Irvine, CA–In response to Bush administration claims that Iran is supplying Iraqi insurgents with deadly weapons, liberals say they are worried that the administration is making the case for military action. The “New York Times” accuses the administration of “saber-rattling,” while the paper’s leading columnist, Paul Krugman, says that “a powerful faction in the administration is spoiling for a fight.”
“The truth,” said Alex Epstein, junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, “is exactly the opposite. The real problem with the Bush administration regarding Iran is that it, like its critics, is evading the massive case against this committed enemy of America.
“Iran is the leading state-supporter and champion of Islamic Totalitarianism–the ideological movement that is the root cause of the present terrorist threat. Ever since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, it has been constitutionally committed to expanding ‘the sovereignty of God’s law throughout the world.’ It has made good on this commitment by waging terrorist warfare against Israel and America through Hezbollah and other subsidiaries. Its success in terrorizing the West has encouraged other Islamic Totalitarian terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda. The regime is furiously pursuing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, with which its president promises to ‘wipe Israel off the map’–while its spiritual leaders declare their ultimate goal with weekly chants of ‘Death to America.’
“Yet since 9/11, the Bush administration has done absolutely nothing about the Iranian threat–and its liberal critics promote ‘cooperation’ with the regime, even praising Iran for being ‘quite helpful to the United States in the months after [9/11]’! What explains this insanity?
“Our intellectual and political leaders have evaded the true nature and scope of the enemy we face. Immersed in the modern dogmas that all cultures are equal and all religions are peaceful, they will not acknowledge that the 9/11 terrorists are part of a religious-ideological movement fueled by Muslim peoples and states. They prefer the fiction that we are at war only with a relative handful of stateless, un-Islamic terrorists. Thus, they can delude themselves, Iran is not our mortal enemy, but only a misguided potential coalition partner in a ‘war on terrorism.’
“Iran needs to be attacked and defeated, the sooner the better. This does not mean another Iraqi boondoggle in which our soldiers try to bring the good life to warring tribes; it means the destruction of an enemy regime without apology. We must make it clear that we will no longer tolerate–or evade–aggression from the Islamic Totalitarians.”