War Issues

Here are a couple stories that you need to know about regarding war in the Middle East.

IAEA: Iran's nuke program causes 'serious concerns'

Iran's alleged research into nuclear warheads remains a matter of serious concern and Tehran should provide more information on its missile-related activities, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said, in its latest report on Iran, that Tehran was holding back information on high-explosives testing relating to its nuclear program.

Iran's research into "high explosives testing and the missile re-entry vehicle project remained a matter of serious concern", said the report, which will be passed on to the United Nations Security Council.

"Substantive explanations are required from Iran to support its statements on the alleged studies and on other information with a possible military dimension."

If the IAEA -- an inept organization filled with the typical U.N. corruption -- has concerns about Iran's program, you can bet there are critically serious concerns about it. The problem is that the U.N. will negotiate, talk, and express concerns right up until the point where Iran nukes an American or Israeli city, then be shocked that Iran was capable of nuclear weapons.

What would meeting with Iran do?

Barack Obama has enshrined the principle of unconditional summitry with Iran as one of the central foreign policy planks of his campaign for President. This despite recent efforts by Obama surrogates to confuse the electorate.

What would be the consequences of such a Presidential meeting between President Obama and President Ahmadinejad?

Michael Gerson has written eloquently about the moral stain that will color the mere act of meeting with a Holocaust denier who boasts of his yearning to repeat the effort to exterminate the Jews. Obama, a man who on the campaign trail has declared that "nobody has spoken out more fiercely on the issue of anti-Semitism than I have," will be extending the honor of a Presidential meeting to the most dangerous anti-Semite of all.

For what benefit? As Gerson wrote,

"having made Iranian talks without precondition: his major foreign policy goal, Obama is left with little leverage to extract concessions, and little choice to move forward"

There will inevitably be pressure to offer concessions to Ahmadinejad to help ensure a successful summit. To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, who will bear the burden? Who will pay the price?

Ahmadinejad has been crystal clear about his goals. He is fanatic towards Jews and toward Israel -- a type of obsession the world has witnessed before. Israel will certainly be on the agenda of any presidential meeting.* Obama would meet and perhaps even shake hands with a man who has repeatedly condemned Israel, has called it "filthy bacteria" and will hear the ritual denunciations of Israel.

When a summit meeting occurs, there is considerable pressure to "accomplish" something, to come to an agreement. What exactly would a President Obama be willing to give to Iran in order to get back something that could be touted as an achievement of his summitry?

The boost a summit (even one that led to no agreements) would give to the image of Ahmadinejad would embolden him within Iran (he faces internal pressures that directly blame him for Iran's diplomatic problems) and without. Furthermore, reformers throughout the region will be demoralized and our relations with Sunni nations,including Saudi Arabia, will be damaged as these Sunni regimes also seek to accommodate Iran.

More significant will be the impact on the one group in the region that has warm feelings toward America: the Iranian people themselves. There is a huge Baby Boom generation that is restive and angry towards the regime. As a consequence of pro-natalist policies formulated in the wake of the Iran-Iraq War, there was a surge in births in Iran. Two-thirds of Iranians are now estimated to be under the age of 30; and, significantly, only 40 percent of them are ethnically Persian. They resent the regime.

Iranians are also heirs to a culture that was historically very cosmopolitan and proud of its sophistication and openness to the outside world. Already many Iranians complain of Ahmadinejad's policies that have led to global isolation In a poll taken by the regime itself, one half (and this is probably understated because the regime was running the poll) affirmed that Washington's attitude towards Iran are "to some extent" correct. As much as they abhor the regime, they also have the most positive feelings towards America of any population in the region.

There is an old Middle Eastern aphorism: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. If Obama meets with Ahmadinejad, it will be a sign to Iranians that the world is willing to accept and to respect their regime. The reservoir of goodwill -- the hope for the future as this bulge of youth moves forward -- will be drained. They will feel the sting of defeat -- a betrayal they can lay at the feet of President Obama and America.

[T]he world's powers until now have diplomatically isolated the regime. Other world leaders have refrained from meeting with a leader who has continually issued a string of odious statements such as "Israel will be wiped off the map" and "Israel is a stinking corpse" and who denies the Holocaust.

A meeting between President Obama and President Ahmadinejad would trigger a parade of other foreign leaders to Tehran. They are merely waiting for a pretext, an excuse, that would absolve them from the shame of meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Our strongest allies in Europe, Angela Merkel in Germany, Nicolas Sarkozy in France, Gordon Brown in England, face internal pressures to engage in Iran from commercial interests and political and diplomatic figures within their nations. Until now they have courageously resisted this pressure.

When other high profile political leaders will come a calling, they may not bear the bowler of Neville Chamberlain, but they will bring hats in hand, newly ready and able to strengthen diplomatic (and hence all) ties to the mullahcracy. Under the cover of diplomatic outreach, sanction-busting deals will naturally follow. European nations are eager for energy deals that will provide the wherewithal for Iran to step up its nuclear weapons program.

While it may sound perfectly reasonable for Obama to say that he'd meet with Ahmadinejad, this statement is the absolute height of folly when it comes to foreign policy. In exchange for gaining absolutely nothing, such a meeting would open the floodgates of support, trade, and international advocacy to a nation that sponsors terrorism against us and our allies. In other words, it's a disaster waiting to happen.

Global terrorism down!
You won't hear this in the MSM because one of their last remaining arguments against the war in Iraq is that it has not made us any safer from terrorism. However, according to a recently released study, fatalities from global terrorism are down by 40%.

Now that you know these critical stories, you can pass them along to others, especially people who still subscribe to the lies and deceits of the anti-war nitwits in the MSM and the Left.

There's my two cents.