Iran: what it will take.
President Bush said:
I mentioned to you the need for international bodies to be effective. We’re working with the IAEA with Iran. And the Iranians need to feel the pressure from the world that any nuclear weapons program will be uniformly condemned. It’s essential that they hear that message. An appropriate international body to deal with them is the IAEA. They signed an additional protocol, which was a positive development. The foreign ministers of Great Britain, France and Germany have interceded on behalf of the civilized world to talk plainly to the Iranians. One of my jobs is to make sure they speak as plainly as possible to the Iranians, and make it absolutely clear that the development of a nuclear weapon in Iran is intolerable, and a program is intolerable, otherwise there would be — otherwise they will be dealt with, starting through the United Nations.
Unfortunately, that press conference was April 21, 2004. (*)
It is now two years later, and where are we? We’re still sitting on our hands, hoping the IAEA will smoke a peace pipe with Iranian spittle-flecked figurehead Ahmadinejad, and the real dictator of Iran, Supreme Leader Khamenei, no less a psychotic homicidal maniac as Ahmadinejad, only quieter and more shadowy.
So now Iran has enriched uranium. (†) Their process is not advanced enough to create a nuclear weapon, but they will gain that knowledge soon. Today, no obstacle stands in their way.
The IAEA appeaser-in-chief, Mohammed Elbaradei, waddles to Iran again. Maybe he will at last find his proof that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Congratulations to his cheering section at the Nobel prizes. They can be very proud as their boy kowtows before the armed terror overlords of Iran and their atomic artillery almost ready to roll off the assembly line. At this point, the IAEA is at best a distraction that speeds proliferation.
The time has now passed for polite chit-chat with rabid dictators who tomorrow will be armed with the weapons of extinction.
President Bush should summon the UN Security Council for an emergency meeting to occur in 24 hours. If the Security Council fails to act immediately and decisively against Iran, ordering sanctions backed with the threat of military force, the US and allies must act. We must rapidly prepare to fight to preserve the founding principles of both our countries and the United Nations. It may be that other countries are too afraid. They may be too scared to fight for freedom, too weak to hold aloft even a small candle of hope for humanity. Sacrifice is what grown-ups do to avert a disaster from befalling the little people sometimes called the future.
Let us turn now to a relevant document. The opening lines of the Charter of the United Nations, signed in San Francisco in 1945:
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind. . . .
(‡) Now, with Iran on the doorstep of delivering to the world an aggressive, unprovoked nuclear armageddon of Israel, is the last chance to act. There is still a chance that sanctions could shut them down before it hits critical mass.
If sanctions do not work, however, we must prepare to fight a limited war now to avoid the global nuclear catastrophe that is sure to follow the terrorist state of Iran gaining access to nuclear weapons.
I’m sure many of my readers wouldn’t shed a tear if Israel were wiped from the Earth. Nor the entire Jewish people as well. For any that think a nuclear Iran is tolerable, however, do not forget the words of Martin Niemoeller, who reminds us even today that first they come for the Jews, and then another group, then another, until finally they will come for us. Divide and conquer is the eternal way of the tyrant.
Naturally, if one country can be nuked off the map, so can any country. We human beings live interdependently in this world. We must police and protect ourselves. This is called morality.
The Doomsday Clock tells us that the world is at seven minutes until nuclear midnight. (§) With today’s knife-to-the-throat announcement by Iran’s thugocracy, we can anticipate the minute hand to move faster and faster.
Today the gravest threat to humankind is the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran. A little nuclear war here and there is likely to touch off a global nuclear war. In the emerging context, it is more than morality that we stand for; it is survival.
And two years after taking a firm stand against a nuclear-armed Iran to a room full of reporters, President Bush has hardly lifted a finger to stop this ferocious menace.
It is time for action.
Assuming sanctions do not work, what would the military option look like? First, the US is not really going to use nuclear weapons on Iran first, unless Iran already has or is about to in an imminent time frame use its nuclear weapons.
Of course, since Iran has an itchy trigger finger and ruling autocrats who firmly believe Allah wants them to kickstart Islamic Armageddon by hurtling the a-bomb hither and yon, knowing just when Iran plans to use the bomb may be difficult to estimate. For that reason, it is wise to keep our nuclear arrow in the quiver.
All this only increases the importance to hit Iran now. First, with powerful sanctions, and second, with swift preparation for a military option.
If President Bush no longer has what it takes to do what is necessary, he needs to resign.
From far away, if enough have the bravery and steadfastness to stand up to Iran and their brutal words and their brutal weaponry, it will look like a showdown between nations.
The real showdown, though, will not be along the borders of the Middle East, but in the borderlands of the human heart. Do we have the courage of our convictions? Will we, in the last instance, do what is right, even when it is very hard? Are we willing to sacrifice our selfish drives for a brighter tomorrow? Will we let the light shine, or will we succumb to darkness?
Time will tell. I know we can do what is right. I know we can stop Iran. I know the human heart can triumph over despair. But will we do what we must? Will we do what is right?
To accomplish something small, little effort is needed. To accomplish something great, little effort is needed, only many times. People want to stand for what is right, but they are afraid. That is why it is important that as many of us as possible stand for what is right, so that courage spreads, little by little, until at last we accomplish that great thing, and stop cold a brutal oppressor. We cannot make the world absolutely safe, but we can absolutely remove one threat to it.