Neocon Think-Tank Calls For "Overwhelming" US Nuclear Force In Gulf

By Steve Hynd

In two "backgrounder" pieces today, the neoconservative Heritage Foundation called for the Obama administration to "Prepare for a violent Iranian response to an Israeli preventive strike" and "deploy a visible deterrent, deploying overwhelming nuclear forces near Iran, including on surface ships, aircraft, or permanent bases" in the volatile Gulf region.

In the first of those two pieces, James Phillips describes an Israeli war of aggression against Iran as justified even though "Israel probably can only delay, not halt, Iran's nuclear program" while plunging the region into a fresh war, but terms any possible Iranian counter-attack as a "terror campaign". He also writes that "the conspiracy-minded Islamist regime may presume the existence of at least tacit American sup�port for an Israeli attack" while advocating that the US should deploy Aegis cruisers and THAAD missile interceptors to defend Israel and that "Washington should privately warn the Supreme Leader that if the Ahmadinejad regime launches attacks against U.S. targets, the U.S. will respond with devastating strikes not only against Iran's military and nuclear targets, but against regime leaders and the institutions that keep the regime in power". If Obama were to do these things, then Washington's support for Israeli aggression would hardly be tacit. That the most direct route, using the least fuel, would entail flying through Iraqi airspace controlled by the US would also mean more than just tacit support.

In the second, Ariel Cohen goes even further, suggesting that the Obama administration should threaten Russia over its alliance with Iran. Writing that Russia has extended a "security blanket" over Iran - without ever considering the implications of that for any conflict, increasing the chances of a an aggressive Israeli attack embroiling not one but two nuclear superpowers, Cohen writes that:

The U.S. should deploy a visible deterrent, deploying overwhelming nuclear forces near Iran, including on surface ships, aircraft, or permanent bases. These offensive forces should be designed to hold at risk the facilities that Iran would need to launch a strategic attack, thereby making any such attack by Iran likely to fail.

Let's be clear here - Cohen is advocating a preventative nuclear attack by the US on Iran's strategic facilities - that's the only way any such attack from Iran could "fail". And he's advocating doing that if Israel first launches its own aggressive war on Iran, despite Russia's seeing Iran as "a partner and an ad hoc ally to challenge U.S. power through the expansion of Russia's regional and international influence".

The Heritage Foundation wants the US to aid Israel while it starts World War 3. Lunacy.