Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama recently articulated his strategy towards Iran. In an interview with the New York Times, Senator Obama said he would "engage in aggressive personal diplomacy" with the Islamic Republic, and he excused Iranian aggression towards U.S. forces inside Iraq.
Mr. Obama said that Iran had been "acting irresponsibly" by supporting Shiite militant groups in Iraq. He also emphasized that Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program and its support for "terrorist activities" were serious concerns.
But he asserted that Iran's support for militant groups in Iraq reflected its anxiety over the Bush administration's policies in the region, including talk of a possible American military strike on Iranian nuclear installations. . . .
Mr. Obama said, for example, that the part of the residual force assigned to counterterrorism might be based outside Iraq. He also emphasized that the residual force would not have the mission of deterring Iranian involvement in Iraq. He said he would commit to training Iraqi security forces only if the Iraqi government engaged in political reconciliation and did not employ the Iraqi Army and police for sectarian purposes. In any event, he said, American trainers would not be attached with Iraqi units that go in harm's way.
This represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the Iranian regime and its actions towards the West and the United States in particular. After overthrowing the Shah in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini directed the Islamic Revolution not only at the Iranian people, but exported its radical ideology and terror campaign throughout the world.
Iran, through the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force, built Hezbollah to attack Israel in Lebanon. Iran was behind the murder of U.S. Marines and French soldiers in the suicide car bombings in Beirut in 1983 and the attack on the Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994. Iran has been implicated in the Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia. Iran has aided al Qaeda prior to the September 11 attacks, and the 9-11 Commission said Iranian involvement deserved a closer look. Senior al Qaeda leaders such as Said bin Laden and Saif al Adel, along with upwards of 100 al Qaeda leaders and operatives, are currently being sheltered by the IRGC.
Iran initiated its terror network inside Iraq as soon as the U.S. invasion began, and aided al Qaeda, Ansar al Islam, and Ansar al Sunnah in establishing networks inside the country. Qods Force has established the Ramazan Corps to direct the Iranian terror networks inside Iraq. Qods Force smuggles munitions, such as the deadly explosively formed projectiles of the same type used by Hezbollah against Israeli troops, into Iraq. Up to 300 U.S. soldiers have been killed in EFP attacks alone.
Excusing Iranian aggression against U.S. servicemen in Iraq based on a perceived grievance and an imaginary fear of the Bush administration provides Iran a clear propaganda victory. Declaring that U.S. troops would not interdict Iranian terrorists and relegating them to non-combat missions endangers them further precisely because it makes them targets. Iran will target Iraqi patrols with U.S. advisors to force U.S. forces off the battlefield. This policy would also roll back the real progress made in Iraq since the surge began. Attacking the Iranian networks and interdicting their supply lines has been a key part of the improvement of the security situation.
