Time to get serious about the crimes of Iran

Iran’s 45-year-old Islamic Republic ticks every one of the boxes that might justify intervention, and it's about to achieve nuclear weapons capability

Photo by Tianlei Wu via Unsplash

By Robert Hamilton and Dan Perry

It is one of the major questions of geopolitics: When is it defensible, or even necessary and wise, for large powers to intervene in the affairs of other countries? For anyone not answering “never” – anyone who would not have been an isolationist in the leadup to World War II – it is time to start thinking seriously about Iran.

That’s because Iran’s 45-year-old theocracy, the Islamic Republic, ticks every one of the boxes that might apply when addressing the question — cautiously, strategically, and with no illusions about the risks either way.

It is a despotism loathed by the majority of its people, whom it has impoverished and abused (check out the Amnesty International update). It threatens its region by fomenting terrorism, chaos and aggression (a recent US State Dept. report makes for grisly reading). And it threatens the world by insisting on a nuclear weapons program which will exacerbate an arms race and destabilize the world order – while also severely impeding global maritime commerce vis its Yemen proxy.

The past days’ killing by its proxy Hamas of six hostages, including a U.S. citizen, provides stark illustration of the murderous nature of this cabal (see our story from earlier this week).

Of course, there is extreme reluctance in the West toward further misadventures with Islam, and even a form of normally healthy humility begat by the difficulties and failures of nation-building efforts in Iraq and especially in Afghanistan (whose new-old Taliban regime has almost fully reverted to pre-2001 form in its oppression of girls and women especially). And we in no way take the risks of a more aggressive posture lightly.

But the risk aversion, and the understandable popular inclination to let the Middle East stew in its own juices, must be weighed against the risks of doing nothing.

In recent days it has been reported that Iran is feverishly trying to smuggle weapons to Hamas in the West Bank, in hopes of spreading the war to that territory.

Stepping back, here’s what else Iran has been up to.