The title of Bing West’s post, below, is “The Obama Administration Is Giving Up the Gulf to Iran.” A phrase passed through my mind: “very successful regional power.” That’s a phrase that President Obama used at the end of last year. It’s one of the most chilling of the entire Obama presidency, I think.
He said that Iran had “a chance to get right with the world.” And if it did that, “it would be a very successful regional power.” Sweet thought, huh?
At the time, I wrote a post headed “An Aspiration for Iran.” After a stage-setting paragraph, it went,
You know what I think Iran should aspire to? And what I think the president of the United States should say Iran should aspire to? Not being a totalitarian police state. Not torturing and raping innocent girls in Evin Prison. Not stoning girls to death for the “crime” of having been gang-raped. Allowing a little freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press.
That should be the aspiration, “regional powerhood” be damned. Or are human rights too icky in the post-Bush era?
Moreover, Khomeinist Iran doesn’t want to be a regional power. They are already a regional power. They move events in the PA, Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere. They want to lead the whole Islamic world and destroy anyone who does not submit to their way of life, starting with the Satans, Great and Little.
Is there no one in the White House or in Valerie Jarrett’s clique who can explain that to our president? It would be a huge service.
Anyway . . .
It may be that the United States cannot stop the rise and expansion of Khomeinist, or theocratic, Iran. But we should try. And will have a lot to answer for, I think, if we don’t.