Perspective: Both countries say they don’t want it. But here’s a scenario where it happens anyway. This is how easily the U.S. and Iran could blunder into war.
By Colin H. Kahl Colin H. Kahl Bio Follow Colin H. Kahl is co-director of Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. He was deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East from 2009 to 2011 and deputy assistant to President Barack Obama and national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden from 2014 to 2017. May 23 at 11:47 AM As tensions mount between the United States and Iran, American and Iranian leaders publicly insist they want to avoid war.
One week after Soleimani’s calls, a U.S. diplomatic convoy traveling from the heavily fortified Green Zone to Baghdad International Airport was hit by several powerful roadside bombs. A high-level State Department political officer, three other diplomats and a U.S. Army colonel were instantly killed.
It was unclear exactly what Trump’s threats implied. But the president found himself under increasing pressure from Republican hawks in Congress and hard-liners within his administration to take immediate military action. Within days, the United States unleashed a multi-day bombardment of Iranian air and coastal defense systems, mine storage facilities, ports, and ballistic missile locations, as well as strikes on the Natanz and Fordow uranium enrichment plants, the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan, the Arak reactor, and several Revolutionary Guard bases where the administration alleged that suspicious nuclear-related research was being conducted.
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