June 18, 2019

AFA Mitchell Institute Dean Responds to Iran War Threat

In response to mounting tensions between Tehran and Washington, the Pentagon announced the deployment of 1,000 troops to the Middle East. The BBC World News reached out to the AFA’s Dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, Lt Gen David A. Deptula, USAF (Ret.), for perspective. Deptula is a world-recognized leader and pioneer in conceptualizing, planning, and executing national security operations from humanitarian relief to major combat. He was the principal attack planner for the Operation Desert Storm air campaign, commander of no-fly-zone operations over Iraq in the late 1990s, and director of the air campaign over Afghanistan in 2001.

Deptula said he does not see war with Iran as a logical conclusion to the Iranian attacks on the Japanese- and Norwegian-owned ships in the Gulf of Oman.

“A coalition of nations seeking peace and freedom of navigation in international waters should really assemble an alliance to denounce Iranian hostile actions, then form a group to defend against any such Iranian attacks in the future,” Deptula said.

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