Under President Donald Trump, a unique window of opportunity has opened for the United States to compel Iran to choose between regime survival and its decades-long pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional aggression, says Marine Corps Gen. (ret.) Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr., the former commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM).
McKenzie, a distinguished fellow at the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), laid out a strategy in mid-May building on the forceful policies of Trump’s first term, arguing that Iran, currently in a state of unprecedented strategic vulnerability, can be made to one again “drink from the poisoned chalice”—a reference to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1988 decision to end the Iran-Iraq War to preserve the Islamic Republic.
As CENTCOM commander, McKenzie, oversaw the Jan. 3, 2020, drone strike that killed Iranian Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. He emphasized the profound impact of that operation. (Read More)