Iran’s pre-emptive promise: 
on the brink of nuclear confrontation
Steve Yuhas

Nobody can accuse nations of not learning lessons from the war in Iraq.  We know that the lesson learned by Libya that it is best to depart from a nuclear weapons program and to be part of the community of nations rather than end up threatened by the United States and a coalition of the willing.  Unfortunately, that same lesson is lost on the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Instead, Iran has taken the lesson of pre-emptive action from the American playbook and what should have been headline news became a blip on the world’s cable news channels.

On Wednesday Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani told reporters that the lessons learned by Iran following the Iraq war was that if it became obvious that the United States would use military power to take out their nuclear weapons capability that Iran would not rule out pre-emptive actions against United States troops in the region.

“We will not sit (with arms folded) to wait for what others will do to us. Some military commanders in Iran are convinced that preventive operations which the Americans talk about are not their monopoly.  America is not the only one present in the region. We are also present, from Khost to Kandahar in Afghanistan; we are present in the Gulf and we can be present in Iraq,"

Indeed, Iran is present in Iraq and has been causing trouble by supporting insurgents with money and weapons since the toppling of Saddam Hussein over a year ago.  In essence, Iran is already engaging United States troops in a pre-emptive military strike insofar as they are the military supplier to those who are killing innocent Iraqis, attempting to destabilize the new Iraqi government and killing American troops.

When asked by an Al-Jazeera TV reporter what the response would be if Israel took out the nuclear reactor, as she did in 1988 when Iraq began a nuclear weapons program, General Mohammad Bager Zolgadr, commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, went even further, “If Israel fires one missile at Bushehr atomic power plant, it should permanently forget about Dimona nuclear centre, where it produces and keeps its nuclear weapons, and Israel would be responsible for the terrifying consequence of this move.”

The cat and mouse game between nuclear powers was limited during the cold war to the United States and the former Soviet Union.  After the fall of the U.S.S.R. we were treated to the advancement into the nuclear nations India and Pakistan who have more than once come to what some call the brink of nuclear confrontation.  North Korea may very well have nuclear weapons and the saber rattling of Iran’s desire can be heard across the globe.  Something is going to have to be done.

As important as the debates over swift boats and awards, shrapnel wounds and whether the economy is the best in 20 years or the worst since Herbert Hoover there has not been enough discussion in the public about what the next president is going to do when Iran is on the verge on having the capacity to make nuclear weapons.  Israel will not allow herself to be threatened with such weapons and Iran already has the capacity to strike Israel with conventional warheads – imagine the horror if their dream of being able to wipe Israel off the map, a very public goal for the fanatical government of Iran, if they actually had the ability to do it.

The next President will have to make a decision that could very well thrust us into a nuclear confrontation with Iran.  Conventional force alone would not be able to thwart a full blown attack of Iran’s military forces over the border into Iraq to hold American troops hostage while the leaders of Iran hold the world at the brink of nuclear holocaust.  Questions must be posed to both John Kerry and to George Bush about what we’re going to do about Iran.

Could it be that Iran has already begun the pre-emptive strike against America by making life so difficult in Iraq and by proving support to insurgents?  It might be they are deflecting attention away from their nuclear capabilities today, but tomorrow we will have to deal with one of the three members of the nations of evil being weeks or months away from a nuclear device.  We must act quickly and decisively and make known to Iran that an attack against our troops in Iraq will be treated no differently than an attack against New York.

Iran has purchased submarines from Russia that could reach the shores of the United States.  Imagine the Iranian Submarine Ship Mohammed popping up off the shore of New Jersey armed with a nuclear device holding us hostage until we agreed to purge the Middle East of Israel. 
Iran having nuclear weapons is alarming enough, but threats against the United States need a much higher priority than whether or not a candidate for Commander-in-Chief received a $1,000 haircut on the same day Iran threatened war against us.

Iran will not listen to reason and someone is going to have to take out the nuclear reactors and their ability to create nuclear weapons – the only question is who and when and that is a question that only one man will be able to answer and we won’t know his name until November 2nd.