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Three ways Middle East fighting threatens US national security

Pentagon analysts are grappling with what this growing unrest in the Middle East means for US national security. Here are the top three ways the advance of the insurgent group the Islamic State in Iraq and violence in Gaza could endanger US national security.

3. The US could take its eye off the ball in other parts of the world

Ahn Young-joon/AP/File
A man watches a TV news program showing a file picture of a missile launch conducted by North Korea at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul on July 13.

  • By Anna Mulrine Staff writer

As a result of the wars in Iraq and Syria, Iran “is finding itself as a new regional influencer because of all of the things that are going on,” Flynn said, which has, in turn, empowered a country adversarial to the US and committed to pursuing a nuclear program.

In the midst of the Middle East crisis, North Korea, too, continues to pursue nuclear weapons. The dictatorship launched another missile test on Wednesday. “North Korea has been in the process of firing off these missiles,” Flynn said, “and they are essentially desensitizing us because they want to know, or want us to know, that they have this capability.”

This leads to other dangerous problems, Adm. Samuel Locklear, head of US Pacific Command, told Pentagon reporters on Tuesday. “I think the long-term concern with North Korea is that every time they do something that the international community has told them not to do – particularly as it relates to missile technology or nuclear technology – you have to assume that it’s a step forward in technology, otherwise, they probably wouldn’t be doing it.”

“We have to continue to demand that they denuclearize and that they stop their missile program in the fashion they have it today,” he added. “Will they or not? I don’t know.”

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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