Elected Democratic and Republican leaders have struggled for decades pursuing lofty dreams while failing to grasp evident reality in the Middle East. Starting now, if Americans truly wish to forge lasting peace, we must finally recognize reality inside Iran and work with like-minded allies to instigate “regime change” there.
Accepting a shroud of secrecy over the status of Iran talks may have seemed reasonable immediately following Jan. 20, 2009, when hope for positive change was omnipresent. Back then, President Obama had more fans than Justin Bieber.
However, in late October 2014, accepting that Obama administration official statements on Iran contain unvarnished truth makes less sense than believing that Halloween ghosts connect us to important ancestors. Reviewing just what is known so far concerning the slew of scandals, foreign and domestic, a village idiot would conclude quickly we need full-glare scrutiny on whatever transpires with our implacable and belligerent enemy.
Instead, the public is denied access to essential information concerning ongoing negotiations with Iran over that nation’s nuclear ambitions. Senators responsible for congressional oversight of Obama administration efforts are stymied, while the media and the American public know little that is meaningful regarding the current state of play.
Keeping Americans and important allies in the dark as we approach the looming and scary deadline of Nov. 24, 2014, by which extra patience lent and unwise concessions extended to the Iranians was to yield tangible dividends, is completely unacceptable, especially given the administration’s record of playing fast and loose with truth.
Overcoming a bipartisan legacy of failure with Iran
It makes little sense, ever, to dress failure up and call it success. Yet, that is precisely what the American establishment in both political parties has done for decades.
Ever since hapless Jimmy Carter unwisely welcomed a rising theocracy and jettisoned the shah in 1979, Iran has proven nothing but trouble for persecuted minorities inside that country and in numerous other nations where our erstwhile ally finances and foments the spread of radical, jihadist, Islamist elements.
For too long, Americans across the political spectrum have suffered in a reality predicted long ago by James Madison, who observed: “War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.”
The American people exercise only loose control over conflicts festering across the Middle East while willfully ignoring the plight of the Iranian people.
Meawnhile, elites in America kid themselves as they cling to vain supposition that peace can be negotiated with the kleptocracy that clings to power inside Iran. Corruption inside that country guts any reasonable argument that mullahs there govern there authentically, morally, or in service to a just God.
Conditions in Iran are vexing and they also are challenging here at home, especially within our own State Department.
The headquarters of America’s State Department is aptly named — John Kerry, his colleagues and particularly his spokespeople are lost in a dense fog that is one part ignorance and many parts arrogance.
To achieve progress with Iran, voters must also change Foggy Bottom,” a process that could start next week depending upon election results in key Senate races.
No Easy Win
In contrast to Qatar, Iran poses major obstacles as it is occupies a vast landmass and contains some 80.8 million people.
If you want to understand the mindset of the Iranian leadership, months since the Obama administration unwisely lifted long-standing sanctions, visit the twitter pages of Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Khatami, and translate their Farsi tweets into English.
These men and those who help them hold onto power while persecuting the Iranian people mercilessly are certainly part of problem that Americans have enjoying amicable commercial and political relations with Iranians.
The great people of Iran have suffered more than enough, particularly since June 2009, nearly achieving “regime change” all by themselves.
Enough is enough. It is well past time to acknowledge that the wheels on our diplomatic and military vehicles are spinning out-of-control on shifting sand inside Iran and across the Middle East.
The mullahs who still hold brutal sway over the Iranian people must go.
Afterward, the new Iranian government can then expose the vast terror network long supported by a supposed theocracy. Then, Americans can work with them to roll up these despicable elements by cutting off their funding and bringing all of their leadership to the justice they so richly deserve.
On Tuesday, vote in senators and representatives who will throw off the Iranian reign of terror, while standing by America’s true friend — Israel.
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