Ben Rhodes, Obama’s foreign policy guru, has been a relentless critic of Trump’s stance toward the Islamic Republic of Iran.
He recently tweeted “Trump’s administration has made every effort to manufacture a crisis with Iran,” declaring Trump “has created a major crisis by withdrawing from a Deal that was working, isolating the U.S., provoking the Iranians, risking both a resumed nuclear program and a war.”
Rhodes and other Leftists who are blaming Trump for ramping up tensions with Iran are ignoring that Iran has been working toward a war with the U.S. for decades.
On November 2, 2015, a commanding majority of the Majlis, 192 of its 290 members, agreed to a statementdeclaring “Death to America” was not just a slogan: it had “turned into the symbol of the Islamic Republic and all struggling nations.”
“Death to America” continues to be chanted at Friday prayers in Iranian mosques, as well as at anti-American protests.
Groups of people in Tehran attended a demonstration to condemn the US hostile policies and mark the anniversary of the American Embassy takeover back in 1979. (Wikimedia Commons)
A communal desire to destroy the United States and commit mass murder of its citizens is within the Islamic Republic of Iran’s very identity.
As Obama and Rhodes concluded their nuclear deal with Iran, regional political analyst Ali Wambold pointed out the Constitution of the Islamic Republic “proclaims ‘the ideological mission of jihad,’ which it defines as ‘extending the sovereignty of God’s law throughout the world,’ through Iran’s Army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.”
Thus, he said, “to treat with the Islamic Republic over the particulars of its weaponry while failing to address the very purpose of its bellicosity is delusional. The so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action does nothing to change the fact that, in plain Farsi, Iran is committed to world conquest by Islam, with its clerics as warlords. Those to be conquered include America (the ‘Great Satan’), Israel (the ‘Little Satan’) and the Sunni-led Gulf States.”
In July 2005, then–Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said essentially the same thing:
“The message of the Revolution is global, and is not restricted to a specific place or time. Have no doubt… Allah willing, Islam will conquer what? It will conquer all the mountain tops of the world.”
Was this just a pious hope for the success of Islamic proselytizing?
Hardly, given Ahmadinejad’s reference to the Islamic Revolution, the violent movement that had brought the Islamic Republic of Iran into being in 1979.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has emphasized that Iran’s foreign policy was “based on Islam and stems from the aspirations and goals of the Revolution.”
Khamenei’s predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini, said from the beginning the goals of that Revolution were global:
“We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry ‘There is no god but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle.”
The Iranian politician Mohsen Rezaei once told a cheering Iranian crowd:
“We will build a force that will demolish the enemies of Islam, continue the path of our great prophet Muhammad, and raise the flag of Islam in all corners of the world.”
Journalist Elaine Sciolino noted in her 2000 book Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran that a neon sign in Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport reads, in English, “In future Islam will destroy Satanic sovereignty of the West.”
Iran’s commitment to world conquest in the name of Islam—and to the defeat of America in particular—precludes lasting peace with the United States.
The only reason the deal was “working” was because the restrictions on Iran were so loose, they simply continued doing what they were doing before. Obama got headlines and the EU got to continue to trade with Iran, the only thing they care about.
Though it’s not about spreading “democracy”, this regime has to go. It would, however, have to be replaced with something from some century other than the 6th.
We would likely still have the deal, had it not been for John Bolton’s hard line neocon influence, which motivated a president who had no clear understanding of the situation himself. If we’re lucky, maybe something can now be patched back together and we can avoid a potential military disaster.
@Greg: Iran was cheating all along.
Iran will not explain why uranium was kept in Tehran warehouse
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-iaea-exclusive/exclusive-iaea-found-uranium-traces-at-iran-atomic-warehouse-diplomats-idUSKCN1VT0L8?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29
It was the stupidest, most naive, anti-American deal ever made.
Would the two unidentified diplomats “who follow the agency’s inspections work closely” happen to be representatives of Netanyahu’s government?
@Greg: Could be. They have a vested interest in seeing Iran prevented from acquiring the weapons to “wipe them off the map” as they promised. Relying on anti-Semites to look out for their interests is probably not the best plan. Anyway, Iran had at least one site where they stored nuclear material that they did not declare. AND they got paid billions of dollars to lie about it. Great plan.
Netanyahu’s promise to annex occupied Weft Bank territory if reelected is certainly the road to peace in the Middle East. The clueless weenie dog currently occupying the Oval Office apparently gave that boneheaded move a thumbs up.
@Greg: Why don’t you provide the “road to peace” in the Middle East that does not involve Israel being wiped out? This is the problem with leaving people no options; they make their own and pick the one that benefits THEM. Has there been ANY concession or offer of concession that has stopped the terrorist attacks on Israel?
Speaking of absolutely stupid boneheads, sort of a random memory; remember when that idiot Obama decided doing a low-level flyover of Air Force One over NYC for a photo was a better idea than just photo-shopping it? Or, maybe he just wanted to scare the shit out of millions of Americans?