Maybe tail won’t wag dog this time

I’m an optimist. Here’s an important sign that the American establishment may be coming around, realizing that an attack on Iran is nuts. At AEI/Brookings event, Ken Pollack came out against an attack on Iran, for containment. Matt Duss reports:

In his opening remarks, Pollack said he believed that by early next year “what the United States and our allies are going to be looking at is containment,” a long-term process of countering Iranian influence in the region, much as was done against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. “Implicit in the concept of containment, Pollack said “is the idea that there will be a change in regime over time.”

[Iraq war supporter Pollack said] Remember George Kennan’s “Mr. X” article, the long telegraph, that was the ultimate focus of containment with the Soviet Union: Contain them until the regime changes, which it must because of its own internal problems. The same I think can be said of Iran, especially this Iranian regime after the events of June 12 and the rest of the summer.

[Fellow Iraq war supporter Michael] O’Hanlon concurred. “The containment concept is ultimately where I wind up…it’s our most viable medium to long term option.”

I think Michael Rubin was hinting at this the other day too. Very messy to attack Iran. Everyone knows it.

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