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Make Iran Fear America Again

(Wall Street Journal) Walter Russell Mead - From Iraq to Lebanon and Gaza to the Red Sea, Iran and its proxies can create an instant crisis anywhere, forcing the U.S. to respond on Iran's timetable. If the U.S. can't seize the political and military initiative from Tehran, America will keep dancing to Tehran's tune. The newly energized and rallying forces of radical jihadist ideology and international terror are aligned with Iranian state power. Unless they are definitively defeated, they will boil out across the region and the world, endangering Americans at home and further diverting resources and attention from our struggles against the growing ambitions and capabilities of great-power rivals like Russia and China. Great powers, lesser powers and terror groups are watching America's response to the escalating series of aggressive moves by Iran and its "axis of resistance." If stability is ever to return, it must begin with a psychological revolution in the Middle East. Iran must learn to fear President Biden more than he fears Iran. This is the standard by which we should measure the success of the president's retaliatory strikes in the Middle East. Did the strikes restore America's power to deter? Have they changed the balance of fear in the Middle East? The writer, a fellow at the Hudson Institute, is Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College.
2024-02-07 00:00:00
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