Iran Test Fires Missile with 2,000 Kilometer Range

Iran has decided to up the ante in its confrontation with the West. In addition to enriching uranium for nuclear plants it doesn't need, today it launched a Sajjil-2 missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers. This puts Israel and US Mid-East bases in range. It also excuses the Obama administration from any further open-handed approaches, and it makes it harder for Russia and China to deny tighter sanctions.

Iran does live in a tough neighborhood, and deterrence is only a prudent move. However, it is one thing to make known that the regime is prepared to deter an attack and quite another to do so in a manner more provocative than defensive. Iran's gone beyond demonstrating a resolve to defend itself and has started to look like the local bully. That is all to the credit of the Obama administration.

The neo-cons, feudalists and reactionaries have opined that the new kids in the White House were making America look weak and thereby, America's adversaries were "emboldened." (They seem fascinated by the word yet never think that Napoleon was emboldened to invade Russia). In fact, what it has done is illustrate to the world that the Iranian theocracy is an unreasonable mob whose own people don't trust it.

The question is, of course, what then must the world do? The answer is depressing because the previous few administrations in Washington and other western capitals didn't manage the problem better. Now, options are few. A military strike, while emotionally gratifying, will not change the regime's mind and might actually give it some local popularity. Doing nothing at this stage would be unwise. Fortunately, Iran must import 40% of its gasoline despite being a crude oil exporter due to lack of refining capacity. A gasoline embargo would tighten the screws nicely. In addition, financial harassment by way of freezing assets of the Revolutionary Guards' personal fortunes held abroad would make the sting more intimate. Restricting travel by Iranian diplomats and officials will have a similar effect.

In the end, Iran must be contained like the former Soviet Union. Many of the same neo-cons and reactionaries claim it can't be done and military means offer the only way forward. They are the intellectual descendants of those who wanted to use nuclear weapons on China during the Korean War. Propaganda will eventually settle this confrontation. And it isn't like the West doesn't have a lot of material to use. Iran's mullahs own most of the country, the Revolutionary Guard has become a state within a state, and the entire regime was founded by Ayatollah Khomeini, a pedophile who at the age of 26 married a 13-year-old child. One may call that a "cultural difference," but one refuses to accept such relativism. Dirty old men posing as men of God make useful targets.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Kensington Review Home