Bombing Iran back to Stone Age is not a winning strategy. So why does Idaho’s delegation support it?

Donald Trump proclaimed on July 26 that he was going to “beat the f**king s**t out of” Iran. This was in response to an Iranian missile attack on a U.S. base in Jordan. Earlier, in his meandering April Fools’ Day speech, he had vowed to send Iran “back to the stone ages.”

His incantations remind me of the famous 1965 words of Gen. Curtis LeMay, a former Air Force chief of staff. LeMay’s solution to North Vietnam’s aggression against South Vietnam was to “bomb them back in the Stone Age.” That faulty strategy did not work then, and it won’t work to “win” Trump’s war in Iran. 

The Vietnam War saw an estimated 7.6 million tons of explosive ordnance dropped across Indochina–1 million in North Vietnam, 4 million in South Vietnam, 2 million in Laos and ½ million in Cambodia. As an aerial artillery observer in South Vietnam, I managed to contribute a small tonnage. The U.S. did not achieve victory in that war despite the staggering amount of ordnance expended. It will not happen in Iran.

We should not forget that Iran survived eight years of a savage and grueling war with Iraq in the 1980s and came through basically intact. That war involved much more than aerial bombardment. It was primarily vicious ground combat that resulted in about 500,000 deaths. The Trump war is a piece of cake for Iran in comparison.

The gutless Republican-controlled Congress could step in and bring this insanity to a halt. After all, the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to start and stop wars. The lame excuses dished out by members of Idaho’s congressional delegation, all of whom solemnly pledged to support the Constitution, demonstrate the extent of the corruption that has allowed this wretched war to continue.

Sen. Jim Risch says a Senate vote against the war would send a message to Trump to “put your tail between your legs and run.” That message should be sent. The Iranians have the upper hand and they will not relinquish it before the midterm elections. In the meantime, Trump’s failure to bring the war to a halt will continue to inflict substantial damage on our economy and further degrade America’s standing in the world.

Risch has made the bald-faced assertion that Russia and China will not help Iran in the war. He must not be familiar with readily available information to the contrary. We all should know that both Russia and China have long-standing alliances with Iran. Russia is assisting Iran in targeting U.S. bases in the Middle East. Iran has received satellite imagery from China, as well as tactics learned by Russia in Ukraine.

It would only make sense that our two longest-standing and most malignant adversaries would take advantage of the Iran hostilities to damage the United States’ defense posture. Both are using Iran as a proxy to do just that.

For its part, Iran is making gains by pretending to agree to certain limitations, giving Trump something to crow about, and then engaging in further hostilities. How better to obtain further concessions from a U.S. president who is desperate for an end to hostilities in order to raise his dismal approval ratings?

Both Russia and China have a strong interest in using the on-again, off-again hostilities as a means of degrading the U.S. military’s capabilities. We are throwing away our stockpile of sophisticated weaponry to prosecute a war that serves no strategic purpose for the United States, but which is a godsend to our most dangerous enemies.

They need only encourage Iran to jack Trump around with continuing strikes and counterstrikes that deplete our inventories of Patriot and THAAD interceptor missiles. The THAADs cost about $13 million apiece while Patriots run about $4 million each. Russia must be thrilled that the U.S. no longer has stocks of Patriot air defense missiles available to sell to Ukraine.

The Iranians have developed tactics to deplete our supply of these air defense systems with an array of low cost drones and missiles. Our stocks of Tomahawk and ATACMS missiles have been seriously depleted. Replenishment of those stockpiles will take years, giving our strongest enemies a window of U.S. vulnerability to aggression.

Risch and the rest of our congressional delegation need to take seriously the degradation of America’s defense posture resulting from the continuing hostilities in Iran. The attendant domestic price hikes have devastated farmers and consumers in Idaho and across the country.

It has happened because our cowardly delegation members refuse to honor the Constitution and their sacred oath of office.