According to a new State Department report, Iran's support for international terrorism is at an all time high. We also recently learned that Iran continues to aggressively expand its nuclear program, and funnel troops and weapons into Syria. President Barack Obama concedes that Iran is the world's most dangerous country, but he still refuses to do anything about it. This inaction will have deadly consequences for the world, and for America.
No recent news story so clearly articulated Obama's failure on Iran as the report that Tehran was sending $4 billion to Syria to prop up the Assad regime. By failing to address the Iranian threat, Obama has helped contribute to the deaths of 80,000 Syrians -- along with scores more across the Middle East and the world.
And if Obama doesn't act quickly, many more innocent people will find themselves in mortal danger from Iran.
For years, the State Department has labeled Iran as the world's leading sponsor of terror. In their most recent report, the Department concluded that "Iran and Hezbollah's terrorist activity has reached a tempo unseen since the 1990s." Yet President Obama has shown no indication that he will alter his failed policy of sanctions and diplomacy.
Even Dennis Ross, Obama's former Mideast adviser, admits that President Obama's Iran policy has failed. The reason is simple: Iran does not take Obama seriously, nor do they believe his empty threats about the use of force.
For five years, Obama has told Iran that they can build a nuclear weapon, support terrorism, fund Hezbollah and Hamas and prop up the Syrian regime with absolutely no consequences.
President Obama's economic sanctions are failing miserably. For Iran's leaders, obtaining a nuclear weapon is a matter of survival. The regime believes that a nuclear capability will ward off any sort of foreign intervention (see North Korea), and might actually force the international community to support Tehran in an internal crisis due to the West's fear of what would happen to Iran's nuclear stockpile if the mullahs fell (see Pakistan). Whatever the merits of Western intervention in countries such as Iraq and Libya, these conflicts have shown Iran's leaders that obtaining a nuclear weapon is the only foolproof way to prevent something similar from happening in the Persian state.
Hoping that sanctions and economic distress will convince the Iranian people to overthrow their government, or force the regime to abandon its nuclear weapons program, is also naïve.
During the 2009 Green Revolution, the Iranian government showed it was perfectly willing to murder and torture its own citizens to preserve power. Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami was quoted as warning that Ayatollah Khamenei was wiling to murder 200,000 people in order to ensure the survival of his regime. Finally, as we've seen in North Korea, some leaders are perfectly happy to let their people starve if that's the price of a nuclear weapon.
The proof is in the pudding. Obama's sanctions against Iran have been in effect for years. What are the results? The IAEA says Iran is racing toward a nuclear weapon, Iran is supporting international terrorism at an unprecedented rate and Iran is almost singularly propping up the Assad regime (with an assist from Russia).
Granted, President Obama does not possess the unilateral power to force Iran to alter its behavior. But he has many tools at his disposal, and he must use them.
Obama must demonstrate that Iran will face serious, and real, consequences if the mullahs don't change course. Given the president's five-year policy of appeasement, as well as his recent speech promising to take America off of a war footing, this will be difficult. But it is possible.
If President Obama continues his failed policy, Iran will build a nuclear weapon, expand its support for international terror and continue to support the murder of innocent people in Syria, Israel, Europe and the United States (Iran is directly responsible for the death of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has encouraged terror attacks against Americans abroad).
Americans, and President Obama, are rightly focused on the many problems facing us here at home. But a nuclear-armed, emboldened Iran demands greater attention.
