Let's Go To ... Iran

I never cease to be amazed. With the Iraq War an unmitigated cock up, there are still deranged neo-cons who think beginning a war with Iran would be a brilliant follow-up. George Mason History Professor Arthur Herman offers his chickenhawk wetdream in Commentary Magazine.

Herman's war plan for Iran is the same as all of the others I've read in the last year.

• Bomb the Hell out of the country,
• Capture Iran's off shore oil rigs,
• Kick back and have a brewski.

Herman is an apostle, a true believer, in the religion of "painless war." He believe defeating Iran will require only one Marine brigade (3,000 troops) plus the shock-and-awe air power of two carrier groups. He is certain that the Iranian military will meekly accept the beating like a wimpering puppy, that the Iranian people will react to being bombed back into the stone age by overthrowing their government and installing a pro-American democracy, and that the rest of the world will stand back in wonder as the Lone Great Superpower flexes its muscles.

I feel sorry for Herman's students because Professor Herman is more ignorant of history than the rankest freshman. No country in the history of air power has ever been defeated purely by bombing. Not Great Britain or Germany and Japan during WWII, not North Vietnam during Operation Rolling Thunder, not even Iraq in 1991 or 2003. It takes boots on the ground to win a war. Bombing campaigns can devastate a nation's infrastructure but they do not demoralize its people. Rather, it unites the citizens to stand against the cowardly bastards who are lobbing the bombs from a safe distance.

Herman's strategic military knowledge is no better than his historical knowledge. His plan is to use one Marine brigade to occupy 100 Iranian off shore oil rigs. That would place a single platoon atop each of 100 highly explosive targets. Herman doesn't even consider the absolute certainty that Iranians would gladly blow up captured oil rigs to kill American Marines.

The sickest delusion is one that neo-cons have continued to hold since before the Iraq War. They believe that the United States can start a "short, sharp war" and once we declare the war is over - by God, the war is over. Saying "Mission Accomplished" doesn't make it so. Just like the Iraqis, the Iranians will not stop fighting just because we don't want to fight anymore.

Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory has an outstanding commentary on Herman specifically and neo-con insanity in general. His final words on the subject deserve repeating,

excising people like Herman and his allies from our political dialogue is the highest priority in beginning to repair the destruction they have spawned.