According to Iran’s president “the time for world empires has ended,” unless of course its an Islamic empire. President Ahmadinejad used the occasion of his UN address (and a subsequent interview with NBC) to deride the US and its president as a nation stuck in a cold war mentality determined to bully other nations.
Ahmadinejad even went so far as to accuse the US of encouraging instability in Iraq as a pretext to maintain its military presence in that nation, for what end it is unclear, but Ahmadinejad is shrewd enough to know how to play to a friendly audience (ie, the UN General Assembly). Iran’s President like so many Mussolini-esque tyrants (including Hugo Chavez) uses the US as a convenient target to castigate in order to distract from the true threat, the threat of radical Islamists and their unrelenting desire to dominate the globe. By Ahmadinejad’s own admission he seeks to establish an Islamic empire yet such threats are ignored, while the US is painted as a villain.
Meanwhile the US continues to play into the hands of such tyrants be it in Iraq or with regard to the Iranian nuclear issue. There can be no doubt that nothing will come of the sanctions debate. The EU3, China and Russia haven’t the resolve to follow through with a sanctions regime and even if they did, sanctions have never succeeded in the annals of human history. As long as the debate over punishing Iran continues the more popular and emboldened Ahmadinejad becomes.
While there is no question Iran is developing nuclear weapons, an argument can be made that a country has the inherent right as a sovereign nation to develop an indigenous weapons capability. Perhaps Iran isn’t a threat to the US, and then again perhaps it is. What the Iranians must understand, beyond any realm of doubt, is the inescapable fact that any attack, or any radicals found in possession of nuclear weapons or even the hint of nuclear proliferation will be met with a full retaliatory response. The Iranians must know and believe that a war with the US cannot result in the creation of an Islamic empire. Indeed a war with the US will result in the complete and total annihilation of all that which they hold dear (perhaps even Islam itself) and this is the fundamental principle of deterrence.
According to Ahmadinejad the US is stuck in a cold war mentality. If only this were true, then perhaps America’s enemies would not doubt our resolve. Today that resolve is in doubt as factional internal politics and flawed foreign policy dominate the US mindset.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14911603/
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/09/19/D8K88IC00.html
