As political uprisings and civil wars rage in the Middle East, and as America’s self-crippled efforts to defeat Al-Qaeda and the Taliban limp on, the need to identify and eliminate the primary threats to American security becomes more urgent by the day.
As you read these words, the Islamist regime in Iran is sponsoring the slaughter of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan,1 funding Hamas and Hezbollah in their efforts to destroy our vital ally Israel,2 building nuclear bombs to further “Allah’s” ends,3 chanting “Death to America! Death to Israel!” in Friday prayers and political parades,4 and declaring: “With the destruction of these two evil countries, the world will become free of oppression.”5
The U.S. government knows all of this (and much more), which is why the State Department has identified the Islamist regime in Iran as “the most active state sponsor of terrorism” in the world.6
Meanwhile, the Islamist regime in Saudi Arabia is funding American-slaughtering terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban,7 building mosques and “cultural centers” across America, and flooding these Islamist outposts not only with hundreds of millions of dollars for “operating expenses” but also with a steady stream of materials calling for all Muslims “to be dissociated from the infidels . . . to hate them for their religion . . . to always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law” and, ultimately, “to abolish all traces of such primitive life (jahiliyya) and to reinforce the understanding and application of the eternal and universal Islamic deen [religion] until it becomes the ruling power throughout the world.” The Saudi-sponsored materials further specify that those who “accept any religion other than Islam, like Judaism or Christianity, which are not acceptable,” have “denied the Koran” and thus “should be killed.”8
None of this is news, at least not to the U.S. government. The Saudis’ anti-infidel efforts have been tracked, documented, and reported for years. As the Rand Corporation concluded in a briefing to a top Pentagon advisory board in 2002, “The Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain, from planners to financiers, from cadre to foot-soldier, from ideologist to cheerleader.”9
What is the U.S. government doing about these clear and present dangers? Nothing.
Following the atrocities of 9/11, America has gone to war with Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Libya, but it has done nothing of substance to end the threats posed by the primary enemies of America: the regimes in Iran and Saudi Arabia. Instead, the Obama administration, like the Bush administration before it, continues the policy of seeking “negotiations” with the Iranian regime and calling the Saudi regime our “friend and ally.”
This is insanity. And it is time for American citizens to demand that our politicians put an end to it. The Iranian and Saudi regimes must go. And in order to persuade American politicians to get rid of them, American citizens must make clear that we won’t settle for anything less.
Of course, the Obama administration is not going to take any pro-American actions against either of these regimes. But Americans can and should demand that any politician—especially any presidential candidate—seeking our support in the 2012 elections provide an explicit statement of his general policy with respect to Iran and Saudi Arabia. And we should demand that the policy be along the following lines: . . .
Endnotes
1 Bob Owens, “How Iran Is Killing U.S. Troops in Iraq,” Pajamas Media, May 16, 2008, http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/how-iran-is-killing-us-troops-in-iraq/; Miles Amoore, “Iran Pays the Taliban to Kill U.S. Soldiers,” September 5, 2010, Sunday Times, http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Afghanistan/article387113.ece.
2 “State Sponsors of Terrorism,” U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2009/140889.htm.
3 George Jahn, “Revolutionary Guard Praises Idea of Nuke Testing,” Associated Press, June 8, 2011, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iran_nuclear.
4 Jay Deshmukh, “Iran’s Khamenei Calls for Islamic Regime in Egypt,” AFP, February 4, 2011, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gU8LM4DoyJ6t2Yo4UGJpVmN_lUvw?docId=CNG.48f3fb2a5d4e5791795d8c3f3b8c5311.261.
5 Gen. Mohammad Reza Naghdi, commander of Iran’s Basij forces, quoted in Reza Kahlili, “North Korea and Iran’s Joint Nuclear Bomb Test,” http://atimetobetray.com/blog/north-korea-and-iran%E2%80%99s-joint-nuclear-bomb-test.
6 “State Sponsors of Terrorism,” U.S. Department of State.
7 David E. Kaplan, “The Saudi Connection: How Billions in Oil Money Spawned a Global Terror Network,” U.S. News and World Report, December 7, 2003, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031215/15terror.htm; David S. Morgan, “Saudis Largest Source of Terror Funds,” CBSNews.com, December 5, 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20024653-503543.html.
8 Rachel Ehrenfeld, “Drug Trafficking, Kidnapping Fund al Qaeda,” CNN.com, May 4, 2011, http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/05/03/ehrenfeld.al.qaeda.funding/; David B. Ottaway, “U.S. Eyes Money Trails of Saudi-Backed Charities,” Washington Post, August 19, 2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13266-2004Aug18?language=printer; Freedom House, “Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Invade American Mosques,” Center for Religious Freedom, 2005, http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/special_report/45.pdf.
9 Thomas E. Ricks, “Briefing Depicted Saudis as Enemies,” Washington Post, August 6, 2002, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A47913-2002Aug5.
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10 2009 Human Rights Report: Iran, U.S. Department of State, March 11, 2010, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/nea/136068.htm.
11 For the latest domestic atrocities committed by the regime, see the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, http://www.iranhumanrights.org/.
12 2009 Human Rights Report: Saudi Arabia, U.S. Department of State, March 11, 2010, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/nea/136079.htm.
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