OPINION: Bombing Iran back to the Stone Age is not a winning strategy

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 US 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 General 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 gutless Republican-controlled Congress could step in and bring this insanity to a halt. After all, the US 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.

Senator 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. Both Russia and China have long-standing alliances with Iran. Russia is assisting Iran in targeting US 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. Both countries have a strong interest in using the on-again, off-again hostilities as a means of degrading the US 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.

Russia and China are likely encouraging Iran to jack Trump around with continuing strikes and counterstrikes that deplete our inventories of Patriot and THAAD interceptor missiles. 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 US 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. It’s time for voters to send them out to pasture.

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Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served eight years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as a Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). He also publishes at substack.com/@jjcommontater.