By Steve Kramer
ALFE MENASHE, Israel — Does Iran need nuclear bombs? Fuggedaboudit! Though acknowledged as the largest instigator and banker of global terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Iran is being welcomed back into the community of nations on an equal footing, allowed to continue enriching uranium, to improve its nuclear technology, to have nuclear weapons in 10-15 years, to develop its weapons delivery systems, to purchase advanced weapons systems, to continue to fund and perpetrate terror operations, and to boot, Iran will receive help from the West to prevent any military or cyber interdiction of its actions! Even without the bomb, Iran has become the dominant Muslim power in the region and the country most likely to reestablish a Caliphate uniting the Muslim world against all other religions.
Thank you, Obama administration. From a starting point committed to rolling back Iran’s nuclear program, the US has led the charge to legitimate Iran’s horrendous behavior, speeding past all red lines that were promised to keep Iran in check. While this deal has been compared to the one that North Korea blithely ignored on its way to becoming a rogue nuclear power, the Iran agreement is much worse, because Iran will not be treated as a pariah state, but as a valued trading partner. (Some US sanctions which preceded the P5+1 negotiations will be retained for American companies.)
For President Obama, the agreement (not to be confused with a treaty that would require Congressional approval) totally eviscerates his ethos of nuclear non-proliferation. Even if Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon, its Arab neighbors will. They know that they can’t trust America or the West to protect them, so they will develop their own nuclear weapons with the help of Russia, China, Pakistan, North Korea or any other compliant power. Thank you, Mr. President.
After agreeing to withhold action on the deal until Congress concludes its 60-day appraisal with a yea or nay, Secretary of State Kerry presented the deal to the UN for Security Council approval, making the deal a fait accompli. This action transfers responsibility for America’s security from our elected representatives, to the UN, an assembly of mostly non-democratic, authoritarian states. This maneuver could only be overturned by a Supreme Court decision.
In the near term, it’s not Iran’s bomb that should worry us. With the $100-150 billion “signing bonus” the Iranians will have access to, and the additional income that will be received with the end of sanctions, much more money will be devoted to supercharging Iran’s terror efforts. Iran has already perpetrated enough death and destruction on Israel, the US, and other Western and Arab nations with just a tiny fraction of the above amount. We can expect much more terror from the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps), Hizbollah, Hamas and other Iranian-funded organizations, such as Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad’s military with the cessation of sanctions.
At the end of 2014, it was reported that, “Hassan Rouhani, the president of the clerical regime in Iran, wants to increase the budget of the Revolutionary Guards nearly 50 percent and the overall defense budget [about $30 billion] by more than a third despite international sanctions and the drop in oil prices.” (ncr-Iran.org)
During this period, when sanctions against Iran are severe and its GDP is approximately $415 billion, and its population is extremely restive over the economy, Iran propped up Syria’s Assad with $4 billion and spent billions more on additional terror funding in the region and throughout the world. If just 10% of Iran’s expected windfall is funneled into terror, it will provide a huge boost to Iran’s terror capabilities.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said last week, “Iran will be under enormous pressure to use previously blocked resources to improve its domestic economy.” But according to Tony Borden’s article in the Weekly Standard, Hassan Nasrallah sketched a different scenario. Nasrallah said, “A rich and strong Iran… will be able to stand by its allies and friends, and the peoples of the region, especially the resistance in Palestine, more than in any time in the past.”
“Ibrahim al-Amin, editor of the pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar, wrote that the preliminary agreement reached in Lausanne was hardly a win-win settlement. Rather, as has been the case throughout history, there is a victor and vanquished. The end result of the decades-long conflict between Iran and the West, Amin added, was clear: the West has capitulated.” (WeeklyStandard.com – May, ’15)
Iran doesn’t need the bomb to achieve its goals in the Middle East. The Obama Administration has taken care of that by its coddling of Iran, aided by the timid Europeans. There is little doubt that Obama is determined to go down in history as the leader who brought Iran in from the cold.
What can Americans who fear the Islamic Republic of Iran’s burgeoning power do? First, contact your representatives in Congress and inform them that you wish that this deal be stopped. If that doesn’t work, you must vote for a 2016 presidential candidate who is determined to extricate the US from this ill-conceived deal and to return America to its proper place as the world’s leading power.*
Kramer is a freelance writer based in Alfe Menashe, Israel. You may contact him at steve.kramer@sdjewishworld.com
Kramer is a freelance writer based in Alfe Menashe, Israel. You may contact him at steve.kramer@sdjewishworld.com