China Confidential
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
IAEA: Iran Worked on Nuclear Missile
Foreign Confidential....
There were ominous and depressing developments on Tuesday regarding Iran.
1. Diplomats said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) presented evidence indicating the Islamist nation secretly tried to modify a Shahab-3 missile cone to fit a nuclear payload.
Iran dismissed the evidence--documents and photographs--as fabrications.
2. Iran that it has put the elite Revolutionary Guard in charge of defending the country's territorial Persian Gulf waters in what appeared to be a hardening of its stance in the vital oil route. The regular Iranian navy was responsible for Iranian defenses in the Gulf until the new order.
The Guard controls Iran's ballistic missile arsenal, fleet of fast boats--capable of carrying out swarming-style attacks--and legions of suicide bombers and other terrorists.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the narrow Hormuz Strait at the mouth of the Gulf if the United States or Israel attacks it over Iran's nuclear program. Around 40 percent of the world's oil passes through Hormuz.
3. Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama seemed to pick up support for his proposed "engagement" of Iran from five former US Secretaries of State. Even Henry Kissinger said he was in favor of negotiating with the mullahocracy. In addition to Kissinger, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher, and James Baker said they favored bilateral dialogue and negotiations over Iran's nuclear program at a forum hosted by The George Washington University and taped for broadcast on CNN. Their comments are certain (a) to encourage nuclear-arming Iran to continue to stall and play for time in the hope of an Obama election victory, and (b) to further frighten Israel, which is running out of time for dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat.
EDITOR'S COMMENT: Kissinger's endorsement of "engagement" is a terrible disappointment. As the son of German Jewish refugees, and a former student of the late, great Hans J. Morgenthau, who was the father of modern political realism, Kissinger, a brilliant statesman and political scientist in his own right, must recall that the key lesson of World War II is that it is impossible to appease a totalitarian power committed to an imperialist foreign policy--i.e. a policy of overthrowing the status quo. Intentions matter most, Morgenthau taught. Had Hitler not intended to conquer Europe (and dominate the world), appeasement might have worked; the dictator might have been satisfied with small victories and limited territorial gains. But the monster had other ideas, larger ambitions; therefore, appeasement was destined to fail. Instead of preventing war, appeasement made war inevitable--on Germany's terms. Similarly, attempts to appease, accommodate, "understand" and reason with Islamist Iran are also destined to fail. At a minimum, Iran intends to destroy Israel, drive the US out of the Middle East, and dominate Europe.
The US and Israel should act now to end the Iranian threat--before it ends the US and Israel.
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
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