Why It Has to Be Done, and How
The day Iran has usable nuclear weapons is the day the Global Terror War actually begins. With the threat of a mushroom cloud going off in the night an even more paralyzed West will be powerless to fend off the low velocity warfare of terrorism. If you thought 9/11, Madrid, London, Bali, Kenya, USS Cole, Morocco, India, Lebanon and not the least, Israel was mere child's play you'd be right.
The center of terror is Tehran. Hizzbolah, Hamas the PLO and even alQaeda in some way or another are offspring of the 1979 Iranian revolution. The Wahabbists in Saudi Arabia and their own agents in Pakistan and Sudan would be impotent if it hadn't been for the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979. (Thanks Jimmy).
So what can we do? The exact wrong thing would be for the U.S. to go in there with both guns a blazing. Even in the face of Ahmadinejad's plea (or the Ayatollah's, take your pick) for us to lob a few bombs his way we should resist. Ahmadinejad is like Braer Rabbit just daring us to throw him into the brier patch. Nothing would shore up his support at home like a little Iranian patriotism.
According to Reza Pahlavi, son of the disposed Shah and Heir to the Throne of Iran, discontent in Iran is very, very high. He says:
"the greatest ally of the Free World in the Muslim World: the people of Iran. Three Iranian social groups, the women, youth and ethnic groups, as well as four professional and working groups, educators, lawyers, journalists and industrial labor, have been at the forefront of protests against and defiance of the Islamic Republic. Two of the top three Iranian cities, Tabriz and Mashhad, as well as other major cities, such as Sanandaj, have been out of government control, for days at a time. The principal reason why the vast majority of Iranians who want to reclaim peace and prosperity have not succeeded against the Islamic Republic is because they are prevented from communicating – with each other, and with the free world."
We have heard this or anecdotes just like this for years, we heard the same from the Iraqi ex patriots about Saddam's regime too. One would like to think the Americans and the Europeans are working quietly in the background as we speak to aid these groups, but I doubt it.
It's hard to know what the Bush administration is doing about Iran, I don't think they even know. I have heard lip service about supporting the disaffected youth inside Iran, but is that all it is - just lip service?
There has been an effort to force American companies to cease doing business with the Iranian regime. Democrat Frank Lautenberg (NJ) should be commended for his efforts here. Under current law, U.S. firms are not allowed to do business with nations deemed by the United States to sponsor terrorism. But the law does not specifically bar foreign subsidiaries from such business. Due to pressure by Lautenberg - GE, Halliburton and Conoco-Phillips have ended their deals. While insisting they did nothing illegal they have declared they would enter no more arrangements until Iran ceases to be a terror sponsoring nation.
Still, it does no good if the rest of the world continues to put the almighty buck ahead of security and morality. What Iran does is immoral, terrorism is immoral. Cuba has survived decades due to the inability of the West to collectively cut off Castro. There was Iraq, of course, where the economic sanctions leaked like a sieve. Sanctions and condemnation need to be complete to work. Still the EU and Congressional Democrats cling to the notion that Iran can be contained... Pahlavi continues:
As one witness after another comforts Congressional leaders that the Islamic Republic
can be deterred, I do not hear the riposte that even their best scenario means unshackling terrorism, let alone their worst! Nor does the (Bush) administration seem to be able to lead Congress away from such harmful and deceptive advice, because it is ill equipped to deal with unconventional states.
You don't say!
Unless the West and Russia and China insist by economically isolating this regime while diplomatically shunning it inside places like the UN (which means not clapping when Ahmadinejad scolds our President), then Iran will continue to defy all norms of accepted behavior.
We, as ordinary citizens, can and should insist that our public institutions and the companies we do business with divest totally from Iran until such time as they are de-listed as terror sponsors. American companies and many institutions have or are in the process doing just that. Not so in Europe. Here are the top companies doing business directly with the regime in Tehran. You might want to think twice before investing or buying from these companies.
Alcatel SA
BNP Paribas
ENI SPA
Hyundai
Lundin Petroleum
Oil & Natural Gas Corp.
PetroChina
Siemens AG
Statoil ASA
Stolt Nielsen
Technip Coflexip
Total SA
Alcatel is now Alcatel/Lucent. Hyundai is a household name here as is Total but the rest you may not had heard of - but I can almost guarantee you've used their products. Educate yourself and take a pause before buying.
CW
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