WTH Extra! Israel Strikes Iran! Frederick W. Kagan Explains

On this episode of WTH Extra! Dany and Marc speak to Fred Kagan
about Israel’s strike against Iran over the weekend, retaliating
against Iran’s unprovoked October 1 missile barrage against the
Jewish state. Israel’s strike, involving over 100 aircraft,
effectively took out Iranian air defense systems and decimated
Iran’s missile production capabilities. However, either because
of Israel’s strategic calculation or pressure from President
Biden, Israel chose not to target Iran’s nuclear or oil
production. Did Israel effectively put a halt to the tit-for-tat
escalation with Iran? Or did it miss an opportunity to prevent a
much more dangerous Iran down the road?


Frederick W. Kagan is the director of AEI’s Critical Threats
Project and a former professor of military history at the US
Military Academy at West Point. He is the author of the 2007
report Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq, which is one
of the intellectual architects of the successful “surge” strategy
in Iraq, and the book Lessons for a Long War (AEI Press, 2010).
His Critical Threats Project, alongside the Institute for the
Study of War, releases regular updates on Iranian activity in the
Middle East, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and transnational
terrorism on the African continent.


Read the transcript here.


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