Posted on 07/16/2006 7:55:45 AM PDT by A. Pole
Opening a security conference in Tehran on July 8, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad exhorted the Islamic world to mobilize against Israel and "remove the Zionist regime." People in the region are growing furious, he said. "It will not be long before this intense fury will lead to a huge explosion."
Four days later, Hezbollah terrorists staged a raid across Israel's northern border, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing eight more. Over the next day, more than 120 rockets rained down across northern Israel.
[...]
Twenty-seven years ago was 1979, the year that Islamist radicals loyal to the Ayatollah Khomeini invaded the US embassy in Tehran and held dozens of American diplomats hostage for the next 444 days. Washington's response was weak and feckless, as it would be time and again in the years that followed. Only after 9/11 did the United States finally acknowledge that it was in a war with militant Islam and began fighting back in earnest. But not against Iran, which continues, unscathed and unrepentant, to stoke the terrorist fires. [...]
We will never win this war, Ledeen and others argue, until the Iranian theocracy is brought down. That does not have to mean military action. Our aim instead should be to empower Iran's restive population, which is largely pro-Western and moderate. Give them as much support as possible, much as the Reagan administration did for Lech Walesa and Solidarity in Poland -- and let them find the means to reclaim their government for themselves.
Israel may be able to inflict a punishing defeat on Hezbollah, but regime change in Tehran will require American resolve. Will we muster that resolve before the mullahs get the bomb?
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
The only "huge explosion" should be a nuclear one in the middle of Tehran.
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Go bomb Ira-a-an... we'll take their la-a-and.
Go bomb Ira-a-an...
Because the drop in all my polling
Has my party reeling; bomb Iran!
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Iran's leader rants, giving me my chance.
Gonna bomb Iran, and overrule those smarty-pants;
We'll bomb Iran,
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Because the drop in all my polling
Has my party reeling; bomb Iran!
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Me and my crew... here's what we will do...
War to pursue... Iran's oil, or I'm through;
Let's bomb Iran,
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Because the drop in all my polling
Has my party reeling; bomb Iran!
Bomb, bomb, bomb... bomb, bomb Iran!
Bomb Iran, bomb Iran!
Bomb Iran, bomb Iran!
Bomb Iran, bomb Iran!
Bomb Iran, bomb Iran!
There is one key error Jeff Jacoby view (shared by many). The Solidarity was a popular movement against the regime imposed from outside. So was the Islamic Revolution against shah dictatorship (BTW both movements took place at similar time). Shah acquired dictatorial powers in 1953 through the coup against secular government of Mossadeq, thanks to the foreign support.
The present Iranian regime does have real social base in Iran and does not need to rely on foreign sponsors.
Sorry, but we can no longer wait for iran's "restive population" to risk its neck to bring down the theocracy. Anymore than we could expect Germany's Christians to bring down the nazi regime.
It's clobbering time.
whole entire whole = whole entire WORLD
sooner or later Israel will send a nuke to Iran
It's bascially now or never. Once they get the bomb, the suprmeme, arrogant meglamania madness then that will occurr, will make what they do and say now look rational.
And who exactly was President at the time this occurred? (Hint: He recently endorsed the election of a communist dictator in Venezuela, and is publicly going about attempting to undermine the United States )
You can send ten nukes to Iran and that country will be almost intact. Iran has size of California, Texas and New York state put together, 80 times larger than Israel.
"Israel may be able to inflict a punishing defeat on Hezbollah, but regime change in Tehran will require American resolve."
What resolve? Far too many Americans lack the spine to carry on with the current war.
"Or did the rabid president of the evil regime that bankrolls Hezbollah with an estimated $200 million a year know what was coming?"
Of course he did.
Jacoby is right.
Regime change is what we and the EU and other democratic countries should all be putting their efforts into. We want Iran to end up as an ally, not an enemy under another dictator.
No US president would send US army to put down the popular uprising in a country of 636,000 sq miles, populous, covered with high mountains and located thousands of miles away.
Remember that Ronald Reagan himself ordered US troops to be pulled out from tiny Lebanon.
it's for the psychological value of it.
Yes, but its government and military will not be. We won't be nuking sand my friend.
And what "the psychological value of it" would be? Giving a temporary satisfaction to the armchair warriors?
Boiling Down Iran? Yeah, that could work!
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