this world of the Iranian terrorist-general Qasem Soleimani, the same tired voices are repeating the same tired message, even on the eve of their return to power: “The Trump administration is on the brink of war with Iran!” “Trump is a very wounded and very cornered animal in an end-game scenario. He’s got a few weeks left, and we know that he is capable of extremely erratic behavior,” says Professor Danny Postel of Northwestern University. After the events of last Wednesday, it’s hard to argue with Postel’s assessment of the president’s psyche. But I still very much doubt that dragging the country into a war is all that high on the president’s to-do list. Trita Parsi, a mouthpiece of the Islamic Republic of Iran and executive vice president at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, has also weighed in in a predictably irresponsible manner. Parsi speculates that Trump may
national security professionals in and out of government and they believe we are closer to military conflict with iran than we have ever been. certainly since november 2012 when iran launched an su-25 fighter and took a shot at a u.s. aircraft flying in international airspace in the persian gulf. it s dangerous, willie, because i think it s not part of some overall strategy other than perhaps a bolton-led strategy to provoke a crisis, not waste the crisis and and engage in full scale military conflict. that s pretty scary what jeremy just said. we now have in washington, d.c. a government where hundreds of conservatives have been appointed to the federal bench in the last year and yet the authorization for use of military force passed really about 2001 is it still in
significant movement in in far away war in yemen to finally go along with a peace plan there. there s discussion about referring to the united nations, some of these tanker incidents in the gulf so that the u.n. would play a role. and finally, i am certain when mike pompeo visited vladimir putin in sochi this week, one of the things they talked about was the possibility of joint u.s. action to deal with this emerging crisis of iran in the persian gulf. david ignatius, thank you so much for being with us. we know you have to go but we greatly appreciate your time and as you always, your great insights. let s turn now to peter baker. peter the news cycle over the past 48 hours has been filled with stories about how the united states may be marching towards warwith iran and yet donald trump over the past 12 hours forcefully speaking out
their cause politically and also constitutionally. we started listening to the inane conversation about the alabama legislature. if you re a woman and you feel strongly about this, run for office, on every level run for office and win so we can have some conversations about women s bodies with women. still ahead, lawmakers are demanding answers on iran. senators from both sides of the aisle want to hear from the administration about the white house s claim of rising threats. more with david ignatius on that. and jeremy bash joins the discussion next on morning joe. nothing says summer like a beach trip,