America’s feckless Plan B for “confronting” Iran

America is skittish about confronting Iran directly. To this point, so is the rest of the world. Even as Tehran brazenly defies international pressure over its nuclear program, the United States is having trouble building international support for tougher sanctions.

So, America is executing Plan B:

The Obama administration is quietly working with Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf allies to speed up arms sales and rapidly upgrade defenses for oil terminals and other key infrastructure in a bid to thwart future military attacks by Iran, according to former and current U.S. and Middle Eastern government officials.The initiatives, including a U.S.-backed plan to triple the size of a 10,000-man protection force in Saudi Arabia, are part of a broader push that includes unprecedented coordination of air defenses and expanded joint exercises between the U.S. and Arab militaries, the officials said. All appear to be aimed at increasing pressure on Tehran.

This initiative began under George W. Bush and has seen more that $25 billion worth of U.S. arms go to Arab states in the last two years. “For the Obama administration, the cooperation represents tangible progress against Iran,” the Washington Post reported.

This is all fine and good, except for the reality that these Arab “allies” are utterly untrustworthy. They openly advertise their antipathy for the Jewish state of Israel, and their populations largely mistrust the U.S. if they don’t actively hate it.

America knows Iran is the most dangerous power in the region. But because its will is broken, it fears to go after the Islamic Republic directly. Thus it views as “tangible process against Iran” the arming of a number of neighboring Muslim states that also fear Iran and, realistically, are not about to confront it directly.

These nations are happy to give back some of America’s oil dollars in exchange for top-notch warmaking equipment.

A fearful and shortsighted U.S. is escalating a dangerous arms race in a volatile region. This policy is going to hurt when it backfires.

Psalm 83 contains a prophecy of these Arab states’ ultimate betrayal of the end-time nations of Israel. Aligning with a European power after Iran is eliminated from the picture, they will say, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance”—and form an active confederation against Israel and the U.S. Will they turn America’s own weapons against it? More on this chilling prophecy can be found in our booklet The King of the South.