Iran Appeasement Should Have its Limits
The seemingly endless appetite among Washington elites to appease Iran, even at the cost of millions of lives, needs to be challenged.
After successfully deploying Shiite militias to perpetuate terror and genocide, Iran is emboldened enough to lob ballistic missiles at American installations. And there are credible threats to Americans right in the homeland. Despite these facts, the Biden administration is resolute in its resolve to appease the mullahs. Giving a blank check to Iran to carry out global terrorism in return for restoring a decaying nuclear deal is a fatal gambit. Americans should take a step back from deal enthusiasm to reconsider their engagement with Iran.
Latest American threat assessment lists a number of terror plots by the mullah republic such as assassinating former cabinet members. This is in addition to cyber attacks and proxy wars to destabilize the Middle East. The latest addition to the list is direct targeting of American installations as Iran fired ballistic missiles on American consulate in Erbil, Iraq. Thankfully, there were no human casualties. But this is just the beginning. The attacks were allegedly in response to Israel killing two Iranian army officers in Syria.
Iran has been honing its terror networks inside the U.S., indoctrinating diaspora groups in avenging American attacks. In one weird accident lately, a woman stabbed her date allegedly avenging the death of IRGC leader Qassem Soleimani.
While this may be a peculiar outlier, Iran has actually launched more elaborate operations inside the U.S. They tried kidnapping an Iranian-American journalist last year from her apartment in New York City. Iran hatched a plot to assassinate Saudi ambassador to U.S. that came too close to fruition. Iran has also been sending mercenaries to Europe, with one recent foiled plot involving the bombing of a Paris event where high-profile American were visiting.
Top democrats like Adam Schiff think the threats are credible but should not stand in the way of reinstating the nuclear deal.
These other malign activities of Iran's, their plots against the U.S. personnel or Americans around the world we can deal with and have to deal with separately, and we should deal with them aggressively. But I wouldn't say that we should neglect to stop their nuclear program because of these other activities. We need to go after all of this, not necessarily in one agreement.
While it is routine for western elites to overlook the victims of Iranian aggression — they have successfully averted their eyes from the Syrian disaster — that they are eager to accept some potential terror attacks against Americans is galling.
One possible explanation for this endless love affair with Iran is the perception that the mullahs are conducive to American entreaties. Bipartisan support for engaging with Iran goes back a long way. The Bush administration cooperated with Iran following 9/11 and literally served them Iraq on a platter after 2003. Iran repaid that debt in full by arming Shiite militias and launching a bloody insurgency in which hundreds of Americans lost their lives. It also created trouble for U.S. in Afghanistan. Furthermore, Iran expanded its sectarian blueprint in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Pakistan and other parts of the world. Domestically, Iran has erected an oppressive structure against dissidents and minorities.
The IRGC has been directly involved in multiple terror attacks. The Biden administration is still eager to remove it from the terror list. They have been doing this at a gradual pace, first removing Iran-backed Houthis that are engaged in violent insurgency in Yemen. Though their inhuman activities have forced the administration to reconsider terror designation. But Biden is still intent to let the mastermind IRGC off the hook.
DC elites’ infatuation with Iran, at the cost of American and global lives, needs to be challenged. Restoring Iran deal will only embolden the mullahs to unleash terror, more so as they will be rewarded with hundreds of billions of dollars. They did the same with the 2015 deal, and the Obama admin was cognizant of that fact. Appeasement is not a bad idea if there is a positive outcome, which is clearly not the case with Iran. The theocratic regime needs to be made accountable for their global terror campaigns, instead of allowing them to legitimize violence and imperialism. The Russian example should serve as a warning call.