Posted by
Michael A. Minton on Tuesday, March 04, 2008 9:32:00 AM
During this never-ending primary presidential campaign season, most of the mainstream media, and bloggers, for that matter, seem to forget that there is a world outside of the United States that still spins. I know I am guilty. While compiling my new book, “Mr. Right Opinion-Unplugged and Unashamed,” I noticed that I have written very few articles in recent months that were not campaign related.
However, there is still a world out there spinning, and possibly out of control. The United Nations on Monday imposed a third round of sanctions against Iran for its failure to fully comply with U.N. demands of full disclosure and ceasing of its “peaceful” uranium enrichment program.
The obvious question to this new round of sanctions is: “Will it matter?” If history is any indication, the answer is a resounding “No!” After all, when the U.N. first imposed sanctions, Iran actually expanded its nuclear program. So, a second round of sanctions was imposed. The result? More Iranian defiance and yet another round of U.N. sanctions.
I guess one could try and be optimistic here and say that this round of sanctions targets not only military goods, but some civilian goods and services as well, potentially making them more effective. One could make the argument that we are not fighting against the French this time, as France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is being credited for actually HELPING to sway countries to vote for the sanctions.
Still, one cannot help being troubled by the U.N.’s dismal record of doing more than making idle threats. They threatened Iraq for years with “serious consequences” if it did not fully comply with U.N. weapons inspectors. They never did, and the U.N. never followed through on its threats. It took a United States president with moral clarity and a little backbone to bring those consequences to bear.
And now one has to be careful about even considering that course of action, as we have seen what results inaccurate intelligence can bring about. While I’m still not convinced that biological weapons weren’t moved out of Iraq, and I am, in fact, quite sure they were, there were still failures of intelligence in the pre-war buildup.
And that fact has not been lost on the Iranians, nor the rest of the world. A U.N. report on the matter said that Iran claimed that new documents linking the rogue state to missile and explosive experiments were false. And right now, who can say there’s not at least a possibility that the Iranians are right?
I personally have no doubt that Iran has more on its nuclear agenda than just the peaceful energy plans that it claims. They have threatened to blow Israel off the map. They have denied that the holocaust ever took place, and they are sworn enemies of democracies in general.
However, given the intelligence failures leading up to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Western countries, and the United States in particular, have lost some measure of credibility on intelligence issues in the eyes of the international community. And, of course, the United Nations has zero credibility in anybody’s eyes that it will actually back up any threats of action.
As a matter of fact, not only is the U.N. notoriously impotent for not following through on its threats, it has actually been proven complicit in undermining its own policies. As evidence, one need look no further than the “oil for food” scandals in which senior U.N. officials were taking bribes to look the other way.
It will be interesting to watch these events unfold. Will Israel take matters into its own hands, as it did with Iraq in the eighties, and try to annihilate Iran’s nuclear facilities on its own? Will the U.N. actually follow through and force Iran to comply with the international mandates?
Only time will tell. However, one thing is clear: now is NOT the time to elect a president who will be weak on matters of national security. It is not the time for a President Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Hussein Obama. It IS time for a President John McCain. And, in my Right Opinion, a Vice President Romney.