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The Iranian Elephant in the Room
Peter Brookes | June 02, 2009

Unfortunately, President Obama is likely to use this week's visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt as stops on his Apology World Tour, repudiating Bush-era Middle East and War on Terror policies. Instead of creating perceptions of weakness -- which would only invite more provocations and attacks - he should rally Arab states to take a strong stand against the Iranian threat. It's one thing on which we can all agree.

Obama's Iran policy has amounted to little more than rhetoric and wait-and-see diplomacy - all while Tehran launches missiles and enriches uranium. If trends continue, a North Korean-style nuclear moment is in our future.

The Arab world is concerned not only about the prospect of nuclear-armed Iranian ballistic missiles but about how this could lead to Iranian hegemony in the Mideast.

Iran's recent deployment of warships to the Arabian Sea for supposed anti-piracy operations was a message heard loud and clear by Tehran's neighbors, especially rival Riyadh.

This trip gives Obama a bully pulpit, and he should make the most of it, pulling the Arabs together to deal with this common threat. In fact, containing (or, even better, rolling back) the Iranian juggernaut would help the Palestinian-Israeli situation by removing Iran - and its henchmen Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria - as Israel's short-term focus. Israel, naturally, is drawing a bead on the wolf closest to the sled - the existential threat posed by Iranian nukes and missiles.

More of Obama's feel-good, blame-America-first speechifying will do little to help dissuade Islamist terrorists from their deadly ways. Instead, it will make America look like a paper tiger - just like Osama bin Laden said.

It'd be better if the president focused on something on which we, the Arabs and the Israelis can agree - defanging the Iranian terrorist, nuclear and missile threat to the region and beyond.

Sound Off...What do you think? Join the discussion.


Copyright 2009 Peter Brookes. All opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com.

 
About Peter Brookes

Peter Brookes is a Senior Fellow for national security affairs at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. He is also a weekly columnist for the New York Post. Brookes frequently appears on cable news such as FOX, CNN, and MSNBC as well as hosts major market radio talk shows. He is the author of: "A Devil's Triangle: Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Rogue States."

Before coming to Heritage, Brookes served in the Bush administration as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian-Pacific Affairs. Prior to the Pentagon, he worked as a staff member with the Republican staff of the Committee on International Relations in the House of Representatives. Brookes also served with the CIA's Directorate of Operations, and worked on international economic issues for the State Department at the U.N.

He also served in the U.S. Navy, including active duty in tours in Panama and Japan in aviation and intelligence/cryptologic billets. He has over 1300 flight hours aboard Navy EP-3 aircraft. Brookes is a Commander in the naval reserves. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy; the Defense Language Institute; the Naval War College; and the Johns Hopkins University.

Peter Brookes' new book, "A Devil's Triangle: Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Rogue States" is a cold, hard slap for anyone becoming complacent about security challenges in today's world, warning readers that threats to America's national security have not subsided in the four years since 9/11, but, in fact, have escalated.