The Threat of Iran-Opposition and Resistance

NCRI – The following is an article by The Investor’s Business Daily in its Issues & Insights column addressing the threats posed by the clerical regime:

The U.S. is giving diplomacy a chance to convince Iran to give up its illicit nuclear program. Talking first is always a good idea. But we should never lose sight of the bottom line.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is pushing a $75 million program to encourage democratic reform and, ultimately, regime change in Iran. Such programs, if cleverly designed, can pay big dividends down the road.

They might, for example, find a receptive audience among Iran’s youth. Those under 15 account for 27% of the population, and they reportedly are unhappy with the strict rule of the mullahs. So are the nation’s elites, who see the aging Muslim extremists leading the country as an impediment to economic modernization.

Together, these two groups could be a formidable force for Iran’s peaceful transition to a full democracy. That’s Rice’s big idea. The U.S. will provide seed money and aid for opposition groups, create more educational exchanges that bring promising young Iranians to the West to be educated, and beam more TV programming into Iran to tell the other side of the story.

And — who knows? — maybe for a mere $75 million we can bring about the downfall of Iran’s corrupt theocratic regime.

But that’s a big “maybe.” And in case it doesn’t work, the world needs to get ready to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat through regime change or military action.

In recent days, the U.S., Britain and France have pushed the U.N. Security Council to send Tehran a “very strong message”: halt uranium enrichment and let inspectors look at your nuclear sites.

Unfortunately, two other veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council — China and Russia — are compromised by their extensive business dealings and energy ties to Iran. We might have better luck with the full 15-member Security Council.

As much as we’d like to bring about a peaceful change of regime, the fact is Iran’s leaders look pretty entrenched.

They have fanned nationalist fears by claiming their country is being “denied” nuclear energy — though they know that’s not the intent. What the West wants is to deny them nuclear weapons.

“Today, unfortunately, a few big powers want, through coercion and bullying, to prevent progress of nations,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands Tuesday as they chanted, “Nuclear energy is our right.”

Encouraging democracy and trying to do better in the propaganda war might bear fruit. But it will take a long time. Meanwhile, Iran is plunging ahead with its nuclear plans. It has 20 high-tech centrifuges spinning now, refining yellowcake uranium into UF6 gas. A bit more refinement and they’ll have the makings of a bomb.

Nuclear weapons aren’t the only danger. U.S. intelligence czar John Negroponte warned Tuesday that Iran is helping terrorists in Iraq to build better bombs — bombs that kill American troops.

So, in that sense, hostilities have already begun. It’s just that few people recognize it. We agree that a two-track push — democratization and diplomacy on one hand, the threat of military action on the other — is a sound strategy, at least for now.

But the bottom line remains: Iranian leaders who hate the West, vow to destroy Israel and sponsor terrorists cannot be allowed to get their hands on nuclear weapons.