Iran Offers A “Punch in the Mouth” and a “Harsh Blow to Global Arrogance”
Threats of a “harsh blow to global arrogance, talk of enhanced nuclear enrichment, research rockets launched carrying snakes and turtles, a vow from a “spiritual leader” to “punch opposition in the mouth,” prisoner swap offers for innocent American tourists, development of radar-evading drone aircraft, open defiance of UN mandates, sentencing opposition leaders, and celebrating a “revolution” with a February 11th Surprise aimed at the US, Britain, and the “Zionists”… Pretty much a typical start to a month in Iran these days. But have no fear, Hillary Clinton is all over the American Hikers held in captivity story; Defense Secretary Robert Gates is talking more UN sanctions for threats of increased nuclear enrichment, the White House is hitting them hard on human rights violations by teaming with the EU and NATO to issue statements condemning the country’s actions in silencing its critics, and I have no doubt that the President is planning swift and deliberate action if said “surprise” comes in the form of an aggressive act by the Rogue nation…
For a nation that can boast only of its successes in duping this administration and making child’s play of evading any legitimate action by the United Nations, Iran sure knows how to steal some headlines. While I do not intend to make light of any of these stories or the inherent danger that “hides” rather openly behind them, I do wonder if the surge in Iran-related stories is precisely what these wackjobs have in mind. Iran, or perhaps more accurately Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatolla Al Khameni have made careers of using similar delay and confuse tactics. Its a simple, yet ingenious strategy if you really look at it objectively. Make news on a variety of “controversial” fronts so that none can receive the lion’s share of the attention. Time and time again, these brilliant madmen have carried out this rouse and arrived at the final destination – “the bargaining table” – in a position of power exponentially greater than is or should be warranted.
A tactic some might even say is at play here in the United States – bury us with so much legislation, spending, and government assumption of control that we lose sight of the bigger picture and rational voices get lost among fighting – or worse – begin to overlook all the little battles we have lost along the way because of the process… ? But I digress. Back to Iran…
Just pick any of these hot button topics, save for the open threats against the West and Israel which everyone seems to willfully be ignoring, and what do you have? A laundry list of diversionary tricks aimed at keeping us off balance while they carry out and carry on with their sinister and defiant plotting.
Take the terribly sad story of the American Hikers being held for “espionage.” What is their real crime and why haven’t they been released? Their real crime – foolishly vacationing on the doorsteps of third-world Hell and not bringing a GPS to keep them out of the fire. Their punishment – remaining in captivity for a seven months of their young lives while Iran places chicken with an administration swerving like its facing a Mack truck rather than a Toyota Prius.
A similarly timid position taken by this administration is what has brought us to this unfortunate stage in “negotiations” with this hostile nation in regards to nuclear enrichment. The Obama express rode into town on the promise of opening a dialog with these infidel assassins, and a dialog he did receive – one that in a year has succeeded only in weakening our position at the negotiation table if we ever really get there. The strange dichotomy of the dueling relationship between President Obama and Ahmadinejad is one that perplexes me daily. Obama supporters would love for us to believe that he is absolutely brilliant – cut from the finest cloth of reason and intellectualism. In the same breath they would like us to believe that this President has Ahmadinejad right where he wants him – exposed as a madman on the cusp of being ousted by his own people. The question that replays over and over in the humble mind between my ears is this… who is really the one being played here and who is the madman? The brilliant ideologue who thought engagement was the proper course for dealing with a “madman” or the madman who has engaged the brilliant Leader of the Free World and played him for a fool?
The other question that keeps me up at night – if in fact I ever added sleeping to my list of goals in any given day – is what is the real end game here? Is Iran’s main goal really acquiring a nuclear arsenal, or is that really just the long term fantasy? I am inclined to believe that Iran does in fact want a nuclear weapon, believes it has the right to one, and thinks it can make one; but… I cannot ignore the fact that even Iran must not really believe that we will let it have one regardless of how weak and apathetic it believes this President to be.
I am a firm believer in never underestimating one’s enemies. With that acknowledgment and the previous statement in mind, what is the true short term objective of all this rope-a-dope and bait-and-switch? The time table on developing a nuclear program is far too prohibitive for that to be the only end being served here, so I am forced to believe that there must be a much narrower focus that we seem to be missing. Issuing random threats to Israel and the West and holding hikers hostage only keeps us on our heels for a little while, but could hardly be the work of men hoping to buy time while they build ten new nuclear facilities and conduct the thousands of tests needed to put a viable delivery system into play. I do not ignore the threat that being able to now produce 20% enriched uranium poses, but I simply believe something bigger is truly at play here. I just can’t see these men having a ten-year plan. Even the greatest criminals the world has ever seen get tired of the running eventually and go for the big job at some point.
As I have stated here before, I am firmly of the mindset that the greatest threat posed by Iran comes in the form of “near nuclear” munitions or more conventional rocket warfare. I simply cannot believe that even a nation, as radicalized as Iran may be in terms of leadership, is foolish enough to open the doors to global Armageddon. They just want us to believe they will … and can. They may want the power that comes with having a nuclear arsenal but I believe their ambitions have a short term focus. I think their pursuit of a Middle East free of “Zionists” and Westerners far exceeds their genuine desire to acquire nuclear weapons for the purpose of actually using them.
My real fear is that while we are taking the Obama engagement path to pointless UN sanctions we are showing our hand and exposing the divided loyalties of the members of the Security Council. The current crisis – if you will – has demonstrated, if nothing else, that Russia and China are anything but willing partners to reeling in the budding threat to American interests in the region. There’s nothing like a little skirmish to test the forces that oppose you and see what they’re going to be willing to bring to battle. I believe we have emboldened Tehran through this process and shown them that any aggressive action taken to oppose them will be left fully to the cash-strapped overextended hands of US, British, and (maybe) German forces.
Daily threats to Israel are among the only constants emerging from Iran and two wars have depleted our resources dramatically. Now would be the opportune time to push the envelope and call the President to the mat while he is weakest. Ahmadinejad has cited the “Bush Doctrine” of Preemption repeatedly. Could he be planning to use the criticisms of the Bush administration against us – or against Israel? Criticisms offered, shared, and apologized for by this President?
April 16, 2008 - Photo by None/Getty Images Europe
I am not a prognosticator, and I would not for a minute want to presuppose a preemptive attack by Iran on Israel, nor would I want to begin to think of its potential consequences. I do not dismiss the Iranian nuclear threat. In fact, I believe we must work with a new sense of haste to oppose it – unilaterally if we must. That being said, even when viewed in a light most favorable to the rogue nation, I cannot allow myself to believe that the real and imminent threat that we face from Iran comes in the form of a nuclear weapon. A man with one nuclear weapon can trigger global demolition with one flip of a button and should be feared and “respected” accordingly, but the man with a thousand non-nuclear missiles and an army of madmen fundamentalists can easily embark on Israeli annihilation and should not be thought any less the threat.
Are you sure it wasn’t easier when we just didn’t talk to these people….???
Who’s the idiot now?
President Obama offers “new beginning” and “promise of a new day” in a message to Iran…
“The Islamic Revolution opened a window to liberty for the human race, which was trapped in the dead ends of materialism,” Ahmadinejad said during a cabinet meeting on Sunday.
“If the Islamic Revolution had not occurred, liberalism and Marxism would have crushed all human dignity in their power-seeking and money-grubbing claws. Nothing would have remained of human and spiritual principles,” he added.
Tehran: Iran’s supreme leader has vowed to deliver a “punch in the mouth” to the country’s enemies if the opposition goes ahead with new protests planned for this week, as a senior pro-reform figure was sentenced to six years in prison over post-election unrest.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced the opposition as “counter-revolutionaries” being used by the country’s enemies, the United States, Britain and Israel, and vowed that Iranian unity in support of the Islamic revolution would defeat them.
Reformist former president Mohammad Khatami urged people to attend rallies.
Opposition leaders Mir Hussain Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi had earlier called on their supporters to attend the events on Thursday, raising the prospect of new clashes with the security forces.
Via Gateway Pundit… Via Iranian Fars News
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei stressed that the Zionist regime is moving on a precipice towards demise and it will soon experience annihilation.
“I am very optimistic about the future of Palestine and believe that Israel is moving on the precipice of wane and demise, and God willing its annihilation is for sure,”Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement Ramadan Abdullah Shallah here in Tehran.
He also called the Zionist regime’s inability to dominate Gaza a miracle, and added, “Despite all its financial and political aids and after laying siege (on Gaza) for more than two years, the Zionist regime could not defeat the resistance of Palestinian people.”
Elsewhere, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the attempts made by certain Arab governments to help the Zionist regime, and said these attempts are certainly doomed to failure as the Muslim nations always support the Palestinian cause.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had already announced Sunday that his country would significantly enrich at least some of the country’s stockpile of uranium. Still, Monday’s notification to the IAEA was important as formal confirmation of the plan, particularly because of the rash of conflicting signals sent in recent months by Iranian officials on the issue.Even before Iran’s formal notification of the IAEA, some of those nations criticized the plan and suggested it would be met by increased pressure for new penalties on the Islamic Republic.
Iran has defied five U.N. Security Council resolutions — and three sets of U.N. sanctions — aimed at pressuring it to freeze enrichment, and has instead steadily expanded its program.
I love this post. I think I might have been caught up in the “rope a dope” you talked about. I think you make some very valid points. I too fear the rise of the Islamic regime there but I dont see them scientifically having the ability to develop a nuke. If they did I think he would destroy it. I am with you. I worry more about Israel.
Thank you Katherine. I do hope I am wrong on this one – not that I am hoping they have genuine nuclear intentions either – but I do hope I am wrong about their desire to preemptively attack Israel.
IMO they plan to set off a nuclear bomb in an atmospheric test on Feb. 11.
Boy wouldnt that kick our NASA cuts and our plans to use sanctions to stop Iranian nuclear proliferation square in the nuts. Interesting hypothesis. I pray you’re wrong, but there is a part of me that thinks they may have acquired one from a former Soviet block nation – albeit conspiracy far-fetched theory or whatever. Lets hope your prediction and my gut are both wrong.
You really think George W. Bush and Ahmadinejad are smarter than President Obama? This is an all time low even for you. The Axis of Evil led to the Bush Doctrine of Preemption that will now lead us to war with Iran if they choose to call upon it.
Blah, Blah, Blah “all time low even for you” – wow that’s high praise coming from you Hadley. I think I remember you from a few weeks ago and if I my memory serves me correctly you didn’t like me much then either.
As to the respective intelligence of these three men I will leave that to far better men than I.
As to “preemption” and President Bush making it justified for wackjobs like Ahmadinejad… I was simply stating that it will be hard for the new President to backtrack from his Bush backing I opposed the Iraq War position IFF Iran chooses to rely upon it for “legitimacy” – if you can call it that for attacking Israel. I certainly believe both claims are unwarranted but will undoubtedly be used all the same.
I dont care to comment on the previous comment but I will say that this is an interesting post. I enjoyed reading your mix of humor and analysis.
I appreciate the comment. I don’t find myself to be particularly funny but I have found that people think me funny when I am trying to be completely serious – go figure. I think this may be a budding problem.
“I don’t find myself to be particularly funny but I have found that people think me funny when I am trying to be completely serious”
Heh. Think of it as a gift T.
gift, curse??? We can go with your choice for now.
[...] delivered a speech to the Iranian people today at a celebration of the 31st Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution boasting of its recent nuclear achievements and offering criticisms of the United States and its [...]