Did Brzezinski Call For The US To Attack Israel?

President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski gave an interview to Gerald Posner of TheDailyBeast.com on President Obama's foreign policy message. Now there's nothing too strange there - an official from a former administration commenting on the current one, but in the interview there was an exchange about a possible Israeli attack on Iran over Iran's nuclear program.

The most direct path from Israel to Iran is over Iraq. Since Iraq doesn't have a functioning air force of its own, that job is being handled by the US Air Force. This led Brzezinski to say if the United States was serious about preventing an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities (which many believe could lead to an all-out regional war), the USAF could "deny" the Israeli use of Iraq's airspace. Brez went on to suggest that a "reverse" of the USS Liberty incident could occur. (In case you don't know, the USS Liberty was a United States Navy ship involved in a 'friendly-fire' incident with the Israeli Air Force in 1967. Israel has always contented it was an unfortunate accident, while the Liberty's crew has never bought the idea that their ship, flying a huge American flag, could be 'mistakenly' attacked for three hours).

Now if it was me doing the interview, my next question to Brzezinski would be: "are you suggesting the USAF shoot down Israeli jets?", in fact I think that would be the follow-up question of most journalism school students. Mr. Posner, listed as The Daily Beast's chief investigative reporter, though apparently didn't think this bombshell was all that important since his next question was on missile defense.

A renowned foreign relations expert suggests the US and Israel get into a shootout and you don't think to follow up on that? Maybe The Daily Beast needs a new chief investigative journalist...