During a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Vice President Kamala Harris said that Iran is the United States' greatest adversary. "Iran has American blood on its hands, okay?" she said, adding that Iran also attacked Israel with 200 ballistic missiles. Iran of course does have American blood on its hands. The Iranian leadership helped kill hundreds of American service members who were sent to a ruinous war in Iraq that sprang from the fever dreams of Harris supporter Dick Cheney. But beyond that morally righteous but strategically irrelevant point, Harris's argument is absurd. Iran is a regional power in the Middle East, which itself is a poor, weak region that the United States would do well to stay out of. As to the threat posed by Iran, let's begin with the basics. Iran has no missiles that can reach the United States. It has no ability to project conventional military power outside its borders. Its military doctrine is based on defense-in-depth, which involves slowly ceding ground to an aggressor while seizing on opportunities to counterattack. As the last Defense Intelligence Agency report on Iran's military capabilities put it, "Iran's 'way of war' emphasizes the need to avoid or deter conventional conflict while advancing its security objectives in the region, particularly through propaganda, psychological warfare, and proxy operations."
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Table of Contents
- This article appeared in Responsible Statecraft on October 15 2024. 1
- VP Harris might have been trying to score points but her comments are absurd. Heres why. 1
- Iran of course does have American blood on its hands. The Iranian 1
- Iran is a regional power in the Middle East which itself is a poor weak 1
- As to the threat posed by Iran letʼs begin with the basics. Iran has no 1
- Defense Intelligence Agency report on Iranʼs military capabilities put it 1
- Iranʼs way of warʼ emphasizes the need to avoid or deter conventional 1
- This is not the Wehrmacht in 1
- 1940. Avoiding or deterring 1
- If you wanted to posit any Middle Eastern power as being the United 2
- Statesʼ greatest adversary youʼd have to portray it as a country that could 2
- Iran has no shot at dominating the Middle East because its outdated and 2
- These massive conventional military weaknesses which are not fixable 2
- Iran does of course have a vehemently anti-American ideology and does 2
- The closer the United States gets to Iran the more Iran can hurt 2
- Americans. Iraq was a trivial threat to the United States until we invaded it 2
- The best defense that can be mounted of Vice President Harris in this 2
- East. 2
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR 2
- Director of Defense and Foreign Policy Studies Cato 2
- Institute 2
