I think that the recent US military strikes against Iraq represent an abandonment of a number of earlier components of US strategy in the region. It means an abandonment of dual containment (of Iraq and Iran), which has guided US strategy - to its detriment, I would say - for some years. It represents an abandonment of disarmament as both a reality, in the form of UNSCOM - a weak, but, nonetheless, functioning reality - and as a pretense. Continue reading…