Iran and the new Dark Ages
...The flesh is strong but the spirit is weak when it comes to dealing with Iran which finds itself in the opposite conditions. This failure of will has been an invitation to further obscenities by this odious regime. It is a regime that wants to impose a new Dark Ages on the world and make women dress in hideous outfits. It wants to impose a hideous and barbaric legal code from the Dark Ages of Shari'a law.Certainly the mullahs have put themselves beyond the pale of the law, and not only in the case of these 15 Britons. Iran is the only nation since the Dark Ages to use hostage-taking as a normal part of its foreign policy.
The original hostage crisis, of course, came in November 1979, when Iranian students stormed into the American Embassy in Tehran and seized 60 U.S. citizens. The Khomeinists used this to shore up radical support for their faltering regime, and to warn foreign countries not to interfere with its murderous course.
The Carter administration resorted to U.N. resolutions and endless negotiations to resolve the crisis - all to no avail. The mullahs scoffed at Ronald Reagan as a "movie cowboy with a six shooter" when he was elected president in 1980, and complained bitterly that he would be a threat to world peace. Yet the American hostages were released within hours of Reagan's inauguration, as Tehran realized that the United States might actually use force against it.
Unfortunately, this vital lesson for the West was short-lived. Iran's sponsorship of terrorism and hostage taking all through the '80s and '90s - even the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon - brought no retaliation.
In 1986, Reagan even tried what critics all advise Blair to do now: He reached out to so-called "moderates" in Tehran as a prelude to a final Middle East settlement. Instead, Iranians leaked the news of the arms-for-hostages negotiations to humiliate America. The scandal nearly destroyed Reagan's presidency.
Today, international inaction has left the Iranian regime is more arrogant than ever. United Nations sanctions have had no effect on its ongoing nuclear program. Its proxy armies have become political players across the Mideast: Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the al Sadr militia in Iraq.
This latest crisis can only further embolden the mullahs - unless direct action stops them. Consider: In 2004, Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized three British sailors in virtually the same waters - and the Blair government chose to softpedal the issue in order to obtain their release. That avoided an international incident at the time - but paved the way for Iran to try again.
Critics argue that Blair's top priority must again be getting troops home safe. But if a country owes its soldiers and sailors protection, it also owes them their honor. And today, British military personnel risk their lives as part of a larger cause - the war on Islamic terrorism of which Iran is now the centrifuge.
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... Iran is everywhere vulnerable to air and naval attack. With U.S. help, even today's much reduced British Navy could quickly close down the Hormuz Straits to Iranian ships - cutting off that country's vital supply of imported gasoline - as well as bombing its refineries. Such a campaign, military experts agree, would bring Iran to a halt in two weeks.
The key issue isn't the means, but the will.
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