Geoff Metcalf
Monday, March 28, 2005

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  The mullahs in Tehran are treacherous, duplicitous, deceitful, disingenuous, lying madmen. The Iranian Shiite theocracy is the personification of the once-upon-a-time fears about Saddam Hussein. Iran is a very, very real and imminent threat not just to our national security but also to world stability and (forget about peace) even modest stability.

The United States is in the unenviable and untenable position of having to be both lucky AND good 100 percent of the time in thwarting attack. Any ‘bad guys', be they terrorists or rogue nations, only have to get ‘lucky' ONCE to realize results that would be epically catastrophic.

Iran wants nukes like breath. It doesn't want them to posture or to boast ... it wants them so it can USE them. "Death to America"/"Death to Israel" is not a mere campaign slogan. It is the stated goal and objective of the Mad Mullahs in gold glasses and silk robes. If – or when – Iran gets nukes, it WILL use them.

American politicians (like John Kerry) who suggest actually selling nuclear material to Iran are beyond myopic ... they are criminally malfeasant. God forbid a nuclear incident is suffered in the continental United States, the 21st century Neville Chamberlains should be indicted (at least) and damned (literally and figuratively).

Iran is a study in contrasts. The ruling theocracy is unreasonable, draconian and dangerous. Over 80 percent of the Iranian people are 20- to 30-somethings who (notwithstanding the protestations and prohibitions of the leaders) do not embrace the Islamists' view.

However, the guy with the (black) gold makes the rules and although pro-Western propaganda continues to be insinuated to the ‘people', there is no armed, trained and organized Iranian insurgency (unlike in Afghanistan).

In many ways Iran represents a classic Catch-22 – a circular argument of mutually exclusive solutions. We don't want to take military action against Iran ... but refusal to do so is proving counter-intuitive.

I have long held the belief that our government was ‘hoping' against hope that ‘somehow' the indigenous Iranians would launch a coup and oust the mullahs. As a long-term strategy, that may have once had merit. However, the clock is ticking and if Tehran gets nukes, the entire systemically dysfunctional status quo of the Mideast is history.

Another conventional wisdom ‘maybe' has been that Israel would do to Iran what it did to Iraq in 1981 and militarily destroy the nuclear infrastructure. But Iran is not Iraq, and 2005 is not 1981.

Iraq had one nuclear power plant. There was a clearly identified eight-digit grid coordinate, and when the deed was done there wasn't retaliation beyond diplomatic hissy fits and harsh rhetoric.

Iran has multiple nuclear facilities, and the Israelis may or may not have identified them all. Even if (a humongous ‘if') they were overwhelmingly successful and did succeed in breaking the infrastructure and attriting the nuclear capability, there remain ominous consequences.

Iran has a missile capability that permits it to strike Israel with conventional weapons, and the reasonable assumption is that IF the Israelis hit Iranian nuclear facilities, Iran will strike Israel hard with missiles.

An Iranian military strike on Israel would pour gasoline on the smoldering embers of Mideast ‘peace' and impact dominos with tsunami effect.

A must-read book that focuses on the Iranian threat is insightful, revealing and scary.

"Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians" by Dr. Jerome R. Corsi is a memo that needs to be delivered AND read. Corsi is the co-author of the seminal best seller "Unfit for Command," which arguably crushed John Kerry's presidential dreams.

The book uncovers a network of pro-Iranian money people who throw big bucks at politicians who affect U.S. trade policy toward Iran – kinda like the Clinton Chinagate flap. A key difference is that China intends to make war ‘down the road' and the Iranians want to do it as soon as they get nukeified.

The Iranian threat to national security is real and imminent. Iran is importing/exporting terrorists as you read this.

Perhaps most frightening is the description of what would happen to New York City if Iran or its surrogates detonate anything nuclear. The timeline horrors of a nuked Manhattan are intended to be a nightmarish wake-up call.

Corsi also reveals the Iranian manipulation of world oil prices. Iranian control of supply is a double whammy. A nuclear Iran (controlling 40 percent of the global oil supply) could drive oil prices to levels politicians don't dare even articulate.

Iran cannot and will not play nice. Iran has already stated unequivocally that it has no intention of complying with demands to eschew nuclear weapons. Iran is North Korea on steroids, with 40 percent of the world's available oil and a willingness to blackmail the world.

Tick tock ... the clock is running, and THIS threat cannot be ignored in the vain hope that it will go away or change unilaterally.

Editor's note: