By Glen Meakem
As published in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review
October 4, 2009

Last month, the world learned Iran has a second, previously secret facility for creating weapons-grade nuclear material. Iran has successfully test-fired ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons to Israel and parts of Europe.

In response, President Obama and other leaders threatened new economic sanctions, but not possible military action. Defense Secretary Robert Gates even said, “There is no military option that does anything more than buy time.”

But time is just what we need. Here are five reasons why the U.S. must stop Iran.

First, Iran’s leaders simply cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said the Holocaust is “a lie” and that Israel “is an illegitimate regime that must be wiped off the face of the Earth.”

According to Hassan Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of Iran’s most influential daily newspaper and a close confidant of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the “need to wipe Israel from the map has been the defined policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran from the very beginning. We declare explicitly that we will not be satisfied with anything less than the complete obliteration of the Zionist regime from the political map of the world.”

These leaders killed and tortured their own people this summer to hold on to power. They adhere to an apocalyptic Islamic ideology. There is a solid chance that deterrence from “mutually assured destruction” would not work with them. We must take them at their word.

Second, North Korea shows that when a dictatorial regime is determined to obtain nuclear weapons, diplomacy fails. Democrat and Republican administrations have failed to prevent North Korea from producing nuclear material and crude nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang “agreed” several times over two decades to freeze or dismantle its nuclear weapons program but never complied. Now, Pyongyang has test-detonated two nuclear bombs and is building a missile system.

North Korea has proven that the U.S. is a paper tiger regarding nuclear proliferation. Why should Iran listen to diplomats?

Third, if Obama and other Western leaders think they can just let Israel “take care of business” in Iran, they are mistaken.

Iran’s nuclear threat cannot be eliminated by a one-time air raid similar to those Israel used to destroy Syria’s single nuclear site in 2007 or Iraq’s single site in 1981. Iran has multiple nuclear-weapons production and missile sites, some more than 1,000 miles from Israel, and sophisticated anti-aircraft defenses.

Setting back Iran’s nuclear ambitions for 10 years would require a multi-week air war similar to what the U.S. and its allies launched against Iraq in 1991 and Serbia in 1999. Israel does not have the capability to do this alone.

Fourth, we are at the precipice of a world filled with nuclear-weapons states. If North Korea and Iran can develop nuclear weapons, why can’t Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Brazil?

Cold War “mutually assured destruction” worked with two superpowers and a limited group of other nuclear-weapons states. With 20, 30 or 40 nuclear-armed nations, theft or bad decisions become much more likely. The question becomes not if nuclear weapons will be used by a nation or terrorist group, but when.

Fifth, time would indeed be very valuable. June’s popular uprising in Iran provides hope that an immediate military defeat combined with a 10-year nuclear setback would enable the Iranian people to install a new, more reasonable regime in Tehran.

Diplomacy is failing with Iran just as it did with North Korea. We have the moral justification and military capability to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. If President Obama fails to act, Israel, the U.S. and Western Europe will be subject to blackmail if not direct military threat.

There are times when a U.S. president must step up and play his role in history. This is Obama’s moment. If he fails to act, history will hold him responsible.