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Professor Mowlana begins his article with a recent quote from former US Under-secretary of State Richard Armitage, "Under such conditions that the strongest army in Mideast region, the Israeli army has failed in silencing Lebanon (read Hezbollah), it is time to hesitate about resorting to force against the 70 million strong ran, that has a noticeable strategic depth as well."
He then focuses on two major and unprecedented developments in the United States in the course of the past couple of weeks, namely the rioting of a group of US generals against the US policies in Iraq and, the recommendation of the senior partisans in both the Republican nd the Democrat parties to Bush Administration to begin talks with Iran as a bare necessity."
Among the rioting high brass US generals, Professor Mowlana refers to the commander of US Air Force in invasion against Iraq general Charles Swank and the commander of that country's Army in that war, General John Batisteh, who were forced to retire themselves last week following their strong objection to US policies in Iraq.
They had argued that the situation in Iraq strongly resembled the quagmire in which the US forces had got entangled in Vietnam, and that exciting Iraq would be as defaming for Washington as it once was from Hanoi.
IRNA