From Tehran to Benghazi; Failed U.S. Leadership

The danger that a nuclear armed Iran would pose to the US, Israel and, frankly, most of the Arab countries of the Middle East and the Europeans too, remains as grave a situation as it did last year and the years before.

So, what’s there to fear from Iran?  Hmmm....  The record speaks for itself.

President Carter and his head scratching idealism (sounds like someone else we know) in his initial relations with Iran in early 1977, and his subsequent weak-kneed reaction to the American Embassy in Tehran being overrun (again, sounds like someone else we know) on November 4, 1979, where 52 Americans were then held as captives for 444 days until their release, sometimes still brings up in me a deep anger. This type of feeling is probably shared today by a great many across the nation as the debacle of Benghazi continues to unfold (thanks to Fox News, TheBlaze TV, Rush, Sean, and a few others who won’t whitewash this away like the mainstream media have been doing). Doesn’t the Benghazi massacre have the smell of Iranian meddling?  It does to me.

In 1979 I was on active duty; a young Marine Corps officer. I can say having lived through the scenario that the Marine Corps [and Navy] were ready, willing and able on November 5, 1979, to add another stanza to the Marine Corps Hymn.

That was American soil overrun and it was Americans kidnapped and [subsequently] tortured. As we know, the 52 were eventually released. They walked out of the embassy minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40^th President of the United States. Some say it was timed this way by the Iranians as pay-back to Carter for his earlier chumminess with the Shah of Iran. Maybe, but I think it was mostly timed this way because the Iranians feared what Ronald Reagan would do.

* Six years ago an Iranian group organized as “The Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign” gathered in the old US Embassy in Tehran, with the annual purpose being to welcome new volunteers that could then be trained to terrorize Western and Jewish homes, businesses, schools, and government facilities. That first day several hundred volunteers signed up. This type of terrorism recruiting has not stopped in Iran. Nice people. Sic.

Keeping a nuclear Iran from harming the United States would also be difficult. One thing the Iranians have been very good at in recent decades is duping Arabs into being Iranian lackeys around the world including, as we found out on 9-11 and at Ft. Hood, sometimes originating terrorists from inside the U.S.

They may publicly support Iran as “loyal Muslims” of one sect or the other, but privately the Arabs, from what my sources tell me, fear the Iranians. I suspect that any military strike by whomever on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be screamed about in public across the Middle East, but behind closed doors these same countries and emirates would be applauding. Maybe Hezbollah, Al Qaida, and a few other terrorist groups would loyally support Iran after a strike, but on the whole the Middle East would probably breathe a sigh of relief that some time has been bought, even if temporary, from another Persian Empire being established as a “grand” caliphate; this time with nuclear weapons.

The Russians and Chicoms will make a lot of noise, but stay out of any direct involvement. Both have much to lose, but also much to gain in Iran getting a comeuppance.

I’ve been saying for 33 years that Iran is an issue needing a solution before any lasting peace across much of the world could take place. But, can one just talk a malignant cancer into leaving the body?