(Inkstick) Jonathan Lord - In the recent Juniper Oak exercise, the U.S. and Israeli militaries performed joint exercises in all domains: land, air, sea, space, and cyber. Juniper Oak may prove to be one of the world's greatest demonstrations of modern military capability. A typical joint military exercise takes about one year to plan. The planning for Juniper Oak began in November 2022, which demonstrates the close level of coordination between the U.S. military and the IDF, and that they are able to plan operations quickly and effectively. For Israel's emerging partners in the Gulf who have sought to normalize relations, seeing this awesome display of military capability is a showcase for what they stand to gain should they choose to further develop their defense relationships with Israel. For those countries that have yet to normalize with Israel, a demonstration like this puts on full display what they could stand to gain. Juniper Oak also demonstrates to leaders in Tehran that the U.S. has a credible military option, should the regime continue down the road to a nuclear weapon. The writer is a senior fellow and director of the Middle East Security program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).
2023-02-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive