WASHINGTON DC: Top US Air Power Expert and advisor to multiple US Presidents, Professor Robert Pape, underlined the emergence of Iran as one of the top five most powerful countries in the world.
Professor Pape spoke about Iran's rapid rise and highlighted the escalation dynamics in the region, with three key stages--stage one being US strikes in the region, stage two being Iranian retaliation, and stage three being the US upping the ante with ground forces and said that right now it is between stages one and two.
"Stage one was US bombing; doesn't hit target, not strategically successful. Stage two- Iran reaction, lashback in different ways. And then stage three is U.S. up the ante again, go up the rung to ground forces. So that's a very simplistic way to think about it, but it is quite accurate. And we're in between stage two, the Iranian horizontal escalation. Now they've got the Strait of Hormuz. They still have that enrichment for nuclear weapons. And they're on the cusp now, six months, a year from now, from being the richest country in the world with oil and nuclear weapons. So this is what we're talking about. And that means they will be even more powerful. So that's why they're heading to stage three, which is the groundwork", he told ANI.
"I'm not saying they want stage three. I'm not saying they're eager to go to ground operations. I'm saying they're being sucked into that because there just are no other off-ramps. There's no golden off-ramp. There's no easy way out."
"This is not as a month ago. This is not Iran, like the 20th most powerful country on the planet. This is now Iran as in the top five. So now what's happened with Iran is they've really shot up, and as time goes on, we just have to remember this wealth, this oil, this 20%... This has been the power, for decades and decades," he added.
Pape is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago with a specialisation in security affairs. Professor Pape has a popular substack named the Escalation Trap, which informs the reader when conflicts are changing phases and the various dimensions that happen at each stage. (ANI)
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