Success in war depends on predicting what the enemy will do – seeing through their eyes. Outgunned by overwhelming military, they will see a need for whatever weapons they have. If their improvised or clandestine weapons kill civilians, they may see that as military necessity. When our long-range weapons kill civilians, they will see that as a form of terror — and a justification for their “asymmetric warfare.”
On Iran’s view, Gen. Qassem Soleimani’s closest counterpart in the U.S. would be former CIA head and now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. For Iran’s view of the assassination of Souleimani, imagine Pompeo was assassinated by a bomb while on a visit to Iraq.
Pompeo claims that U.S. policy aims to get Iran back to negotiating to get a nuclear arms agreement that improves on what Barack Obama got. In an interview broadcast Monday on CNN, Republican Sen. Rand Paul captured the way this claim must look to Iranians: “. . . no naive child would believe that. You’d have to be brain-dead to believe that we tear up the agreement, we put an embargo on you and we kill your major general, and they’re just going to crawl back to the table and say, ‘What do you want, America?’ ”
What to do now? Our experiences in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq provide a clear lesson. When you are stuck in a hole, stop digging. Climb out. It is not necessary to admit defeat or feel humiliated. Doing the wise thing is always honorable.
J. Gray Cox
Bar Harbor
Send questions/comments to the editors.
