Friday, January 8, 2016

In Iran, it all goes south



Atlanta, GA - While Americans have been busy hearing about Donald Trump’s latest racist/sexist tweet, while we’ve been reading stat lists about the most recent additions the Baseball Hall of Fame, (guys, Pete Rose needs in!) the actual business of governing and making foreign policy goes on.

In Saudi Arabia, the country some claim was involved in the 9/11 terror attacks, and a nation in any event not known as a great haven of human rights, but kept on America’s “Friends List” because it isn’t as bad as ISIS or Syria, decided that they needed to execute Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr for the crime of being critical of the kingdom’s ruling family.
That caused the head of the UN to say he disagreed with the decision, (strong action that, disagreeing with someone while watching them kill a guy) and led to a mob of Iranian Shiites storming the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Iran, before being kicked out by police.
Across the region several nations have severed or downgraded their diplomatic ties with the rouge terror state of Iran, while yesterday morning Iran claimed that their embassy in Yemen, (a nation that was declared this morning by Global Post to be the world’s worst for human rights,) was bombed by Saudi Arabia. A prince from the kingdom of Saudi stated yesterday that war remains unlikely between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which, of course, it does. But all of this further complicates America’s already difficult situation in the region.
In a nation as authoritative as Iran, it seems unlikely that mob would have been able to storm a foreign embassy without either implicit or explicit permission from the hardline chanters of “Death to America” that run their sorry excuse for a country. But an embassy is supposed to be a sacred place, and an attack on one is an attack upon them all. An action against an embassy of any nation in any nation is an action against that nation itself. In other words, when the Iranian high command failed to stop the mob, or perhaps even egged it on, they slapped in the face four thousand years of international law.
If you don't think that's bad, consider this, Iran continues to test dangerous missiles.
Our president continues to try and save what he calls his “accomplishment” or deal with Iran, by which we will pay them roughly a hundred billion dollars not to make atomic bombs. However, with their recent behavior, and with Democrats in congress at last joining Republicans to say that we have to sanction Iran for their illicit missile tests., the president's rhetoric is warring a bit thin The head of the Democratic Party even went so far as to sign a letter to the president that stated “The United States and our allies must take immediate, punitive action and send a clear message to Iran that violating international laws, treaties, and agreements will have serious consequences.”
The letter continued: “Inaction from the United States would send the misguided message that, in the wake of the [nuclear deal], the international community has lost the willingness to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its support for terrorism and other offensive actions throughout the region,” and she couldn’t be more right.
One is left wondering why the “Iran Deal” was reached in the first place, if we can’t trust Iran to not play around with missiles or to respect other countries' embassies. Either way, as the situation continues to deteriorate, we can rest on the president’s promises that he will “fix” the situation, sort of like when he “fixed” Ukraine, or when he “brought peace to Yemen.” Not reassured? Neither am I. Christmas is over, and now we are facing a brave new world, with a lame duck president in his last year, a middle east as bad as its been for a hundred years, and our president still claiming he is winning. God bless us, everyone.

Andrew C. Abbott

No comments:

Post a Comment