[Rhodes22-list] Wally - Re: Fred Thompson

[TN Rhodey]

Brad, Interesting but I wouldn't really call it his stand but it is a start. 
I do like the fact that he seems to be stressing Sanctions and Diplomacy. - 
Wally


>From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad at gmail.com>
>Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Wally - Re: Fred Thompson
>Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 05:08:44 -0600
>
>Wally,
>
>You said you were waiting for Fred Thompson's stand on Iraq and Iran - here
>it is.  The word in blogsphere is he's running.  This was posted yesterday.
>
>Brad
>
>----------------------------------
>
>The Pirates of Tehran  By Fred Thompson Posted in Foreign
>Affairs<http://www.redstate.com/sections/foreign_affairs>— Comments
>(148)<http://www.redstate.com/stories/foreign_affairs/the_pirates_of_tehran#comment>/
>Email
>this page » <http://www.redstate.com/forward/30082> / Leave a comment
>»<http://www.redstate.com/comment/reply/30082#comment_form>
>
>Oil prices fell. The stock market rose. Video images of smiling British
>soldiers with Iranian President Ahmadinejad were everywhere. So were
>pictures of the 15 freed hostages embracing family members back home. The
>relief over the return of the Brits was so tremendous; you could almost 
>hear
>birds singing.
>
>Maybe it's because military action won't be needed or maybe it's just
>because the ordeal won't drag on and on, but the world is breathing easier
>now. A lot of folks are happy. The problem, as I see it, is that 
>Ahmadinejad
>seems to be the happiest.
>
>And why shouldn't he be? He has shown the world that his forces can kidnap
>British citizens, subject them to brutal psychological tactics to coerce
>phony confessions, finagle the release of a high-ranking Iranian terror
>coordinator in Iraq, utterly trash the Geneva conventions and suffer
>absolutely no consequences.
>
>The UN Security Council summoned its vaunted multilateral greatness to 
>issue
>a swift statement of sincere uneasiness. The EU, which has pressured 
>Britain
>to rely on Europeans for mutual defense instead of the US, wouldn't even
>discuss economic sanctions that might disrupt their holidays. Even NATO was
>AWOL.
>
>*Please do keep reading . . .*
>
>Tony Blair doesn't appear to be in much of a mood for celebrating. I don't
>know how he could be, given the troubling spectacle of British soldiers
>shake the hand of their kidnapper as a condition of release. In the old
>days, they would have kissed his ring -- but wearing Iranian suits and
>carrying swag more appropriate to a Hollywood awards ceremony may have been
>as embarrassing. Ironically, Blair's options are fewer by the day as his 
>own
>party moves to mothball the British fleet, once the fear of pirates and
>tyrants the world over.
>
>Some in the West seem part of Iran's propaganda war; claiming that the
>release of the hostages was a victory that proves the Iranian dictatorship
>can be reasoned with. To misrepresent unpunished piracy as a victory is as
>Orwellian as the congressional mandate banning use of the term "the global
>war on terror." What are we — Reuters?
>
>Ahmadinejad must be particularly pleased to see "deep thinking" journalists
>making the case that American actions in Iraq were the true cause of the
>kidnappings. To believe this, all you have to do is ignore the history of
>the Iranian Revolution, which has been in the extortion business ever since
>it took power. Between the 1979 American embassy crisis in Tehran and the
>seizure of Israeli soldiers last year by Iran's Hezbollah proxies, there
>have been more than a hundred other examples.
>
>If you include the imprisonment of pro-Democracy dissidents and non-Shi'a
>Muslim minorities within Iran, the number reaches easily into the tens of
>thousands. The dwindling and persecuted Christian population of Iran, I
>suspect, found little joy in Ahmadinejad's explanation that he was freeing
>his victims as an "Easter gift."
>
>It is critical that we see this incident as part of a long pattern of
>behavior -- that will continue as long as the current leadership is in
>power. More importantly, it will escalate unimaginably if Iran achieves
>nuclear status, and with it the ability to hold millions rather than
>individuals hostage.
>
>I have no idea if Ahmadinejad and those who put him in power really believe
>the Shi'a Twelver doctrine that they can spur the messiah to return by
>triggering Armageddon. You have to admit, though, that the possibility that
>they look forward to entering paradise as martyrs would make them a whole
>lot scarier as a nuclear power than the USSR ever was.
>
>There is hope, though. The Iranian people are not an anti-Western horde.
>They're an educated and freedom-loving people for the most part, and
>reformers there have been begging us for support and sanctions that would
>weaken the ruling theocracy. Instead, they've just seen the Iranian
>dictatorship successfully bully the West into impotent submission. This is
>not a good thing.
>
>We need to understand this and use every means at our disposal, starting
>with serious and painful international sanctions, to prevent Iran's rulers
>from becoming the nuclear-armed blackmailers they want to be. 
>Unfortunately,
>we are hearing demands that we abandon the people of the Middle East who
>have stood up to Islamo-fascism because they believed us when we said we
>would support them.
>
>If we retreat precipitously, the price for that betrayal will be paid first
>in blood and freedom by the Iranian people, the Kurds, the Afghanis, the
>secular Lebanese, the moderates in Pakistan and the Iraqis themselves. And
>America's word may never be trusted again.
>
>Right now, the pirate Ahmadinejad is clearly more confident about the
>outcome of the Global War on Terror than we are. That ought to give us
>pause.
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