How Should U.S. Deal With Iran? Experts Offer Opinion. Analysis and Advice in New Op-Ed Series

Posted Jan 20, 2012 by Howard Altman

Updated Jan 20, 2012 at 08:45 AM

As tensions heat up between the U.S., its allies and Iran, I wanted to reach out to smart people with experience and expertise in the region who could offer some advice, insight and analysis about how the U.S. should deal with Iran.

With the rhetoric of war growing over U.S., European and Israeli concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, resulting economic sanctions including efforts to shut down Iranian oil exportation, threats by the Islamic Republic to close the Straight of Hormuz and an apparent assassination campaign against Iran’s nuclear scientists as well as attacks against its installations, I wanted to encourage a national dialogue going before bombs start falling.

I reached out to retired military, intelligence operatives, academics and analysts, including many who have visited Iran and/or who have had dealings with issues of weapons of mass destruction in the region.

The opinions are not mine and the only guidance was this: What’s your opinion/analysis, whatever that might be.

This series will be ongoing, appearing in both my blog and in my print column. I welcome input from anyone with direct knowledge of the region and its issues.

To kick it off, I begin with an essay from Wade Ishimoto, an Army Special Forces veteran, a leading Special Operations scholar and a guy who was on the ground during the disastrous attempt to rescue hostages from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Playing Poker with Iran

On a cold, wintry day in January 1981, 52 American hostages that were held for 444 days in Iran finally set foot again on American soil and were taken to the Thayer Hotel outside the United States Military Academy.  Some of those hostages and a few members of the force that attempted to rescue them gathered at West Point last January. 

Bruce Laingen, who was the head American diplomat throughout the 444 days of captivity, remarked last year that it was well past due for the United States to establish diplomatic relationships with Iran once again.  It is remarkable that we have gone for more than 30 years without diplomatic relationships between our country and Iran. 

Today we find ourselves playing a game of bluff poker with the Iranians but instead of sitting a poker table and looking them in the eye, we are trying to do this through “intermediaries”.  That certainly seems a weird way to play poker where there may be a number of bluffs but in the end the cards have got to be shown on the table.

Establishing relationships with Iran need not occur at the risk of abandoning economic sanctions and the use of our instruments of national power in an attempt to make Iran less bellicose.  In particular, those instruments that America should be using in particular include Diplomacy, Information, Economic, and Intelligence to lessen Iranian expansionism and power ploys.  All of these, along with potential military options must include the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members who are even more affected by Iranian threats than America. 

The concerted efforts of numerous nations, but in particular the GCC and America, can bring enormous pressure on both the theocratic and secular portions of Iranian society to bring about fruitful change that will move towards a more stable Arabian Gulf situation.  In April 1980, our attempt to rescue the American hostages was impeded because we were afraid of losing an aircraft carrier battle group should we insert it into the Persian Gulf.  Because of diplomacy, that is not the case today.

Regarding our potential use of military force, our best option is to let the Iranians guess at our intentions.  It gets back to the game of poker.  We do not have to make statements, they know what we have in our arsenal … and oh, by the way, asymmetrical warfare does not only mean the small guy using these techniques.  We have a certain arsenal that is far asymmetrical to anything the Iranians have today that can wipe their nefarious leaders out in a blinding flash.

But let’s play poker face to face and reestablish diplomatic relationships.  We did it with the Soviet Union and with other arch enemies in the past.  Why not now with Iran?

Wade Ishimoto

Wade Ishimoto is semi-retired after leaving as the Special Assistant to the Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy as a Highly Qualified Expert.  He was previously the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict. He continues as an Adjunct Faculty member of the Joint Special Operations University and is a retired Army Special Forces officer who served multiple tours in Vietnam and a charter member of the Delta Force formed in 1977.  He became Delta’s Intelligence Officer and led a road block team on the 1980 attempt to rescue 53 American hostages in Iran.

After leaving the Army, he continued his efforts to combat terrorism in the private sector and in government.