Jewish World Review : Our war with Iran... 01.11.2005 by Frank J. Gaffney Jr. We should resist, as long as possible, resorting to military means against the Iranian regime On October 26th, the new president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made international headlines by declaring that "Israel must be wiped off the map." Leaders from around the world tut-tutted that such things really should not be said, ignoring the fact that this goal has been a cornerstone of Iranian policy — and, for that matter, that of a number of other states — for years. The blood-chilling threat to Israel overshadowed another statement by the one-time Iranian "student" whose cohort seized American hostages in 1979. Ahmadinejad declared in the same speech : "Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism ?...You had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." In other words, Tehran’s Islamofascists like Ahmadinejad are as focused today as they were at the time twenty-six years ago when, in the midst of the Iranian revolution, they sacked our embassy and seized our diplomats. The main enemy — the "Great Satan" — for Iran’s regime remains the United States. Unless prevented from doing so, it will persist, both on its own and in league with others, to bring about our destruction, as well as that of other freedom-loving people. Regrettably, this agenda is being largely underwritten by profits the mullahs are obtaining from their oil sales. Thanks to the recent near-tripling of the price per barrel, Iran is now receiving on the order of $125 million more every day in what amounts to found-money. As with the Saudis (whose corresponding windfall is roughly $500 million per day), at least some of these funds are supporting Iranian-sponsored terrorists and financing Tehran’s accelerating weapons of mass destruction programs. The time thus squandered has also allowed Iran to diversify its customer base, bringing China and even democratic India in as major investors in Iran’s state-controlled oil sector and purchasers of its products. Thanks to this arrangement, Tehran has obtained political protection, non-Western revenue streams and sources of advanced weaponry. The menace arising from the Iranian regime can no longer be ignored, any more than its president’s rhetoric can be discounted as bluster or considered untroubling since news accounts suggest it is directed at Israel alone. The Shiite Islamofascists in Tehran, like their Sunni counterparts supported by Saudi Arabia, mean what they say about imposing an international Caliphate under a Taliban-style Shari’a law. And they are deadly serious about the fact that countries like ours that stand in the way will have to be wiped from the map, too. Whether we recognize it or not, this totalitarian ideology is at war with us. And, if we wish to survive, we have no choice but to wage total war against it. For this reason among others, we should resist, as long as possible, resorting to military means against the Iranian regime, lest we drive even a public who hates the radical, politicized mullahs into their arms. The United States should, instead, lead the Free World in wielding three other instruments against our enemies in Tehran. We should :
As Ahmadinejad knows, we have a stark choice : a world without America, or one without Islamofascism. The latter goal is attainable and surely must be achieved. By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. |