How
I would check Iran’s nuclear ambition
By Mitt Romney, Published: March 5
“Beginning Nov. 4, 1979 , dozens of U.S. diplomats were held hostage by Iranian
Islamic revolutionaries for 444 days while America’s feckless president, Jimmy Carter, fretted in
the White House. Running for the presidency against Carter the next year,
Ronald Reagan made it crystal clear that the Iranians would pay a very stiff
price for continuing their criminal behavior. On Jan. 20, 1981, in the hour that Reagan was sworn into office, Iran released
the hostages. The Iranians well understood that Reagan was serious about
turning words into action in a way that Jimmy Carter never was
“America
and the world face a strikingly similar situation today; only even more is at
stake. The same Islamic fanatics who took our diplomats hostage are racing to
build a nuclear bomb. Barack Obama,
America’s most feckless president since Carter, has declared such an outcome
unacceptable, but his rhetoric has
not been matched by an effective policy. While Obama frets in the White House,
the Iranians are making rapid progress toward obtaining the most destructive
weapons in the history of the world…
…”My plan includes restoring the regular presence of
aircraft carrier groups in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf
region simultaneously. It also includes increasing military assistance to
Israel and improved coordination with all of our allies in the area.
“We can’t afford to wait much
longer, and we certainly can’t afford to wait through four more years of an
Obama administration. By then it will be far too late. If the Iranians are
permitted to get the bomb, the consequences will be as uncontrollable as they
are horrendous. My foreign policy plan to avert this catastrophe is plain:
Either the ayatollahs will get the message, or they will learn some very
painful lessons about the meaning of American resolve.”
Cassi Creek:
This little
day dream of Romney brings up one of my favorite examples of GOP\teavangelist
self-deception. What Romney overlooks is
that the Iranians hated Carter for his decision to provide political and
medical asylum rather than leave him to the tender mercies of the
ayatollahs. They would have held our citizens
hostage forever to avenge that insult. Coincidentally
with that factor, Reagan had initiated an arms for hostages deal via back
channels to have the hostages freed as he took office. Further information may be found by following
the “October Surprise” and “Iran – Contra” search strings. Principle players in the October surprise were
General William Casey and former POTUS GWH Bush. Before this was finally brought to investigation,
Casey developed terminal brain cancer and Reagan became obviously mentally
impaired.
The myth that
Iran feared Reagan is just that, a myth.
Romney is
trying to promise another Reagan administration with himself in the title
role.
This nation
can’t afford another arms and troops build up such as took place in the
1980s. The Soviet Union is no more and
there will not be another potential invasion of Europe or battle of ballistic missiles
such as were postulated during the final years of the Cold War.
No one wants
an Iranian regime armed with nuclear weapons.
That is, no one but Iran wants such a regime. There are, it must be noted, other nations
that have little or no objection to a nuclear arsenal controlled by Iran’s
Mullahs or revolutionary guards. Those nations
are quite content to let the dance for power between nations play out inside
the borders of other nations. They can
envision a U.S. disabled to some extent by Iranian actions. They might also be willing to ally with Iran
While Israel
may be able to cripple some of the Iranian nuclear facilities, it would
require, essentially, a large suicide mission, costly in men and aircraft. Such a strike would also generate massive
retaliation by Iran and further incursions by Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Hamas and
Hezbollah. Such a raid by Israel would
not be a repeat of the Osirak raid or the Syrian strike.
Even attacks
by the U.S. would most likely only delay the Iranian program. And it must be noted that only the right wing
nuts want to start another war with an Islamic nation controlled by
fundamentalists.
We can’t
sustain another ground war in Iran and we can’t afford the cost of trying to
bomb their program and facilities into glowing dust. Nor, do we wish to be responsible for the
dispersal of radioactive debris that would certainly follow bombing raids on
nuclear facilities.
Our warmongers
should also recall that Iran produces sufficient revenues from oil to buy
nuclear warheads’; and that Pakistan and North Korea are cash poor enough to be
willing to sell ordnance to Iran.
Neither North Korea nor Pakistan has any lost love for the U.S.
The religious
right, the teavangelists, GOP right-wing nuts, and other chicken hawks have all
been shouting about their anticipated bravery in office. They’ve been comparing Obama’s plans of
actions to those of Jimmy Carter while beating their own chests like actors in
a bad post-apocalyptic movie.
The truth is
that none of the candidates was brave enough to put on the nation’s uniform and
risk their own lily-white asses in a shooting war. While Obama has been busy taking out Islamic
terrorists by use of drones and in the termination of bin Laden in Pakistan;
the current crop of candidates has be cowering at the thought of having to
censure that ultimate REMF, Limbaugh.
March on,
brave candidates. None of you has the
balls to risk your fortunes or your lobbyist-paid lifestyles in the wars you
helped start or the war you want to start next.
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