You may be familiar with the phrase: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. The quote is attributed to 20th century writer and philosopher George Santayana, and in its original form it read, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Either way you say it, it is absolutely correct, and we are seeing evidence of that simple fact today.
Apologists in this country and elsewhere have failed to identify the fact that the Iranian Islamic Republic is, and has been since it’s inception in 1979 after the overthrow of Iranian Shaw Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a hotbed of Radical Islamism and an exporter of terrorism throughout the Middle East and beyond.
An accredited Embassy is not just a building in a foreign country. It is legally considered to be sitting on the soil of the nation it represents, not that of the host country. So, when the Iranian government allowed a group of “students” to invade the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and hold 52 Americans hostage for 444 days thereafter, it was in fact an invasion of the United States, and an act of war against our nation. Even though the hostages were eventually released, that undeclared war has in fact been in place ever since.
The Iranian government at that time used a tactic that has been practiced by that rogue nation ever since it’s founding. It used the students as “Proxies”, to carry out actions it desired without having to be held accountable for same. Those proxies have killed and wounded tens of thousands of people in the region, but the Iranians have refused to accept responsibility for their actions.
The feckless behavior of then President Jimmy Carter, by not immediately demanding the release of the hostages, and declaring war against Iran if the government didn’t comply, set the stage for all the American governments from that time forward to kowtow to the Iranians, and allow their bad behavior (and that’s a very polite way to describe it) to continue unabated. Until the administration of President Trump, that is. He has consistently warned the Iranians to cease their illegal activities, and stop threatening our citizens or those of our allies. Thinking that all they had to do was continue what had been so successful in the past, they bluffed, threatened and blustered. They ignored his warnings, and under the direction of Kud Force leader General Soleimani, committed further hostilities against our forces in Iraq, culminating with the attack on our embassy in Baghdad. For those continued transgressions, Soleimani paid the ultimate penalty, and it was richly deserved.
How could it have come to this? Very simple. Too many people, both in this country and in Europe, believed that if we would just continue to appease the Iranian regime, they would finally come to their senses and join the ranks of civilized nations on the planet. They instead should have studied how following that course of action turned out for the Europeans in the 1930s. Both France and England rolled over every time Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Party demanded just one more bit of “Lebensraum”, hoping that by doing so, they would avoid World War Two. In fact, all that accomplished was to embolden him further, and create, rather than avoid that conflict, which savaged the globe for nearly six years, and killed hundreds of millions of people In the process.
The same process is occurring today, but this time the ones who are rattling their swords and making threats are the Iranian Mullahs. They are potentially far more dangerous than Hitler was when he first gained power in Germany. The members of the so-called “Nuclear Club” possess nuclear weapons, but hesitate to use them on others for fear of a swift and deadly reprisal. Iran on the other hand is a “Theocracy” whose leaders believe in the “Twelfth Imam” prophecy. Look that up if you haven’t heard about it before. The Mullahs might just start a nuclear war, perhaps by using a proxy. Iran is extremely dangerous, and must not be further emboldened by any show of weaakness on our part. That is why it is so dangerous for the Democrats to continue their assaults on President Trump. In their quest for power, they might end up doing irreparable harm to this country and our allies. Perhaps that’s what Barack Obama had in mind when he said that he wanted to Fundamentally Transform America.