Robert Pape on the Iran escalation trap
Every step Washington takes toward Iran's coastline puts more American boots inside the blast radius, and Robert Pape is laying out exactly why the Pentagon's plan to seize the sites Iran uses for ship tracking doesn't hold up. Those fixed locations aren't irreplaceable. Mobile radars, fast boats that carry radios, naval mines dropped from any of dozens of inlets, they all do the same job without giving up a single position. So what does landing Marines on an Iranian island actually buy you? A unit parked in the open as the new primary target. Pape's assessment: "They are going to basically be a perfect target set, like shooting fish in a barrel for Iran's drones and missiles." Two Marine units are already moving toward the region. The math only gets worse from here, and handing Tehran that kind of advantage is a brutal deal for everyone involved
