Lieutenant General Michael Flynn’s Sober Warning on Iran

Lieutenant General Michael Flynn (Retired- U.S. Army) testified on June 10, 2015 before the Joint Foreign Affairs and HASC subcommittees of the United States Congress on Iran. Flynn was the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from April 2012 to November 2014. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is a Department of Defense combat support agency.

Flynn’s testimony on Iran is unequivocal. The picture he paints is one of an ominous and increasingly unstable future for the Middle East and for the world as a whole. The following are some selected quotes from his testimony:

Our closed, 20th Century bureaucratic system appears unable to adapt to the rapid and complex changes and threats we face in the 21st Century.

Iran has every intention to build a nuclear weapon. They have stated it many times, they have attempted well over a decade to move rapidly to nuclearizing its capability…

Iran’s stated desire to destroy Israel is very real. Iran has not once contributed to the greater good of the security of the region.

The notion of “snap back” sanctions is fiction.

Iran’s nuclear program has significant – and not fully disclosed – military dimensions. The P5+1 dialogue with Iran has glossed over a number of such programs (including warhead miniaturization blueprints) in pursuit of an agreement.

Iran possesses a substantial inventory of theater ballistic missiles capable of reaching as far as parts of southeastern Europe. Tehran is developing increasingly sophisticated missiles and improving the range and accuracy of its other missile systems. Iran is also acquiring advanced naval and aerospace capabilities, including naval mines, small but capable submarines, coastal defense cruise missile batteries, attack craft, anti-ship missiles, and armed unmanned aerial vehicles.

In his testimony Flynn recounts how monitoring the nuclear weapons development activities of North Korea and South Africa and Pakistan failed and he sees no likelihood that efforts to track the Iranian program will be any more successful.

What does a more proliferated region mean for US security?
Pretty much, what Prime Minister Netanyahu predicted to Congress, which was we would see the end of the Non Proliferation Treaty for all intents and purposes.

What does this mean for Israel?
The worst-case scenario is a reversion to a pre-Yom Kippur War security environment, except with less restraint.

Finally, Flynn had some choice words for those foreign policy “realists” like Columbia University professor Kenneth Waltz who argue in favor of Iran possessing nuclear weapons, claiming that it might actually be a good thing, in a June 2012 article in Foreign Affairs magazine. Flynn commented,

Delusions abound these days, but anyone who can argue for an ICBM or nuclear capable Iran is more a pyromaniac than pragmatist.