Israel Matzav

Dangerous hallucinations in Washington and New York

Max Boot discusses a bizarre New York Times op-ed written by one Adam B. Lowther, who is claimed to be an analyst at the Air Force Research Institute at Maxwell Air Base in Alabama. Lowther believes that an Iranian nuclear weapons will bring Messiah's time.

He claims that a nuclear Iran will deliver all sorts of hidden benefits for the U.S.:

First, Iran’s development of nuclear weapons would give the United States an opportunity to finally defeat violent Sunni-Arab terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Here’s why: a nuclear Iran is primarily a threat to its neighbors, not the United States. Thus Washington could offer regional security — primarily, a Middle East nuclear umbrella — in exchange for economic, political and social reforms in the autocratic Arab regimes responsible for breeding the discontent that led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

He takes this fantasy to another level by imagining that not only will the Arab states be empowered to defeat al-Qaeda — something they already have an interest in doing — but that OPEC will also crack up, the Israelis and Palestinians will settle their differences because they’ll both be so scared of Iranian nukes, U.S. defense exports to the Middle East will increase, the Arab states will bear more of the cost of their own defense, and Iran will become a more responsible actor with nuclear weapons than without them.

Boot worries about the consequences of such an article appearing in America's self-proclaimed 'newspaper of record.'

Lowther’s article is hard to take seriously, but the fact that it appears in our leading newspaper and is written by a government employee is sure to lead many in the conspiracy-mad Middle East to imagine that it represents the views of the U.S. government. That will only further encourage Iran and discourage its neighbors. Not that Iran needs much outside encouragement. Its leaders are plainly convinced that the U.S. is not going to do anything substantive to stop its nuclear program. And they are probably right. But that is hardly cause for celebration.

No, it's not. For the record, Lowther has written books about both terrorism and asymmetrical warfare, so for those of you whose reaction was (like mine) "who the heck is this guy?" he's apparently not an unknown quantity. I think he's just lost his mind.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:11 AM