The Time to Act Before It's Far Too Late

Daily Express

THE United Nations last week more than ever resembled a cross between a lunatic asylum and a circus. Colonel Gaddafi of Libya stole most of the headlines for his bizarre, sleep-deprived rant. But during the follow-up act nobody was laughing. The unelected “President” of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, used his time at the podium of the UN in New York to attack Israel, a state he claims was founded because of a Holocaust he believes didn’t occur. What is so striking is not that he is a Holocaust denier but a ­Holocaust denier in favour of a Holocaust. He doesn’t think it happened last time but would like it to this time. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly described his aim to “erase” Israel “from the page of time”, and said that “soon this stain of disgrace will be cleaned from the garment of the world of Islam”.

Among the Iranian leadership he is not alone. The country’s Supreme Leader has said that “it is the mission of Iran to erase Israel from the map of the region”, while General Safavi of the Revolutionary Guards Corps declared last year that “with God’s help the time has come for the Zionist regime’s death sentence”. Just after Ahmadinehad’s disgraceful UN speech, the world was reminded that this is not just so much hot air. It is something Iran would like to turn into hot deeds. In a joint appearance at the opening of the G20 summit the leaders of Britain, America and France announced that another arm of Iran’s nuclear programme has been discovered. The country has been running a secret facility all along, giving the lie to Iran’s claim that they are not seeking atomic bombs. The secret uranium-enrichment plant at a military base near the city of Qom is, in Gordon Brown’s words, “inconsistent with a peaceful programme”.

After the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq it was thought that George Bush would be unable to lead another confrontation in the Middle East. Now it falls to his successor, President Obama, to cash in some of his much-vaunted popularity and lead Britain and the world’s response to this threat. It was the ancient Chinese sage Sun Tzu who wrote in The Art Of War that: “All warfare is based on deception. When able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away.” Ahmadinejad and the mullahs are very good at this tactic and have for decades now carried out a campaign of dissembling. For years they have been buying time – constantly stating that Iran’s nuclear programme is “peaceful and transparent” even as it becomes clear that it is hostile and deceitful. (Read more...)