Decisive action on the world stage has not been the Obama administration’s strong suit. Even when President Obama has pursued the correct policies — such as his eventual backing of the revolutionaries of the Arab Spring and his initial approach to Iraq and Afghanistan — he arrived at them only after much agonizing and often unnecessary caution.
So it was easy to predict the Obama administration’s response to the outrageous plot by the Iranian Qods force to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in a Washington, D.C., restaurant: express indignation and threaten unspecified diplomatic action and international isolation.
But in this case, that standard response is going to put Americans at risk.
A rogue state sponsor of terror and a nuclear-weapons aspirant was caught plotting an attack that would almost certainly have killed Americans on U.S. soil. Iran has been killing Americans for decades. American lives have been lost at the hands of the Iranian-backed terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas. For years, U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have been blown up by devastating Iranian-supplied explosive devices and gunned down by Iraqi Shiite snipers trained and equipped by Iranian government forces. Thirteen Americans were killed in the month of July alone by Iranian-backed Shiite militias, attacks that were publicly denounced by senior American officials but received no overt U.S. military response against the facilitators inside Iran. The same can be said of the U.S. response to Iran’s continued provocative actions as it progresses toward a nuclear weapons capability.
Since President Obama took office, Iran has steadily crossed redline after redline in its nuclear weapons program. This has been met with a mix of silence or public bluster about additional sanctions. Remember the “crippling sanctions” promised by Secretary Clinton in April 2009? Now Iran possesses a stockpile of several weapons’ worth of enriched uranium, has a formerly secret centrifuge enrichment facility coming online, is making significant strides in its ballistic missile program, and is reportedly conducting ongoing weaponization work. These developments have all been met with nothing more than a series of relatively toothless U.N. Security Council resolutions and some stern lectures from American and European diplomats.
As developments this week make abundantly clear, our disgraceful attempts to “engage” the despotic regime in Tehran — even as Iranians tried to overthrow their leaders in 2009 and even as Americans were dying in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hands of the Qods force — have failed.
Fortunately, there is a template for action from President Obama’s predecessors in the Oval Office. An appropriate response would be targeted strikes against key regime facilities that support Iran’s illicit activities.
As President Clinton told the American people in June 1993 when he announced cruise missile strikes on Iraq after it was revealed that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had plotted to assassinate former President George H. W. Bush:
From the first days of our revolution, America’s security has depended on the clarity of this message: Don’t tread on us. A firm and commensurate response was essential to protect our sovereignty; to send a message to those who engage in state-sponsored terrorism; to deter further violence against our people; and to affirm the expectation of civilized behavior among nations.
Or as President Reagan justified his air strikes against the regime of Moammar Qaddafi in April 1986:
We Americans are slow to anger. We always seek peaceful avenues before resorting to the use of force—and we did. We tried quiet diplomacy, public condemnation, economic sanctions, and demonstrations of military force. None succeeded. Despite our repeated warnings, Qadhafi continued his reckless policy of intimidation, his relentless pursuit of terror. He counted on America to be passive. He counted wrong. I warned that there should be no place on Earth where terrorists can rest and train and practice their deadly skills. I meant it. I said that we would act with others, if possible, and alone if necessary to ensure that terrorists have no sanctuary anywhere. Tonight, we have.
Until now, the president has chosen to be the hapless victim of Iran’s machinations. It is time for President Obama to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors and stand up to tyrants who kill Americans and threaten our interests.
It is time to take military action against the Iranian government elements that support terrorism and its nuclear program. More diplomacy is not an adequate response.
— Jamie M. Fly is executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative.
While I believe that Iran is run by a lunatic regime that should never have access to nuclear weapons, I also believe that the Obama Administration is incapable of addressing the issue in a competent manner.
Diplomacy has failed, but the U.S. military is stretched too thin and has a Commander-in-Chief who is unqualified to do much else besides read from a teleprompter.
I fear that America is now at a point where we must be witnesses to disaster, as we haven't the resources or leadership to avert it...at least until January 2013.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSome press the Reset Button. Some press "Master Arm Switch" to ON. I prefer the latter.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou're going to start a war against Iran based on an obviously contrived and non-existent Iranian government plot, and drive the price of oil to $200/barrel, and unite Iranians against us and further reinforce support for the Mullah regime?
No.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDear Mr. Fly, although the entire content of your article is anything but a logical taking of the real world around you; so it seems. Still, I would do my out-most to respond to you in an unambiguous and most rational manner: Like all other Zionist conspire foreign policy initiation inside the Obama's administration, the latest "American claptrap", that it accuses Iran's Qhods force to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to your country, is no more valid than your previous claims to "the rights of all men", proudly demonstrated in many thousands of none American corpses Washington has left behind in Korea, Vietnam, south & Central America, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike the CIA's awful sense of judgment, poor quality of intelligence-gathering and systematically operating in an environment where, jingoism rather than rational is the norm. Iran's Qhods force by contrast, dare I say, it operates in an environment, whereby, an established and none compromising intelligence very much determines rules of engagement. Iran's Qhods force is an operational unit of the IRGC, whose purpose there is primarily to protect the revolution & the country's Foreign Service. None of these however, it to include taking-out such a none-entity target as the Saudi's ambassador in Washington: such killing, if there ever was any plan, it could & would serve Iran no practical purposes whatsoever. But, what it would tremendously serve Iran's interests is to expose the lies Obama's administration creating to distract people's attention at home from all those problems facing the country. It is in fact the case, is it not, that whenever your 'policy makers’ on the Capitol Hill, find America in intractable economic problems, by convention, they tend to opt for foreign war as a mechanism to prevent internal strife. To that end, Iran is not going to help you achieve that that is for sure! Finally, your issue with Iran's nuclear industry or as you put it, Iran's attempt to 'manufacture the bomb'. Sir, you [Washington] imposed & militarily (including the use of chemical ammunitions) supported Iraq in an eight years long war on our country. Thirty years of covert operations to destabilize and create ethnic strife inside the country. Against all international norms, you have succeeded in financially & logistically supporting anti-revolutionaries to assassinate government officials and members of our scientific community. For thirty years, you have manipulated the UN Security Council to impose all forms of economic sanctions; simply to derail the country's economic development. It is more so in recent years, on the nuclear band-wagon. You have succeeded in doing all that, anticipating our people will crumble once and for all. How wrong, how naive, and how ignorant you people are. Our children would sincerely like to remind you once and for all: stop threatening our country. You are not in a position to open another front, sustain it and finish it on your terms. Iran is an independent country, the sooner you [the Americans] understand that, the more peaceful world we shall all have.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, yes Iran is going to get the bomb and has shown they are crazy enough to use it, but, gee--we've got to take care of that Uganda problem right now! A lunatic could not write the script that Obama is following! (On second thought--maybe one is writing it.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusehey turtle, how has Iran shown that's it's crazy enough to detonate a nuke if it's able to assemble and mount one or two on a missile in a few years?
I happen to loathe the Iranian theocracy, but have noticed that practically never have they used violence outside their borders in an overt manner.Either they kill people covertly or they use proxies to do their killing.
They're all underhanded and at a remove and while they talk big and bold, they seem to recognize that they're militarily weak and have to rely on threats of terrorist attacks.
Those are not demonstrations of "crazy enough to use it"..... not against anyone capable of ending them in hours.
I happen to think that if Pakistan, which is fairly UpBeyondAllRecognition, has managed not to use any in 30+ years, we've still got a little time.
And I kinda get a pain in my pocket from people calling out Obama for something that was left unattended since the early 80s.
I kinda think that we screwed up pretty bad invading Iraq when the far greater danger was next door to Saddam. Don't recall hearing much about Iran from the lion-hearted "keeping us safe" last administration. Seems to me they left every dang bit of the Iran problem under the rug.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIn case you haven't noticed, things are a little too fragile right now to deal with the implication of armed conflict with Iran.
Take a step back from the ad hominem attacks on the President and try to understand that there's a STRATEGIC way to do things, and then there's the way we've been doing things all along (the latter is partly the reason why we're dealing with this mess in the first place).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFor heavens sake ...
Imagine Winston Churchill in a similar situation: It had been found that Adolph Hitler had conspired with known foreign criminals to assisinate the Czech ambassador and kill British citizens as collateral damage. Churchill would have acted ... skillfully across all parties and "divides," but with clear vision of the foe and the ultimate necessity of engaging and eliminating the enemy.
Who today is willing to act with the clarity and deliberateness we need?
Who indeed... No one ... not even on the right.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, and this has all worked out so well, hasn't it? Our military adventures have brought peace, prosperity, and democracy to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, and all our heroic boys and girls have come home. And all the people of the world love us! Our economy is booming, everything is going so swimmingly! And I'm certain those hundred troops going to Uganda will immediately kill that SOB and restore all of Africa to prosperity. Since we are so flush with cash and idle soldiers and military materiel, we need to start another war, this time against Iran. Surely China and Russia will just sit on their hands and watch their business interests be vaporized. In fact, they'll cheer us! What a great idea!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat is more effective than military strikes against Iran is taking the MeK off the Terror list of the State Department. There is nothing that the Iranian regime is more scared of than MeK. They are willing to do anything to keep them unjustly on the terror list of the United States. It is time to describe the MeK and protect the National Liberation Army of Iran in camp Ashraf in Iraq.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe time to take decisive action against the Iranian theocracy was when they ordered the bombing of the marine barracks in Lebanon....
or when they gulled that idiot into sending them weapons in exchange for the American hostages that they had their proxies kidnap.
he sent them the weapons and they then sent a tape recording of the torture and murder of one of the hostages, CIA station head Col. William Francis Buckley.
that was the time for action ..... the old fool did nothing.
Mr Fly is a blowhard if he thinks that this silly, foiled plot ...to kill a Saudi (no less)....is any thing at all
the time to kill the snake was when it first started killing AMERICANS.....
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIran is waiting for Americans to leave to begin distributing nuclear weapons throughout the region.
Iran has threatened to destroy Israel and has provided money, arms, and soldiers to kill Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Deal with them now, or deal with them later, when it will be much more difficult.
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