Jan 25 2012
Iran must not get nuclear weapons
The photo above is a picture of my worst fear coming true. In 1983, ABC aired a made for TV movie called “The Day After”. The movie depicted a scenario in which nuclear war had broken out between the United States and the Soviet Union. I was 13 years old then. The movie gave me nightmares for weeks after watching it. Almost thirty years after watching that movie, I have never been able to watch it a second time. The movie helped fuel President Reagan’s policies for nuclear arms reductions, and it helped bring home the consequences of nuclear war. No matter who “wins”, we all lose. Nuclear war means the total destruction of not just our cities, the lives of millions of people (possibly billions), but also our culture, and our freedom. Even though the Soviet Union is no more, replaced by a less hostile regime, the threat of nuclear war still exists. This time, it comes from radical Islamic countries like Iran. These regimes care nothing about their own destruction. All they care about is destroying their enemy. While the Soviets could be counted on to at least be concerned about their own lives, the Islamists are not. This makes them a much more dangerous threat.
The September 11 attacks brought back my nightmares of nuclear war. When a country like Iran who is known to be a sponsor of terrorism gets nuclear weapons, the September 11 terrorist attacks become almost trivial. Instead of thousands dying, millions can die in a matter of seconds. Those who don’t die in the initial blast will die in a matter of days from burned flesh and radiation sickness. Just one nuclear bomb used in an attack will disrupt the entire world community. Economies will collapse. National governments will be in disarray, and chaos will rule. Nuclear weapons change all the rules. Iran can easily go from a mere nuisance to a world power that could capture the entire Middle East, and totally annihilate Israel. With this in mind, why has President Obama not done anything about it?
No matter where threats exist, they affect US national security. The President of the United States is sworn to protect and defend this nation from all threats both foreign and domestic. This is his primary responsibility as president. While economic sanctions can have a strong effect on nations who have a desire to get along with other nations, they are useless with rogue nations like Iran. The US has imposed sanctions on Iran for many years, yet there has been no change in their behavior, or their quest to build nuclear weapons. It would be unfair to completely blame our inaction on President Obama. President George W. Bush was also very much aware of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and even warned that nuclear proliferation in the Middle East would be a grave threat to the US and its allies. The difference now is that there has been a rapid increase in Islamic radicalism over the last 3 years. The situation is now more urgent than ever. As we head into this election year, I fear that Obama will avoid addressing the Iranian problem in order to stay popular with his political base. Launching an attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities would certainly cause him to lose support. It’s sickening that an American president would put his own political safety in front of national defense.
Here are my ideas on how to end this crisis with Iran… First, take out their nuclear facilities. That’s a no-brainer. If we don’t do it soon, Israel will. If Israel takes action, the US should immediately support them. Second, unleash our own oil reserves here at home. We cannot afford to have our energy supply disrupted by fanatical Islamic terrorist states on a warpath. Next, we need to begin modernizing our military again, instead of drawing it down. While we may not need large armies, we need to advance our technology. President Reagan started a modernization program that helped us win the Cold War, and defeat Iraq twice. We need to modernize so that we can deal with the new threats that have emerged. In addition, we need to step up our intelligence activities, and stop interfering with the men and women in the field who are working covertly to keep this country safe. Will President Obama take these suggestions? No. He won’t. We can only hope that he will be defeated in November, and be replaced by a president who understands the threats we face, and take action.
