There is little doubt that the Islamic Republic of Iran is building nuclear weapons within its borders. Even the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency has finally publicly acknowledged the same concern that most intelligence experts have stated for years. And it has been reported that North Korean scientists are onsite assisting with the efforts.
With lunatic Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly threatening to wipe the State of Israel off of our planet at his earliest opportunity, the world has to be concerned that Ahmadinejad will actually launch such nuclear weapons at Israel. Or others fear he will use the weapons to blackmail the world into looking the other way while he more prominently and overtly meddles in the affairs of other Arab nations.
Some like Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul have no fear of a nuclear Iran because he believes Iran has as much right to nuclear weapons as other countries in the world. Unfortunately Representative Paul is not alone in his thinking. There are other notable politicians worldwide who share his views.
President Obama has been more of an ostrich than a hawk in dealing with Iran as he continues to rattle his mouth about what he might do instead of actually doing something. You will recall that Obama sat back when the first “Arab Spring” took place in Iran early in his Presidency instead of giving public support to those Iranian youths whose goal was a more democratic Iran. Since then Obama has continued to flap his gums while Iran continues to perfect its weapon design.
Thankfully the State of Israel has not taken its eye off of the ball and has been quietly considering its alternatives to rid the world of the threat of Iranian nuclear weapons. That is until dissident members of its own leadership leaked word of such plans. Amazingly it has been reported that the former head of Israel’s intelligence agency was among the leakers.
So with the United Nation’s recent acknowledgement of Iran’s nuclear intentions and Israel’s plans to act on its own if necessary to protect its country, what should America and the world do now?
In my opinion this Iranian situation is not unlike the Syrian challenge in 2007 when the world feared that Assad was perfecting plans to build nuclear weapons which caused much unrest in the rest of the Arab world and in Israel.
According to former President George W. Bush, after he had received intelligence that Syria had secretly built a reactor with North Korean help, Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked Bush to bomb the compound. Bush told Olmert that the US had low confidence that the nuclear reactor was capable of producing weapons grade plutonium and preferred to publicly urge Syria to dismantle it. So Israel took out the facility by itself without asking for a green light from Bush. It has since been learned that most Arab leaders were privately thankful for that action to neutralize Syria from having nuclear weapons to attack its enemies.
You may also recall that Israel took out the Osiris nuclear facility in Iraq in 1981 being built with help from our French friends. The world reacted in horror that Israel would go after Sadaam Hussein’s peaceful nuclear energy program since he claimed it would be used for energy production rather than relying on his country’s billions of gallons of oil. Thankfully he did not have those weapons when he invaded neighboring Kuwait years later.
Flash forward to the Iranian situation. It has been reported that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently flew to Israel to ostensibly talk about the Palestinian peace process but actually went to discuss Iran. It was reported that Panetta wanted advance notice of any Israeli military action against Iran and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him no.
Once again the world is warning Israel not to attack another dangerous nuclear weapons plant. And once again it appears Israel is preparing to defend itself. Certainly Iran has a more powerful army than did Syria or Iraq at the time of the Israeli attacks. But if the United States, its NATO Allies, or the other Arab nations will not step up to the plate before it is too late with other than the usual diplomatic or economic threats, then the future of our world depends on Israel.
The hourglass is running out of sand and hopefully President Obama will succeed in getting the world community behind such efforts. Unfortunately, I do not think he has it in him.
