OPINION:
The solution laid out in James S. Gilmore III’s recent opinion piece (“How to break the Iran war deadlock,” Web, July 26) is not workable for several reasons.
Yes, Mr. Gilmore hopes the military prevails, but if not, then he would have us convene a global conference establishing the open (and, I assume, free) transit of the Strait of Hormuz.
This does not address the primary stated American objective of the conflict: the denuclearization of Iran.
The day after Iran agrees to the premise of this global conference (opening the strait), it will start reviving its nuclear program. It will dig up the 60% enriched uranium, clean up the mess and start the centrifuges spinning.
After a few weeks, as the regime has said, it would up to 80%, and so have nuclear-bomb-grade material. Then, while enriching, the regime rebuilds its missile factory — you know, the sites that have already produced long-range missiles, two of which were fired at Diego Garcia.
At this point, we are not even back to square one because we have a handful of U.S. soldiers killed (not to mention 40,000 Iranian civilians murdered), and $40 billion to $80 billion down the tubes.
There is a principle of economics that says just because you spent money on something does not mean you should use the thing you bought if it is bad (e.g., having purchased tickets to what you later learn is a bad movie is not a good enough reason to see the movie anyway).
Bringing Iran to heel is about survival, not sitting through a crummy flick.
PETER F. SCHAEFER
Washington
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