Comment (William M. Arkin): In War Planning for Iran, Truth Is the Linchpin

Every American adventure overseas has a geographic linchpin, an essential country that the United States needs to go to war.

In the case of Iraq 2003, it was Kuwait. Without Kuwaiti bases, the United States would not have been able to deploy the ground forces needed to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Without Kuwait, the United States would not have had unrestricted airspace into and out of Iraq to attack the country.

This fact is made abundantly clear in a series of declassified U.S. Central Command planning documents obtained by the National Security Archive.

In the case of going to war with Iran, the linchpin, ironically, might be Iraq.

The "Polo Step" collection - the codename for the compartmented war planning that was first revealed by this author in the Los Angeles Times in mid-2002 - is particularly noteworthy today, with all of the heavy breathing regarding war with Iran.

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