Former Carter administration national security adviser Zbiginiew Brzezinski — who endorsed President Obama but was not officially an adviser to the campaign — gave an interview to The Daily Beast Web site in which he suggests that the U.S. should shoot down Israeli jets if they fly over Iraq on their way to attack Iran:
Gerald Posner: Is the fallout as bad if Israel preemptively strikes Iran?
Zbigniew Brzezinski: Absolutely. That is the way, more importantly, how the Iranians would view it. They really can’t do much to the Israelis, despite all their bluster. The only thing they can do is unify themselves, especially nationalistically, to rally against us, and the mullahs might even think of it as a blessing.
GP: How aggressive can Obama be in insisting to the Israelis that a military strike might be in America’s worst interest?
ZB: We are not exactly impotent little babies. They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?
GP: What if they fly over anyway?
ZB: Well, we have to be serious about denying them that right. That means a denial where you aren’t just saying it. 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.
The USS Liberty was mistakenly attacked by Israeli forces during the Six-Day War in 1967.
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