Etiquette Versus Annihilation
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At Issue this week... Iran by Thomas Sowell April 8, 2015 2016 Election Etiquette versus annihilation Krauthammer (5) Lambro (9) Thomas (5) ecent statements from United can be preoccupied with the question an agreement will protect Obama politi- Ali, Ayaan Hirsi Nations officials, that Iran is whether having Israeli prime minister cally, despite however much it exposes Lowry (29) already blocking their existing Benjamin Netanyahu address Congress, the American people to unprecedented Clinton, Hillary Chavez (11) effortsR to keep track of what is going on warning against the proposed agreement, dangers. Limbaugh (10) in their nuclear program, should tell any- without the prior approval of President The other reason is that, by going to Morris (4, 18) one who does not already know it that any Obama, was a breach of protocol. the United Nations for its blessing on his Clintons agreement with Iran will be utterly worth- Against the background of the Obama agreement with Iran, he can get a bigger Thomas (4) Will (3) less in practice. It doesn’t matter what the administration’s negotiating what can turn fig leaf to cover his complicity in the nu- College Campuses terms of the agreement are, if Iran can out to be the most catastrophic clear arming of America’s most dangerous Schlafly (25) cheat. enemy. In Obama’s vision, as a citizen of Cop Shootings the world, there may be no reason why Elder (27) Thomas Cruz, Ted IT IS AMAZING — indeed, stagger- Iran should not have nuclear weapons Erickson (12) ing — that so few Americans are talking Sowell when other nations have them. Limbaugh (8) about what it would mean for the world’s Politically, President Obama could not Dear Mark biggest sponsor of international terrorism, (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate just come right out and say such a thing. Levy (19) Iran, to have nuclear bombs, and to be de- But he can get the same end result by Economics Will (11) veloping intercontinental missiles that can international agreement in the nation’s pretending to have ended the dangers by Economy deliver them far beyond the Middle East. history, to complain about protocol is to reaching an agreement with Iran. There Kudlow (12) Back during the years of the nuclear put questions of etiquette above questions have long been people in the Western de- Egyptian President stand-off between the Soviet Union and the of annihilation. mocracies who hail every international Tyrrell (29) Export-Import Bank United States, contemplating what a nu- Why is Barack Obama so anxious to agreement that claims to reduce the dan- Lambro (15) clear war would be like was called “think- have an international agreement that will gers of war. Family Structure ing the unthinkable.” But surely the Nazi have no legal standing under the Constitu- Barone (26) Holocaust during World War II should tell tion just two years from now, since it will THE ROAD to World War II was German Air Disaster Prager (21) us that what is beyond the imagination of be just a presidential agreement, rather strewn with arms control agreements on God-Given Rights decent people is by no means impossible than a treaty requiring the “advice and paper that aggressor nations ignored in Harsanyi (6) for people who, as Churchill warned of consent” of the Senate? practice. But those agreements lulled the Iran Hitler before the war, had “currents of ha- democracies into a false sense of secu- Buchanan (28) Charen (2) tred so intense as to sear the souls of those THERE ARE at least two reasons. rity that led them to cut back on military Greenberg (30) who swim upon them.” One reason is that such an agreement will spending while their enemies were build- Sowell (1) Have we not already seen that kind of serve as a fig leaf to cover his failure to ing up the military forces to attack them. Lawless Government hatred in the Middle East? Have we not do anything that has any serious chance Napolitano (22) seen it in suicide bombings there and in of stopping Iran from going nuclear. Such March 31, 2015 Lewinsky, Monica Bozell (7) suicide attacks against America by people Media Bias willing to sacrifice their own lives by fly- Bozell (24) ing planes into massive buildings, to vent Coulter (7) their unbridled hatred? Obama Presidency Barone (14) The Soviet Union was never suicidal, Shapiro (8) so the fact that we could annihilate their Pan-Arab Army cities if they attacked ours was a sufficient Bay (30) deterrent to a nuclear attack from them. Pledge of Allegiance Massie (24) But will that deter fanatics with an apoca- Racism lyptic vision? Should we bet the lives of Towery (26) millions of Americans on our ability to Religious Freedom deter nuclear war with Iran? Buchanan (16) Lowry (17) It is now nearly 70 years since nuclear Murchison (17) bombs were used in war. Long periods of Saunders (18) safety in that respect have apparently led Shapiro (23) many to feel as if the danger is not real. Russia Greenberg (31) But the dangers are even greater now and Set Prices the nuclear bombs more devastating. Williams (23) Clearing the way for Iran to get nuclear Trivia Bits bombs may — probably will — be the Paquet (14) most catastrophic decision in human his- Visas Malkin (20) tory. And it can certainly change human Saunders (13) history, irrevocably, for the worse. Walker, Scott Against that grim background, it is al- Greenberg (3) most incomprehensible how some people 2 Conservative Chronicle IRAN: March 27, 2015 Death to America: More than a chant? aybe I’m too sensitive, but tainly, death to America,’ we should “better than a bad deal.” They’ve of- sions of its nuclear program would when a foreign autocrat take him at his word, and we shouldn’t fered pledges that Iran’s centrifuges undermine the verifiability of the deal, leads his people in chants put him on the path to a nuclear bomb.” would be limited to 500, that the and thus the credibility of a compre- of M“Death to America,” I take it per- We are left to wonder at the equa- PMDs (possible military dimensions) hensive deal.” Fordo will remain open, sonally. nimity among high-ranking members of its nu- clear research would and its centrifuges will spin. President Obama and Secretary of of this administration at the unyielding be fully disclosed, that the The French government has pro- State John Kerry apparently don’t. The hostility of the facility at Fordo tested that the U.S. is retreating (think chant, which became a staple of the Is- Iranian regime. Mona (built into a moun- that one over for a minute). France’s lamic Republic during the 1979 revo- In late February, tain) would be foreign minister is reported to have lution, is not a relic of the past. Just Iran blew up a Charen shut down, and that said that “the United States was really last weekend, at a rally in the northern full-size model of (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate snap inspections ready to sign just about anything with part of the country, Supreme Leader the U.S.S. Nimitz, would be part of the Iranians.” The French ambassador Ali Khamenei was interrupted by the an aircraft carrier, in the Persian Gulf. any agreement. “We’re not blind, and I to the U.S., Gerard Araud, tweeted, chant as he was denouncing American The supreme leader’s representative don’t think we’re stupid,” Kerry once “For France, any agreement to be ac- “lies” and “arrogance.” He smiled and on the IRGC, Ali Shirazi, recently assured skeptics. ceptable will have to give concrete responded, “Of course, yes, death to boasted, “When we look at the Islamic Congress gave the administration guarantees on all issues. We won’t by- America, because America is the origi- world, we see that the culture of the “breathing room” — but U.S. negotia- pass any of them.” nal source of this pressure.” Islamic Revolution has reached all tors have backed away steadily from Each and every news leak out of countries and all Muslims throughout each of their positions. There is now Lausanne depicts the U.S. walking SOME IN Iran have urged that the the world. ... We shall not rest until we talk of 6,000 centrifuges or more. The back its demands. Just watch the faces “Death to America” chant, common raise the flag of Islam over the White Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. of the Iranian negotiators. Their smiles after Friday prayers and at political House.” negotiators are scaling back their de- tell the tale. rallies, be downplayed during negotia- A few days later, Obama responded mands for disclosure of PMDs (some- The administration reasons that in tions over a nuclear deal, but the IRGC by sending Nowruz greetings to the thing the International Atomic Energy 10 to 15 years, the Iranian regime will (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) “people and leaders of Iran” and quot- Agency had also demanded). Without improve. It is willing to gamble that rejects this, insisting, according to the ing a Persian poet as saying “many a disclosure of military dimensions, in- once Iran achieves nuclear status, it semi-official Fars News Agency, that flower will bloom while you will be in spections (notional in any case) will won’t use nuclear bombs or share them the United States “is still the great Sa- clay.” be hampered. David Albright of the with terrorists. It is willing to gamble tan and the No. 1 enemy of the (Islam- Institute for Science and International that the other unstable nations in the ic) revolution, and the Islamic Repub- THROUGHOUT THe protracted Security told the Tower magazine, “A region won’t get nuclear weapons in lic and the Iranian nation...” negotiations between the P5+1 and deal that does not include Iran address- response.