OP-ED; IRAN (HIGH SCHOOL)

Iran: The New Frontier

The people of the United States are bored with Iraq. Troops are dying at a slow, agonizing pace, and their deaths are relegated to the back pages of a newspaper. David Kay, chief weapons inspector in Iraq, declared that there were no nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons in Iraq since 1992. The war was built upon a lie, an assumption. It is time for something new.

Iran, which is Iraq’s proverbial next-door neighbor, is next on President Bush’s Axis of Evil list. Iraq and Iran share a 1,000-mile border. Suspicion has been rising about the nuclear capabilities to build weapons in Iran. It has been an ongoing problem.

Two years ago, the Iranian government kicked out the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It was widely seen as an opportunity for the Iranians to start atomic weapons production. Later, it was reported that the Iranians had highly processed uranium, a necessary ingredient in making an atomic weapon. The Iranian government insisted that the uranium was being used for civilian purposes, for example, nuclear power. This appears not to be totally true.

Seymour Hersh, a reporter for The New Yorker magazine, broke the story that the United States federal government has secret forces scoping out nuclear weapons facilities in Iran. This has been happening since the summer of 2004. “The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen and perhaps more…targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short term commando raids… The civilians in the Pentagon [Wolfowitz, Feith, Rumsfeld] want to go to into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible.”

The Bush administration is at civil war over the problem with Iran. The State Department has been winning the war thus far. Bush cannot afford another mistake like Iraq. Therefore, publicly, Bush announced a new faith in diplomacy. Privately, he has sided more with the Defense Department by signing executive orders allowing the use of covert missions to execute regime change.

A consultant with close ties to the Pentagon spoke with Hersh. He believes that he United States should launch a limited attack on Iran, claiming that the US should take out the religious leaders in Iran. “The minute the aura of invincibility which the mullahs enjoy is shattered…the Iranian regime will collapse.” Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz share this view. This is a farce because the mullahs shut down the reformist movement already. Any attempt to take out religious leaders will start an Islamic uprising that will create Bin Laden’s dream Islam v. the West in a third world war.

Rumsfeld has two key deputies in this commando brigade: Stephen Cambone, the Under-Secretary for Defense for Intelligence, and Army Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin. The problem with this is that Cambone was a central force in the rush to war with Iraq. He and Wolfowitz convinced Bush of an Iraqi-Al Qaeda alliance. Boykin took major fire for a speech he gave in front of his own church congregation about the Islamic religion. He is a devout evangelical Christian. Discussing the battle against a Muslim warlord in Somalia, Boykin told his audience, "I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

The United States had an opportunity to support the formation of a Western style democracy in Iran, but the United States failed again. Earlier, I spoke of the mullahs shutting down a reformist movement. The movement was an immense group of educated young people between the ages of 15 and 30 who protested the rule of the mullahs. They sought the support of the United States, but the Administration only gave a lukewarm response. As a result, the movement lost its legitimacy, and was shut down by the mullahs.

The country of Iran poses a unique threat to the interests of the United States. For ten years, Tehran has received nuclear technology, and is speculated to be three to five years from a nuclear weapon. Right now, as reported by Seymour Hersh, there are secret US commandos on the ground in Iran. Do we fight another war? Can we restart the reform movement? The actions taken by the Bush Administration suggest that they have already decided that war is always the answer.