Everything pointed toward a confrontation between the United States and Iran a couple of months ago, but two unexpected events took place to undermine the “step-by-step escalation toward war,” political novelist and foreign policy expert Hannes Artens said during a Madison appearance Wednesday night.
First, the situation in Pakistan got tense when President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule, purportedly suspending the Constitution and imposing martial law, and oil prices spiked to nearly $100 a barrel, helping fuel a recession.
With recession gripping the U.S., “this is not really the best time to start another war in the Middle East,” Artens told a small audience in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.