The 12/14/21 dispatch.
Discover more from The View from the Front. By Stan R. Mitchell.
Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone had a good weekend and that you’re week is off to a good start! (And also that you have your Christmas list mostly knocked out! Don’t procrastinate on that!)
In news about Russia, the tensions haven’t died down any. Here’s just one update I came across. (The warnings for Putin continue to remain loud and vocal.)
If you missed it last edition, I discussed the serious threats Biden is tossing out as possible repercussions, including disconnecting Russia from the SWIFT international payment system used by banks around the world.
And here’s a bit more about the timing of all of this:
And more here:
Moving on to the situation in Iran…
I came across a really thought-provoking piece that for the first time (that I’ve seen) suggests the world may have to simply live with Iran developing a nuke. (That’s honestly one of the first times I’ve come across this, though I’m sure pacificists/non-interventionists have argued this in the past.)
But this came from the conservative writer and analyst Max Boot, who wrote in The Washington Post, “Because Trump left the nuclear deal, we might have to learn to live with a nuclear Iran.”
Re-iterating that Iran is not interested in negotiating again, and that many in Israel blame Benjamin Netanyahu for urging Trump to leave the deal,1 Max Boot writes:
That means the United States and Israel might be drawing closer to the decision they have long dreaded: Do they bomb Iran or allow Iran to get The Bomb? In the past, I would have said that bombing was the least-bad option, but I no longer believe that.
A nation of 85 million people, Iran is much larger and much stronger than the adversaries that America couldn’t defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan. And its nuclear program is far more advanced than those of Iraq or Syria when Israel bombed suspected nuclear facilities in those countries in 1981 and 2007, respectively.
The Iranian nuclear program is dispersed across dozens of hardened, hidden sites, all protected by a sophisticated air-defense system. The Fordow fuel enrichment plant is buried deep inside a mountain. Taking down Fordow, if it can be done at all, would probably require the 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator. Israel does not have this bomb or the bomber — either a B-2 or B-52— needed to drop it.
Max Boot finishes the column by saying, “The Biden administration should keep trying to peacefully stop the Iranian nuclear program, but that might no longer be possible because of Trump’s catastrophic decision to leave the accord. And if those efforts fail? Well, we have lived with nukes in the hands of other vile and abhorrent regimes, such as the Soviet Union/Russia, North Korea and China. If we have to, we could learn to live with a nuclear Iran, too.”
If I had to guess, I’d say this will quickly become the leading opinion of those in Washington. After all, the U.S. is overstretched across the globe. We can’t confront Russia in Ukraine, China in Asia, and fight Iran at the same time.
Here’s the link to Max Boot’s column:
It’s been quite a while since I mentioned the terrible fire that hit the USS Bonhomme Richard, but there’s news on that.
Moving along, I’ve been seeing some rumblings that things aren’t looking so good in Bosnia these days.
And previously:
In other news, I wrote in the previous edition about the passing of Navy Commander Brian Bourgeois, 43, commanding officer of SEAL Team 8. One cool update from the truly sad news is below.
And as a reminder, if you would like to donate to Commander Bourgeois’s family, a link to a donation page was linked to by Jake Tapper: link here.
Finally, before we wrap up, I wanted to share this because it’s such a striking photo, as well as a horrendous reminder of the costs paid almost daily in World War II.
All right, and here at the end, we’ll end with some motivation. This was something I really needed to see:
That’s it for this post. And as a reminder, please be kind and endeavor to love and support your fellow Americans:
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Semper Fidelis,
Stan R. Mitchell
P.S. Don’t forget to check out my books. I write fast-paced military and mystery thrillers. You can find all ten books here: amazon.com.
Max Boot lists the following folks as blaming Benjamin Netanyahu: former defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, said last month: “Looking at the policy on Iran in the last decade, the main mistake was the withdrawal of the U.S. administration from the agreement.” Former Mossad director Tamir Pardo described the pullout as a “tragedy.” Retired general Isaac Ben Israel, chairman of the Israeli Space Agency, called “Netanyahu’s efforts to persuade the Trump administration to quit the nuclear agreement … the worst strategic mistake in Israel’s history.”