Sarah Palin was supposed to have delivered a speech today before a rally at UN headquarters to protest the appearance of Iranian fascist fruitcake in chief and Gilligan look-alike President Ahmadinejad. Her appearance was canceled when Senator Clinton backed out and the organizers then dis-invited Palin under serious pressure from Democrats – including threats to their tax-exempt status.
The New York Sun, however, has printed the text of Palin's speech. In my opinion, it's a must-read if one wants insight into the likely Iranian policy of a McCain-Palin administration. It's an unequivocal denunciation of Iran's worldwide role in terrorism, its vicious anti-Semitism and misogyny, and its overall barbarism. She also makes clear the threat Irans poses to the world:
Ahmadinejad may choose his words carefully, but underneath all of the rhetoric is an agenda that threatens all who seek a safer and freer world. We gather here today to highlight the Iranian dictator's intentions and to call for action to thwart him.
He must be stopped.
The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us. Ahmadinejad denies that the Holocaust ever took place. He dreams of being an agent in a "Final Solution" — the elimination of the Jewish people. He has called Israel a "stinking corpse" that is "on its way to annihilation." Such talk cannot be dismissed as the ravings of a madman — not when Iran just this summer tested long-range Shahab-3 missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv, not when the Iranian nuclear program is nearing completion, and not when Iran sponsors terrorists that threaten and kill innocent people around the world.
The Iranian government wants nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran is running at least 3,800 centrifuges and that its uranium enrichment capacity is rapidly improving. According to news reports, U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Iranians may have enough nuclear material to produce a bomb within a year.
Yeah, I know. Not only our own, but intel agencies around the globe were wrong about Saddam's WMD programs – though not his intent to restart them after the sanctions regime had collapsed. Less important is the time scale than the fact, which only a fool could deny, that Iran is devoting its national resources to the development of nuclear weapons and the systems by which to deliver them. Weapons which they could well pass on to their proxies.
As far as recommendations of what to do about the Iranian threat, Palin makes the usual statements in support of sanctions and international pressure, including measures against the financial resources of Iran's rulers, all of which the current administration is doing. One hopes a McCain administration would be more forceful and consistent in their application, and would drop the farce of negotiations. Iran has been playing the so-called EU-3 nations (Britain, Germany, and France) like a fiddle for years now, negotiating only to buy time to create a nuclear fait accompli. If a McCain foreign policy is as strong as Palin indicates, then, come January of next year, we should tell Iran "Don't waste our time," and then pursue a consistent, aggressive policy to thwart or change Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Such a policy needn't involve war with Iran, though that should be an option if necessary. However, it can and should include moral and material aid to Iranian democratic resistance groups, and I was sorry not to see that mentioned in Palin's speech. The mullahcracy there is brittle and vulnerable: their repressive measures indicate how much they fear their own people. Perhaps McCain and Palin were just being discreet and not mentioning this option for reasons of statecraft and electoral politics. Perhaps they plan to undertake such measures as part of a comprehensive Iranian policy. We'll see.
Meanwhile, do take time to read the speech, and do ponder what it means when the Democrats engage in political thuggery to silence voices they don't want heard.
LINKS: Phyllis Chesler, Hot Air.
UPDATE: It appears Sarah Palin may be underestimating the Iranians: There are serious indications that the Iranians may be as few as six months from being able to build a bomb.
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