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November 21, 2008
Exclusive: Iran Goes Nuclear
The day has come, as we all knew it would: the International Atomic Energy Agency has announced that Iran has produced enough fissile material to create a nuclear bomb. It’s now just a question of enriching that material further to make it weapons-grade, manufacturing the technology, and fixing it to a missile.
The ramifications of Iran’s entry to the family of nuclear nations are disastrous. Iran has ties to virtually all major terrorist groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda. Handing off a nuclear weapon to one of those groups for use against the U.S. or its allies would be child’s play. Even if the U.S. then determined that such a bomb had come from Iran, Iran could use further nuclear weapons to thwart any retaliatory response – it could threaten to nuke Israel, for example, if the U.S. threatened it with military action after the destruction of a major US city.
The same holds true for the U.S.’ allies, of course. Iran will use its nuclear weaponry to threaten the tenuous Iraqi democracy; Israel’s security; Turkey’s anti-Islamist military; and Saudi oil interests. Saudi Arabia in particular will seek to go nuclear as soon as possible to create a mutually assured destruction scenario. The only problem is that bombs in the hands of the Saudis is not a reassuring thought, considering that they too have terrorist connections from the royal family to the Wahhabi population.
Where do we go from here?
Or rather: which Obama will show up?
President-elect Obama insists that we hold direct talks with the Iranians, and hopes that his soothing words will cause the mullahs to rethink their program. Such a meeting will devolve into a North Korea-like scenario, with the U.S. promising certain benefits to Iran in return for assurances that it will not go nuclear, only to find out later that Iran has gone nuclear and kept the benefits.
Obama has also pledged to cut “unproven” missile defense systems, which would leave the U.S. and its allies vulnerable to Iranian missile attack. As stated above, such attack will not be the first step in an Iranian intimidation program – a terrorist bomb will be. The next step, however, will be for Iran to avoid retaliation by pointing to its nuclear missiles. If there is no missile defense available, such threats take on serious magnitude.
But Obama has also stated that he wants to increase the size of the military, adding 65,000 more troops to the Army and 27,000 more to the Marines. He has stated that “no president should ever hesitate to use force – unilaterally if necessary," that we must " protect ourselves . . . when we are attacked," and that we must protect "our vital interests" when they are "imminently threatened."
If the pacifist Obama shows up, Iran will go nuclear, and the world will become an even more dangerous place. If the realist Obama shows up, we may have a shot at preventing the Iranian nuclear program. But the choice must be made now. Will we stand up to Iran, or will we hope that a country chock full of suicide bombing ideology will act reasonably and rationally?
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School. He is also the author of the recently published Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House, as well as national bestsellers Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future and Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.
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