DAR AL ISLAM - IRAN: THE AYATOLLAH'S ESCALATION

The Ayatollahs' Escalation
by Jed Babbin

Wars have started over less. The March 23 seizure of 15 British sailors and marines by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy can be called many things, but spontaneous isn’t one of them. It was another in a long series of tests of Western resolve that Iran has posed and we have failed. Iran is -- cleverly and gradually -- escalating its war for control of the Middle East.
In 1979 Iranian revolutionaries -- probably including a young Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- seized the American embassy in Tehran and held its staff hostage for 444 days. Diplomacy failed so in April 1980, so Jimmy Carter launched and personally micromanaged into failure a military rescue mission in which eight Americans died in an aircraft collision at Desert One.
That failure and the ones to come taught Iran that it could provoke -- even commit acts of war -- without suffering any penalty. In the years since, it has -- either directly or through its terrorist proxies such as Hizballah -- committed a long series of terrorist acts resulting in many American deaths.
For over 20 years, Iran has lied to the UN Security Council about its nuclear programs. Instead of opening them to UN inspectors, Iran has dispersed its nuclear facilities and buried them in hardened sites to prevent destruction by air strikes.

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We should not be speaking openly of military action to rescue the British soldiers and marines now reportedly held in Tehran. That’s the Brits’ call, and if they want our help we should give it unhesitatingly. Meanwhile, we have to rethink our policy toward Iran.

Iran’s gradual conquest of the Middle East proceeds uninhibited. Its supporters, China and Russia principally, have no intention to limit Iran’s ambitions. Khamenei and his face man, Ahmadinejad, are claiming dominance over the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. Their capture of the British troops coincided with a large naval wargame that emphasizes the point. Every neighboring nation -- including our allies such as Kuwait and Israel -- is threatened.


We need to challenge Iran to greater effect than it challenges us. To do so we need not -- openly -- go to war with Iran. But we should begin by imposing real penalties on Iran for each act of aggression. Every time an American is hurt or killed by an EFP in Iraq, Iran should pay the butcher’s bill. Every act of war, every act to subvert friendly governments in the Middle East, every attack on one of our allies by an Iranian force or proxy should be answered quickly with acts that cost Iran dearly, and assists Iranians to rebel against the ayatollahs. Each of our allies should be assured -- publicly -- that we will defend them against Iranian aggression.

People speak of “the military option” against Iran as if it consists only of a massive ground invasion, huge air attacks and an occupation like Iraq. Nonsense. We have so many options -- some of them secret -- that we should begin employing now. For example, there are ways to fry electronic systems with an electromagnetic pulse that isn’t created by detonating a nuclear device. (HUMAN EVENTS is not the New York Times. We do not leak secrets. This weapon was spoken of openly in 2003). The next time the Iranian navy sits in port one dark night, such an “EMP” weapon could render its ships inert. I’m guessing, but I think Ben Rich would have smiled at that thought.


Pertinent Links:

1) The Ayatollahs' Escalation