Friday, September 17, 2010

The Deadly Threat of a Nuclear-Armed Iran

From time to time over the past years I have run into these full page ads in various political magazines from this organization named FLAME.  (Facts and logic about the Middle East)  The group is unapologetically pro-Israel and I have found their adds to be quite informative and upon further research, quite accurate. 

The latest one I came across is regarding the subject of Iran and their impending creation of a working nuclear weapon.  This is something that America and the world have seem to have dealt with in true ostrich fashion.  The time left for dealing with this critical issue is definitely running out and the repercussions of a nuclear armed Iran will be disastrous for America and possibly nation ending for Israel.  See Flame's ad below for more information.

http://www.factsandlogic.org/ad_109.html

Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has declared publicly – not once, but repeatedly – that Israel must be “wiped off the map.” That effort, the destruction of Israel, seems to be the main goal of Iranian policy. When Iranian missiles are paraded through the streets of Tehran, the destination “to Jerusalem” is clearly stenciled on them.

What are the facts?

A death wish for Israel. Ahmadinejad and the ayatollah who is the “supreme leader” have publicly mused that one or two nuclear bombs would obliterate Israel, but that, though it would cause devastating damage and millions of casualties, Iran would survive Israel’s retaliatory attack. Iran is a huge country, with about 60 million inhabitants, so they are probably correct. And who can doubt that those religious fanatics would not hesitate to allow the destruction of much of their country and to sacrifice a third or even one-half of their population in order to eliminate the hated Jewish state? When our country was entangled with the Soviet Union in the bitter 40-year long “cold war,” with both sides having sufficient nuclear weapons to destroy the opponent’s country and its people, things were kept in place by MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction. However “evil” the leaders of the Soviet Union (the “Evil Empire”) may have been, there was one great consolation and assurance: They were not crazy. But the Iranians and other Muslims are crazies, as we understand the concept. Because they take instructions directly from Allah, who tells them to kill the Jews and other infidels, whatever the cost.

Israel has no problem with Iran. They share no borders and have no territorial dispute. In fact, they face common Arab enemies and should be natural allies, as they indeed were under the Shah. Iran’s death wish for Israel is based entirely on religious fanaticism. In contrast even to the intractable North Koreans, the determination of the Iranians is immutable. It cannot be changed by persuasion, by diplomacy, by sanctions or by threats.

Once Iran is in possession of nuclear weapons, it will not only be a deadly danger to Israel, but to all of the Middle East and to virtually all of Europe. The flow of oil from the Middle East, the lifeblood of the industrialized world, would be totally under its control and so would be the economies of all nations of the world, very much including the United States.

What is to be done? In 1981, then prime minister of Israel Menachem Begin, being aware of Iraq’s nuclear ambitions and looming realization of those ambitions, decided that its nuclear reactor at Osiraq had to be destroyed. The IAF (Israeli Air Force) accomplished that in a daring and unprecedented raid. Iraq’s nuclear capability was eliminated in one stroke, never to rise up again. Israel had done the world an enormous service. Had it not been for Israel’s decisive action, the Iraqi conquest of Kuwait and, without question, also of Saudi Arabia and its enormous oil fields, and, for that matter, of Iran, could not have been prevented. Saddam Hussein would have been the ruler of the world.

The solution to the deadly threat that Iran poses to the world is obvious. Of course, diplomacy and persuasion, threats and promises, sticks and carrots – every possible means short of military action – should be used until it becomes clear even to the most obdurate that nothing can deviate Iran from its chosen path of becoming a nuclear power and to dominate the Middle East.

There is reason to believe that the people of Iran, especially the young people, oppose the oppressive and theocratic regime of their country and are hostile to the mullahs who control everything. But the government has the tools of power firmly in its hands. It controls the instruments of coercion – it can kill people and it controls the oil money. While it would be most desirable and in the interest of the world to be able to foment an overthrow of the Iranian regime, that is an unrealistic and unattainable prospect.

Regrettably, there is only one solution to the terrible dilemma confronting the world, the unacceptable danger of a nuclear-armed Iran. The terror, the destruction and the 60 million dead of World War II could have been prevented at several times during the Nazi regime. But the Allied powers, under the leadership of Britain’s prime minister Neville Chamberlain, opted for appeasement and for “peace in our time.” We cannot afford to make that same mistake again. The world must give Iran an ultimatum: Desist immediately from the development of nuclear weapons; if you do not, we shall destroy the facilities that produce them. There still is a window of opportunity to do that. That window may close very soon. But who would do the job? The United States would be the obvious choice. But if the United States were in accord, Israel could do it, just as it did the job in 1981 in destroying Iraq’s nuclear potential once and for all.

An attack on the Iranian nuclear installations would fall under the heading of “anticipatory self-defense,” recognized and sanctioned by international law and by common sense. Nobody really knows for sure how far Iran is from reaching its goal — six months. six years? The experts disagree. But if Iran is not stopped now, it may well be too late not very long from now.

Facts and Logic About the Middle East
P.O. Box 590359
San Francisco, CA 94159

Gerardo Joffe, President

2 comments:

Dave Splash said...

No one wants a nuclear armed Iran, but many of these same arguments were used to justify Bush's Iraqi scheme. Because of the obvious lies used to justify that war, the nation (probably the world) is skeptical when hearing it again with a different name at the end. Didn't the CIA write a report in 2004 that said Iran abandoned their nuclear program?

Along those lines, a great deal more intelligence was available on what the Iraqis were up to in 1981 than what the Iranians are doing now. No one knows exactly where to strike. What if we try and we hit the wrong place? Do we just keep striking blindly until we get something? I think everyone agrees a full-scale invasion is not possible. I agree we have to do something, but to argue that the only option is to mimic the 1981 incident is false.

Sadly, we put ourselves in this position. The invasion of Iraq was the best thing that could ever have happened to Iran. Their power and influence have grown, not diminished. We had a chance in 2001. When they reached out to the US after 9/11 and offered help with our mutual enemy, the Taliban, we shunned them and said they were in an axis of evil. Any wonder that in the next set of elections, the reformers were defeated and the hardliners won?

I do take exception with a pair of sentences in the post, "But the Iranians and other Muslims are crazies, as we understand the concept. Because they take instructions directly from Allah, who tells them to kill the Jews and other infidels, whatever the cost.

Who are the "other Muslims," as there are over a billion. Are they all crazy? Does the writer understand that since Iranians are Shia and most Muslims are Sunni, that they have a fundamentally different view of Islam. And they don't actually get their instructions from "Allah." Anyone who says they do is just as crazy as when Pat Robertson says he talks to Jesus.

Darrell Michaels said...

Dave, I think you are making the mistake of looking at this issue through western eyes and applying our values once again.

The theocracy of Iran does not care about life and is absolutely willing to die to achieve what their interpretation of Islam tells them they must.

Further, you are indeed naive' sir if you think that Iran, which is floating on a sea of oil, is building nuclear facilities simply for "power" instead of for weapons.

That just doesn't pass the smell test or common sense, sir. This is particularly so in light of the rhetoric from the theocracy and Ahmadinejad directed towards Israel.

Indeed, we are following in the dangerous footsteps of Neville Chamberlain once again...