The United States has several primary adversaries: Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea. The Trump Administration’s recent efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Pakistan and India was successful, but otherwise its efforts to end conflicts have been frustrated. President Putin of Russia has shown no flexibility with respect to ending the Ukrainian war, is disrupting various countries in Africa and moved troops into the Arctic areas near Norway, Sweden, and Finland. American and Chinese representatives are meeting in Geneva this weekend to ascertain if there is possibility of amicably reaching agreements on trade.
Of immediate concern, is the imminent development of nuclear weapons by Iran.
China is a major adversary with respect to dominating the world economy. Iran, however, is a much more dangerous short-term threat. It is ruled by religious fanatics who have vowed to destroy the United States and Israel. This is a society willing to destroy itself to destroy the U.S. Iran is now weaker and more vulnerable than it has been for decades, however. Its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, have been destroyed by Israel. Iran’s main ally, the Assad regime in Syria, was overthrown last fall. The Houthis have been under attack by the U.S. for several weeks and are now largely neutralized. Israel also destroyed much of Iran’s air defense systems.
Iran started a nuclear weapons development program in the late 20th century. Despite several setbacks over the years, they are reportedly within weeks of arming themselves with nuclear weapons. They are also developing intercontinental ballistic missiles to deliver nuclear weapons to the U.S. and destroy U.S.
All this brings back a few memories from the first decade of this century. Around 20 years ago, I was evaluating oil and gas projects in Central and South America.
At one point, I was negotiating with a construction company for roads and wellsites in Central America. In a casual conversation with the principals one afternoon, they informed me they were Nicaraguans and had previously owned a construction company in Nicaragua and were active in several other countries. They were asked to rehabilitate an old airport on the SW shore of Lake Managua. One day, several representatives of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard showed up and informed them they were to modify the airport and a site in Venezuela to be missile launch sites.
At that time, Iran was close to nuclear weapons, but had only medium-range missiles. The construction owners said they became wary of their safety and the Iranian presence, and left. From those two launch bases, the Iranian missiles of the time could have reached about two-thirds of the Lower U.S. 48 - but they did not have the bomb.
In Argentina, I met drug law enforcement officers who, in an offhand conversation over dinner, mentioned that their biggest problem was the Tri-Country area where a major city is in three countries: Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Drug dealers moved around town from one country to another and escaped capture. They said the area was Iran’s main funding source in the Western Hemisphere.
At that time, Hugo Chavez, the Communist dictator of Venezuela, made monthly trips to Tehran, and daily commercial airline service was available from Caracas to Tehran.
I was concerned about these situations. I relayed them to a friend of mine, Ed Knapp. Ed was a former National Science Advisor to Reagan and a prominent physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He commented that what really concerned him was not a missile attack. What concerned him was that, if Iran ever got a nuclear weapon, they would make them in backpack size and then one day they would coordinate about 40 or 50 suicide bombers with backpack nuclear bombs in various parts of the U.S. to set them off all at the same time. Such bombs would have a blast diameter of about a mile and would set off extensive fires and radiation contamination in surrounding areas.
Iran is ruled by evil fanatics who have vowed to destroy the United States. They are not susceptible to negotiation.
Negotiations are a charade to delay action by the U.S. as they continue development. They only need crude weapons. Fundamental logic dictates that, of all the people in all the world, the one people one should believe are the people who say they want to kill you.
We have over 20 million illegal aliens in this country. How many are Iranian suicide bombers waiting for their bomb? The Iranian nuclear program needs to be stopped – now.