JINSA's Senior Director for Security Policy Shoshana Bryen wrote in the Baltimore Jewish Times, October 24, 2008, that there are at least two problems with the increasing calls for the United States to engage Iran.

As violence continues to decline in Iraq, regional elections are set for January and disparate political and ethnic forces move closer to political reconciliation, the unfinished Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Iraq and the United States looms increasingly large.

As gasoline in America has remained relatively inexpensive at the pump, the cost of protecting the sources of that energy supply has increasingly risen in terms of defending resources often located in steadily deteriorating regions and amidst the growing forces of criminality and religious radicalism.

More than four years after the 2003 invasion, a substantial portion of the U.S. military remains in Iraq, with worn-out equipment and weaponry and personnel exhausted by frequent tours of duty and insufficient time at home between deployments. Concerned observers are increasingly asking: "Is America entering into another phase of the 'Hollow Army', like that of the post-Vietnam era? Has the military become a broken force?"

Remarks by Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon R. England, at the Herzliya Conference, Herzliya, Israel, 21 Jan 2007. Secretary England, then Navy Secretary, was honored with JINSA's Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson Distinguished Service Award in 2001.

From a Chinese sub slipping within five miles of a U.S. aircraft carrier to the pride of the Israeli fleet being struck by an Iranian anti-ship missile launched by Hezbollah, events in 2006 may compel needed attention to fleet protection, especially as advanced non-nuclear submarines begin to enter Middle East and Asian fleets.