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Posted on 06/20/2025 8:41:40 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
In attacking numerous military targets in Iran on June 13, 2025 as part of its Operation Rising Lion, Israel made good on a 1981 policy announced by then Prime Minister Menachem Begin:
‘We shall defend our people with all the means at our disposal. We will not allow any enemy to obtain weapons of mass destruction that can be turned against us.’
While we hear international criticism of Israel for the attack, long forgotten is that Tehran’s mullahs actually recognized this same need a year before the Israelis announced their doctrine.
By 1976, Saddam Hussein had become the de facto leader of Iraq, officially becoming president in 1979. Both Iran and Iraq had majority Shiite populations—but the regimes were not friendly as Hussein was Sunni.
Iraq purchased a nuclear reactor in 1976, known as the Osirak reactor, after entering into a nuclear cooperation agreement with France. Situated just eleven miles southeast of Baghdad, the reactor was supposedly for research only. However, it raised concerns about Iraq eventually developing nuclear weapons—a source of concern for both Iran and Israel.
Iran attempted to eliminate that threat in September 1980—eight days after Hussein invaded the country. Its air attack against Osirak, unfortunately for the mullahs, only caused minimal damage and was easily repaired with French assistance.
No international criticism of Iran’s attempt to hit the Osirak reactor followed, undoubtedly because a state of war existed between the two countries. A year later, however, in 1981, Israel conducted its own attack against Osirak, destroying the facility and leading to the declaration of the Begin Doctrine. Hussein never attempted to rebuild it.
Israel’s attack against the Osirak reactor received widespread international criticism, including the UN Security Council and General Assembly with the media providing negative coverage as well. Even conservative diehards like England’s Prime Minister Margaret...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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Amen
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