Iran is within months of having nuclear weapons.
This is the same Iran that has chanted "Death to America" in its legislature more than once, including the session in which it decided to resume uranium enrichment.
Iran has 130 billion barrels of oil reserves. Yet Iran has recently decided to build a second nuclear power plant, has approved a bill to block international inspections of its atomic facilities, and has arranged to buy missiles from Russia.
The leader of the United Nations' "nuclear watchdog" agency says that Iran is only months away from having nuclear bombs. AEA chairman Muhammad ElBaradei has confirmed that, "If Teheran indeed resumes its uranium enrichment in other plants, as threatened, it will take it only several months to produce a bomb."
"On the other hand," he warned, "any attempt to resolve the crisis by non-diplomatic means will open a Pandora's box." (In other words, let's continue doing what hasn't worked, and let the nukes fall where they may.)
Will the United States have the courage to take the action it needs to take, or will the vehement attacks on the President in connection with the Iraq war have the side effect of making America too reluctant to act when it really needs to?
It has been a long, uphill slog for America to replace a terrorist-sponsoring dictatorship in Iraq with a peaceful democracy. Even worse that the war itself has been the constant struggle to keep the effort from being undermined by forces at home.
We know what some who opposed the president politically long before he was even elected have banded together with pacifists to attack and undermine the president and the war in Iraq.
They have questioned the president's motivations. They have ridiculed his goals in the war. They have attacked his methods. They have circled around and questioned his motivations again. They have been quick to declare little defeats, and slow to acknowledge major progress. Everything the president has done, or failed to do, has been used as fodder for partisan advantage. Visiting the troops at Thanksgiving, taking a working vacation, or reading a book to school children have all subjected the president to partisan attack.
The incessant attacks have taken their toll. They have made it doubly difficult for this president to actively confront Iran, even though Iran is making direct threats of America's destruction that we ignore at our peril.
We naturally discount the chant of "Death to America," for we know Iran to be a tiny military power compared to the U.S. But is it really a tiny force in the nuclear age?
A nuclear attack on America seems unthinkable. Yet unthinkable things happen all the time.
Remember the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union, one of the world's major superpowers? The Soviet Union seemed invincible. It seemed permanent. It was armed with nuclear missiles. Yet it fell.
Remember the fall of the Berlin wall? That seemed impossible, too. Before the wall fell, many men gave their lives desperately trying to escape over that wall. Then suddenly the wall was was torn down with hammers and picks and bare hands.
Remember September 11th? Did you expect to see a two jets full of your fellow human beings flown into two huge office towers full of your fellow human beings? Did you expect to see two 110-story buildings collapse into a smoldering fire pit that burned for two months? Did you expect to see the Pentagon on fire?
When it comes to world events, "unthinkable" is no defense.
"But I thought we were a superpower" is no defense.
In matters of national security, denial buys you nothing. Ignorance buys you nothing. Blaming someone else buys you nothing. You're either safe, or you're holding your dying child in your arms like a dad in Beslan, where the unthinkable happened just last year.
There are many possible ways to respond effectively to Iran, but ignoring the danger is not one of them.
There are good and decent people in Iran. They do not deserve the repression under which they live, nor what their leaders seem intent on putting them through next.
There are also good and decent people in America. Are you comfortable trusting America's safety, and its childrens' safety, to the whims of men who chant "death to America" as they move forward on building nuclear bombs?
Israel is directly in Iran's crosshairs too. Israel might well be its first target. That is not good news for America. Israel is one of the few democracies in the region and a staunch American ally. If Israel is Iran's first target, it will not be its last.
If not, then what are you going to do about it? Will you support America and its president when he confronts Iran, or if it supports Israel in confronting Iran? If not, what are you waiting for? When exactly will your support begin?
For more on this subject, check out Neal Boortz, Generation Why, California Conservative, Captain's Quarters, The English Guy; The Strata-Sphere, A Blog For All, Red Hot Cuppa Politics, Powerpundit, and In the Bullpen.
Update 12/6/05: Also check out Winds of Change for how the New York Times should have covered this story.
______________________________________________
Photo link: Down With the U.S.A. (Tehran, Iran)
Comments