Some of the post GOP debate engagement, across social media, has been about Republican candidate Ron Paul’s dismissiveness to the threat of a nuclear Iran. And the debate has been lively.
The need to stop policing the world, a desire to avoid wars like that in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a consensus similar to Rep Paul’s, that Iran is not the threat the war-mongring neo-con’s make it out to be, all rise to the surface of the debate. But while it is reasonable to argue these points, does it make sense to use them as an excuse to keep our head in the sand about Iran for another four years while the suicidal madmen build nuclear weapons?
Iran is the undisputed hub of global terror. They have been killing Americans for 30 years, directly or though proxies, and regardless of the party in power, we have been reluctant to do anything about it. But the facts are not foggy about Iran’s intentions. They mean to have nuclear weapons, and they have promised to use them to destroy our allies. We have no reason to believe they would not seek a way to use them on us, with whom they have been at war for three decades, and whom they have also promised to destroy.
And should it matter that Iran appears to have had a hand in helping 9/11 terrorists months before the attacks?
Terrorism expert and investigative journalist Erick Staklebeck, a past guest and friend of GraniteGrok, (interview here and here) discusses the latest news about Iran’s connection to global terror and 9/11.
Using Iraq and Afghanistan as reasons to ignore Iran are understandable. War weariness is a feature of western democracies. Engaging in drawn out police actions is not something we should have done, nor should we continue to do it. But we cannot change that anymore than we can ignore a real threat. We cannot allow previous mistakes to prohibit us from admitting that as much as we would like to avoid future conflict, that the promise of the threat, combined with the tools to kill millions in one attack, demand our serious attention.
We don’t need to be the worlds policeman, but this is not about protecting the world. It is about protecting Americans from a country that has been at war with us for decades. Just because we have pretended not to notice, does not mean we should ignore their intentions, and the risk nuclear weapons presents to our nation.
