The Iranian Threat

The U.S. victory over Iraq is only a partial victory. The neighboring country of Iran remains active in the region, determined to support terrorism while acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Iran's hostile intentions are sadly apparent. Last Monday Iran seized three British patrol boats near Iraq's Shatt al Arab waterway. In a fit of ill temper, the Iranian government stated its intention to prosecute the captured British crewmen. This provocative action was preceded by anti-British demonstrations in Tehran. One of the country's Friday rituals has included the summoning of government-sponsored mobs to pelt the British Embassy with rocks.

According to various Middle East sources Iran has deployed four divisions, along with missiles, near the Iraq border. At the same time, the suicide battalions of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are swelling with new recruits. IRCG officials privately acknowledge that their first target is the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Feeling its power on the rise with the prospect of President Bush's defeat in November, Tehran now openly bristles in its dealings with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is puzzled by Iran's nuclear program. The international community does not want the radical Islamic regime to become a nuclear power. Meanwhile, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has deceptively put forward the idea that Iran doesn't want to become a nuclear power. "Iran does not need nuclear bombs," said Khamenei before a group of university officials. "Without nuclear bombs Iran has managed to defeat its national enemies in the past, including the United States."

As for Iran's nuclear program, Khamenei says it is purely for generating electricity. And what of Iran's stupendous gas and oil reserves? "The enemies of the nation are looking for the day when Iranian oil reserves will be depleted and the nation will stretch its hands to them for help," explained Khamenei. "This is unacceptable."

Khamenei's statement is a bizarre mixture of paranoia and cunning. Iran's nuclear ambitions are obvious to experienced political observers. Earlier this month Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said: "Iran has a high technical capability and has to be recognized by the international community as a member of the nuclear club. This path is irreversible." Although Kharrazi gives lip service to the notion that Iran's nuclear program is about electricity, the idea of membership in the "nuclear club" has an altogether different meaning, and everyone understands this. Thanks to Russian assistance, Tehran is able to enrich uranium and build centrifuges. According to Kharrazi, Iran will not give up its nuclear program. As the motherland of Islamic terrorism, Iran is determined to become a nuclear power. President Bush has warned Iran and North Korea that their nuclear programs are unacceptable. But Iran is willing to risk an American preemptive strike against its main military centers. It is willing to risk invasion by neighboring American forces.

Iran's determination to defy America is irrational. As Foreign Minister Kharrazi hinted, it is not a matter of sound national policy that Iran wants to develop nuclear power. "No one in Iran can make a decision to deny the nation something that is a source of pride," he said. Here we come face to face with pathological national feelings. The rational mind of the statesman sees that he is courting disaster. The irrational heart of the statesman perversely embraces this disaster. Kharrazi knows what happened to Saddam Hussein; but madness cannot govern itself. As Gustave Le Bon once pointed out, "Reason has in general as little hold on [emotional beliefs] as on hunger or thirst." The dogmas of the Iranian clerics are emotional imperatives in religious guise. Le Bon stated the problem in the following way: "down through the ages, feelings - the real foundation of the soul - maintain their fixity. Intelligence progresses, feelings do not change."

And so the Iranian clerics, rather than reversing course in the face of American warnings, are proudly defiant. Their dogmas may be fictions, their rationales may be full of lies and evasions, but their feelings are fixed and their course is a collision course. They are determined to have nuclear weapons. At Iran's Center for Doctrinal Studies, Director Hassan Abbasi recently said, "We will burn the roots of the Anglo-Saxon race. We have made plans for America's Achilles' heel, and we will present these to all the guerrilla organizations in the world." He also stated: "Our missiles are now ready to hit their civilization. As soon as we receive the orders from the leader, we will launch the missiles toward their cities and installations."

It is of more than passing interest that Iran has been secretly developing a long-range delivery system for nuclear warheads. On June 9 a French newspaper (Liberation) revealed that Iran's space program, which proposes to launch the first Muslim satellite, is "camouflage permitting the manufacture of long-range missiles for military purposes." Iran already deploys a medium-range missile called the Shahab-3. In a recent military parade a Shahab-3 missile was seen carrying a banner that read: "Israel will be wiped from the map."

The Iranian leaders will not modify their position. If effective diplomatic or military pressure were applied against them, they would simply pretend to comply with the wishes of the international community. Quite obviously, Iran is the most dangerous country in the Middle East. Democracy in Iraq is vulnerable to subversion by the radical Islamists who govern Iran. The elimination of the Iranian regime is therefore necessary if President Bush's policy is to succeed in Iraq.

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