{"id":1161,"date":"2012-02-19T05:22:27","date_gmt":"2012-02-19T00:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barrystrauss.com\/?p=1161"},"modified":"2022-03-08T14:01:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T19:01:53","slug":"hannibals-path-iran-israel-and-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barrystrauss.com\/hannibals-path-iran-israel-and-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Hannibal’s Path: Iran, Israel, and America"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hannibal\u2019s Ghost came back from his sacrifice. He had such a fierce look about him that I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had just passed a child through fire to Moloch. But I didn’t ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome back, oh Subjugator of Spain. Before you left, you were clearing up my misconceptions about the Middle East. Let\u2019s return to that subject, please. Can you tell me if the Israelis have the military capacity to set back the Iranian nuclear program by a few years?\u201d
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably. A lot depends on the details. Will the operation be as difficult as crossing the Alps with elephants in the snows of autumn?\u00a0 Or as easy as luring the Romans into an ambush in the morning mist?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Israelis can attack successfully, they will want to do so. After all, Iran has sworn their destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean, \u2018they will want to do so\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israeli government has the will but the Americans cast a shadow in their way. Americans prefer a negotiated settlement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about negotiations? Aren’t sanctions about to force Iran to the table? Can\u2019t we settle this matter without war?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly if you want to settle for empty promises. Iranians already knew how to play their enemies back in the days of parlaying with Roman proconsuls. Outfoxing America would be child’s play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe so, but the talks are a worth trying, oh, Taker of Tarentum. After all, if Israel attacks Iran, the Iranians will respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz and so disrupt the world’s oil supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. Navy would stop them first. Still, there would be shooting, and the Americans want to avoid that. Once the shooting starts, things might escalate. A terrorist attack on the US homeland, an American military response in Iran\u2013who knows where it might end?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe Americans have had our fill of war in the Middle East, oh, Disciple of Hercules.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to my friend, the Duke of Wellington, recently,\u201d said Hannibal. \u201cThe Iron Duke compared the American attitude to the Middle East today to England\u2019s attitude to the continent of Europe in his era. England wanted to prevent a hostile power from dominating the region without having to spill any of its own blood. \u00a0You Americans don’t want to see the Middle East, with all its oil wealth, under the thumb of a still-revolutionary Iran. But you don’t want to go to war to stop it either. And you don’t trust Israel not to drag you into war willy-nilly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWellington! He spilled plenty of English blood in the end. You military men are always quick to go to war. You think only of the glory and never mind the tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the contrary: the politicians are so corrupt and self absorbed that we soldiers have to do double duty. It’s not enough to be general\u2013we have to be diplomats, strategists, and statesmen as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou make a strange advocate of peace, oh, Killer of Cannae.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you, professor, are not the first old man whom I have heard doddering on about war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah, I thought, that must be the famous Punic wit that the Romans talked about.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Middle East is a sideshow,\u201d Hannibal continued. \u00a0\u201cFor Americans, the main event is at home. As usual, the politicians have stolen from the people and filled their own purses. America needs a leader of iron discipline and incorruptibility to set its fiscal house in order.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike me: I was just a general when I came back to Carthage after the war with Rome, but I ran for office. In one year I accomplished more reforms than the politicians had in the 35 years I was abroad fighting for my country. I closed the old boys club, open the door to democracy, and launched an economic boom without raising taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thought of Hannibal running for office, holding forth in a television debate, must have short-circuited something because with a crackle of lightning, he was gone.<\/p>\n

I can’t say that I wasn\u2019t relieved.<\/p>\n

Barry Strauss\u2019s new book, Masters of Command: Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and the Genius of Leadership<\/em>, will be published in May (Simon & Schuster).<\/p>\n

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