Both claims are false. Mark Helprin has an excellent WSJ editorial, The Mortal Threat From Iran, (01/18/2012) that gives an excellent overview of the issue.
Iran has been at war with the US since 1979 when the revolutionaries invaded the US embassy in Tehran and took US citizens hostage for over a year. Since then, Iran has been the leading state sponsor of terror. This timeline shows some of the attacks by Iran or its proxies or allies.
A recent court case found that “…Iran and Hezbollah materially and directly supported al Qaeda in the September 11, 2001 attacks and are legally responsible for damages to hundreds of family members of 9/11 victims who are plaintiffs in the case.”
There are many issues associated with Iran gaining nuclear weapons. A good discussion on the topic is this 4-part 2009 discussion with historian Victor Davis Hanson and ex-CIA field agent Robert Baer.
A nation poses a threat if they are willing and able to cause us harm. Thus no discussion of Iran’s threat is complete without understanding their motivation. They are explicitly and in fact an Islamic theocracy. They have a somewhat pro-western middle class and an impressive scientific and engineering community, but the ruling class – the Mullahs, the IRGC – are devoutly Muslim.
It is false to claim they are responding to attacks from the west or incursions onto “their lands.” Under Islam, muslims have a duty to reconquer any land that was once under muslim control – which would include much of Europe. This is true even if the US had not gone into the Middle East, for oil or any other reason. It is not because US and/or British intelligence installed the shah in 1953. They are militant and at war with us because they are muslim.
So to grasp the threat from Iran one must also see the threat from Islam. A very good introduction to this is a 98-minute video, What the West Needs to Know About Islam.
As that video points out, the ultimate goal is a global caliphate. This is a long-term goal to which all other goals are subordinated. Thus if Obama tells the world the US military will withdraw from Afghanistan by a certain date, muslims like the Taliban will gladly wait until that date to return and reconquer the country. The western view of short-term, pragmatic thinking entirely misses the point about the patience and long-term perspective of the theocrats.
Muslims will kill or convert all nonbelievers. Muslims under sharia law are repressed and censored, subject to dictates from religious leaders. They are stoned or burned with acid or hung or beheaded for various “crimes.” Women are especially persecuted, regularly treated as less than second-class citizens, subject to sanctioned rape and abuse, and face genital mutilation and honor killings.
The deeper problem of Iran is its Islamic fundamentalism. It is not enough to call for a global “war on terror” because that fails to identify the root cause of the terrorism: Islam itself.
Some of the “new atheists” such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have taken on Islam directly, indicating its vile and irrational nature.
In the west, a massive evasion about the nature of Islam is allowing it to fester. Radical Islam is taking over Europe. What allows it to do so is the political correctness of the west under the ideology of multiculturalism. This holds that no culture is any better or worse morally than another. So for instance a repressive regime such as Iran’s or Afghanistan’s is to be morally equated with that of England or the United States. This equates theocracy with constitutional republics recognizing individual rights; the repression of women under the burqa with a modern western woman able to work, be educated, speak freely, dress how she wishes, and date or marry whom she pleases. It equates cultures which recognize the rights of homosexuals with those which kill them outright.
Some like the leaders in Iran aim to convert the world by the sword. Yet there is a massive demographic trend across the world which may convert the west without the need of a war between nations. This video, How Islam is Taking Over the World, outlines how demographic trends (immigration rates and differences in birth rates) are rapidly changing Europe and America from within. Another video addresses the same issue.
Iran is not the only Islamic or terror threat to the US. Islamists from other nations pose a threat as well. Despite claims to the contrary there have been many terror attacks on American soil since 9/11. Some may be directed from Iran, some from other countries; some may be inspired by US-born Islamic leaders. What they have in common though is Islam.
It’s time to stop pussyfooting around and realize that Islam is evil. Islam is not in some unknown manner correlated with terrorism; Islam CAUSES terror. It endorses and sanctions it. Why? One reason is the Koran holds that committing jihad, and dying in battle against infidels is the ONLY way to GUARANTEE entrance to heaven. In Christianity and other religions, one can get to heaven simply through personal belief. Islam is NOT just another religion.
On the contrary, Islam is a system of life that encompasses a religious component, but also prescribes details across life – politics, diet, work, marriage, commerce. Under Islam there is no separation of church and state; the “church” is all.
My goal here is indicate that Iran and Islam are major threats to the west. I aim to provide an introduction and some basic facts, rather than a comprehensive analysis and policy solution. The links above provide much more resources and details. Other good resources include:
The Ayn Rand Institute has excellent videos, lectures, books, and op-eds by Yaron Brook, Elan Journo, and others.
AHA Institute run by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Bare Naked Islam (Note: Wordpress ordered this blog taken down, possible under pressure from CAIR. It is currently renamed "End Times Today.")
Other excellent authors include Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer.
So what should be done about Iran? The “peace process” and a series of negotiations and talks since 1979 have failed. Some argue that a policy of mutually assured destruction, which helped check Soviet power in the cold war, would work here. But that assumes all sides desire to live and care sufficiently to act rationally. I will not bet my life that Iran is a rational actor or desires to live – not when they explicitly claim they’d rather die than allow us to live; not when they openly embrace Islam and strive for a global caliphate; not when they believe in jihad.
After 9/11 Leonard Peikoff wrote an opinion piece calling for war with Iran. Perhaps that is now the only option.
Fans of Ron Paul should review this material and give serious thought to voting for him. His pretty good economic ideas are outweighed by terrible and dangerous foreign policy ones. Keep in mind that even if the economy improved the Islamic threat could accelerate rapidly. Iran could get a nuclear weapon. The “Arab Spring” – which has radicalized much of the Middle East and turned secular Libya and Egypt over to al-Qaeda associates and the Muslim Brotherhood, respectively – could continue to spread. The sooner Islam is dealt with the better. The longer we wait the harder it will be to handle, and the greater the chance of losing this war.
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