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U.S. Should Shoot Down Israeli Planes

If Israel tries to attack Iran, Brzezinski says

by
Michael Weiss
September 21, 2009
Brzezinski at a conference in April.(Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
Brzezinski at a conference in April.(Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

Does Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as Jimmy Carter’s former national security adviser, want U.S. planes to shoot down Israeli planes if Israel attempts a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons program? That seems to be what he’s asking for in a interview with Gerald Posner published on The Daily Beast.

When asked how aggressive the Obama administration should be in forestalling an Israeli attack, Brzezinski reminded Posner that the U.S. still controls Iraqi air space and added, just to be clear, “If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a Liberty in reverse.” By “Liberty,” Brzezinski was referring to the incident in which Israeli jets and torpedo boats hit the USS Liberty in international waters during the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel said it was an accident, the result of friendly fire. Brzezinski, unless he chooses his analogies carelessly, seems to think otherwise.