Amazing in this is the various shreds of cold war and and regional power struggles (all butchered by Mitt).
A significant component of concern over Soviet interests in Afghanistan was that it was one step, a big step, closer to clear access to the Arabian Sea (a warm water ocean).
Romney's team is full of a bunch of confused stuck in time folks, but for some time, the wall of nation states, Greece-Turkey-Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan effectively blocked Soviet expression towards that sea line (Yugoslavia obviously very important in these considerations). The "loss" of Iran heightened US strategic thinking, US strategic thinking cannot by described as juvenile. The containment policies were well crafted, manned at every front, and durably aimed to suffocate the Soviets. This, coupled with the importance of the Korean peninsula (blanketed by the Japan archipelago), the development of the Sosus line, and the Baltic choke point at Denmark and so on, .... all kept the bear in a noose.
Somehow Mittens got these notions in his head and just ran a train off a cliff of errant thinking. Iran is not the Soviets. Their deep-warm water access is not material (they have it). The cold war issues were one of connecting USSR to the gulf and Arabian sea via Afghanistan and the recently "lost" Iran. While Yugo presented opportunities, the strategic positioning of Italy and Greece, gatekeepers in that space of Nato's pond (the Med) placed the Soviet navy in the unenviable position of essentially gaining the high seas largely by permission. Alternatively, the US could pretty much send boats out of VA, WA, CA, HA at will, no permission required.
This dick brain then gets it in his head that Syria is strategically significant for Iran to get to the sea? He is smokin pot. No other way to put it.
I learned all of that in public high school. Mittens made a mess of it.
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