Zbigniew Brzezinski, in an interview with the Daily Beast website, declared, "We are not exactly impotent little babies."

Israel long has been thought to be considering a military strike against the Islamic regime's suspected development of nuclear weapon technology. Israel has stated it is unwilling to be threatened by a leader with access to nuclear weapons who believes it should be wiped off the map, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has declared. But an Israeli attack on Iran probably would have to fly over coalition airspace in Iraq.

"Are we just going to sit there and watch?" Brzezinski asked. He said the U.S. has to be "serious" about denying Israel the right to attack.

"That means a denial where you aren't just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not," he said.

He said the Obama administration also already should have developed "a clearer position on what we are prepared to do to promote a Palestinian-Israeli peace."