Posted on 03/31/2017 1:11:07 PM PDT by Lorianne
The nation's top military official in the Middle East on Wednesday said Iran is one of the greatest threats to the U.S. today and has increased its "destabilizing role" in the region.
"I believe that Iran is operating in what I call a gray zone," Commander of the U.S. Central Command, Army Gen. Joseph Votel, told the House Armed Services Committee in testimony Wednesday. "And it's an area between normal competition between states — and it's just short of open conflict."
The general said Iran is exploiting this area in a variety of different ways, through things such as "lethal aid facilitation," the use of "surrogate forces" and cyber activities, among other things. He also believes Iran poses "the greatest long-term threat to stability" in the entire region.
U.S. Central Command is responsible for U.S. security interests in an area stretching from the Persian Gulf region into Central Asia. It includes more than 80,000 soldiers on land, sea and air as well as the ongoing campaign to defeat Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (or ISIS) as well as the Taliban in Afghanistan.
"We need to look at opportunities where we can disrupt [Iran] through military means or other means their activities," he said. "We need to look at opportunities where we can expose and hold them accountable for the things that they are doing."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
And go get our $billion in cash back
WHAT THE HELL GIVES WITH ALL THE SUDDEN SYNCRONIZED WAR DRUMS FROM OUR (MOSTLY OBAMA PROMOTED) GENERALS!
Suggest the Navy steer clear of it.
Maybe Iran would not be such a great danger to us if we were not such a great danger to Iran, endlessly provoking them and always taking up the cause of their Saudi rivals.
At the onset of hositilities, if Iran touches nary a hair or antenna of the Department of State, or US civilian targets, levy a bombing of the city of QOM akin to the Dressden Germany bombings in WWII; Qom is high value target simply because so many of Bin Laden's family and leuitenant's families reside there under Iran's protection.
I figure Iran was a problem back in the Jimmy Carter years.
I would have killed the dictators right off in the countries causing problems. The politicians wait till the body count ends up being millions before doing anything.
We installed the Shah back in ‘53, to protect British oil interests. Because we meddle, things got FUBAR’d.
Open the door for the Israelis.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.