In his 2009 speech at Cairo University in Egypt, President Barack Obama announced to the world his future plans to work with Islamic nations, specifically about nuclear weapons. He said: “No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons.” Many people agreed with that statement in general, but failed to see where such rhetoric was leading. Now we see that the president was referring to Iran.
To say that we have no right to deny a nation nuclear weapons is insane if the nation seeking those weapons wants to destroy us! Iran is such a nation and has stated so repeatedly and publicly.
We must ask ourselves: Is Iran just another nation? Definitely not. Middle East historian Bernard Lewis, a great authority on Islam, wrote in 2006, “There is a radical difference between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons” (emphasis mine).
The reason is Iran’s religious motivations. Lewis continued, “A passage from the Ayatollah Khomeini, quoted in an 11th grade Iranian schoolbook, is revealing. ‘I am decisively announcing to the whole world that if the world devourers—that is, the infidel powers—wish to stand against our religion, we will stand against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of all of them.’” Khomeini was the founder of the Islamic republic of Iran; he called for the destruction of all unbelievers. Lewis wrote, “In the context, mutual assured destruction (mad), the deterrent that worked so well during the Cold War, would have no meaning.”
Iran is unlike any other nation. Its leaders actually think that if they start a nuclear war, it will hasten the return of their messiah.
The previous president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was also under the control of the supreme ayatollah, stated, “Our revolution’s main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th imam.” Dore Gold, head of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and author of The Rise of Nuclear Iran, wrote, “It is not surprising that many Iran experts assert that Ahmadinejad sees Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons as means of paving the way for the mahdi’s arrival. Indeed, many of the adherents to these associations believe that the destruction of Israel is a prerequisite for the mahdi’s appearance.” In other words, Iran may believe it has to attack and destroy Israel before the mahdi will even return! What other nation believes that? No other nuclear power—not even North Korea—believes anything like that. Anybody who relies on the classic deterrence model has no idea what he is up against with Iran.
We need to understand the critical danger we face when Iran builds nuclear bombs. We are facing the mass murder of billions of people, out of unstoppable religious zealotry.