Op-Ed: Iran is a true threat to America

The Horn

First off, for some time, I was the Sports Editor for The Horn. My capacity was strictly Texas athletics, and I never wanted to stray away from that. But for the first time in over three years of writing for The Horn, I venture outside of the world of sports. I enter a serious discussion about an extremely serious matter: A nuclear Iran.

Chances are if you've read at all about Iran, there are a few keywords that continue to show: uranium, enrichment, nuclear. This may seem like a regional threat, far from our borders and our minds, but Iran is a real threat to the United States.

Iran was the first nation to begin exporting radical Islamist terrorism when the current regime violently took over a peaceful revolution to establish itself in 1979. And the first target of the regime was the United States. The Iran hostage crisis, which lasted for over a year, resulted in the long-term detention of American hostages and the deaths of countless others.

Since that fateful event, the Iranian regime has killed more Americans than any other group besides Al-Qaeda. In 1983, Iranian-established proxy Hezbollah bombed a U.S Marine Barracks that was part of a peacekeeping force in Lebanon, killing 223 Marines. In 1996, another faction of Hezbollah carried an attack at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S Airmen and wounding nearly 392 others. Additionally, Iranian-backed groups such as the Mahdi Army wounded or killed numerous American service members during the recent war in Iraq.

Moreover, it was discovered last year that Iran collaborated with al-Qaeda in the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Unfortunately, the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran has invariably been one tied to terrorism against the United States. All of this has come to pass, yet we continue to stay idle with the threat of a nuclear Iran looming in the near future. This begs the ultimate question…what's next? What kind of horrific things could they do with such weapons in their possession?

It should be unsurprising that the rhetoric coming from the Iranian regime matches their violent actions. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini has regularly noted that it is “natural and unavoidable” to be in conflict with the United States. He and other top officials regularly refer to the United States as the “Great Satan.” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has consistently degrades the United States and has constantly called for the destruction of Israel.

"Over the past couple of days, we've seen Mr. Ahmadinejad once again use his trip to the U.N. not to address the legitimate aspirations of the Iranian people but to instead spout paranoid theories and repulsive slurs against Israel," Erin Pelton, a spokesman for United States U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, said in a statement after Ahmadinejad's speech at the U.N General Assembly on September 26, 2012.
Additionally, he used the U.N General assembly to once again put down the United States. He referred to capitalism as "failed practice" that is "bogged down in a self-made quagmire and has unleashed a deadlock, and has not been able to come up with any solution to the economic and social problems of the world."

He called for a new world order and blamed the United States for many if not all of the world's problems.

"The current abysmal situations of the world are due mainly to the wrong leadership of the world who have entrusted themselves to the devil," he said, referring to America's commanding position in world affairs.

Everything from our separation of church and state to our liberal democratic government are frequently demeaned and made to seem inferior to a regime that has enslaved their own people.

It is common to see Iranian school children forced to chant “Death to America.” YouTube it.

It is easy to find Ahmadinejad's speeches where he vehemently denies the Holocaust. YouTube it.

It is just as easy to come across one of Ahmadinejad's rants calling for the death of Israel, the Zionist cause, and the Jewish people all together. I dare you…YouTube it.

As Iran has shown, they are more than willing to engage in terrorist activities within their region and on foreign soil. It is unfortunately not a thing of the past. As recently as last year, U.S law enforcement found strong evidence of efforts by Iranian agents to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States while in the Georgetown District of Washington, D.C. They make regular threats to close off the Straights of Hormuz, a vital oil-shipping route. With major Iranian backing of terror groups with global networks such as Hezbollah or Hamas, Iran has the capability to harm American citizens or any group that stands in the way of their ambitions.

As students on campus at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, you have a voice. With that voice, you have an obligation. The University of Texas cannot be idle in the face of such a clear and present danger to our citizens and our brave men and women serving in the armed forces. The history and rhetoric of the Iran should leave no doubt; a nuclear Iran, or even a non-nuclear Iran under the current regime, poses a threat to America, her allies, and the Iranian people themselves.

Simply, we must stop Iran from becoming nuclear (and beat OU this weekend. Hook 'em!)

About the author: Scott Robbins covered the Longhorns from 2010-2012 with The Horn as a Writer and Sports Editor. He currently covers High School Football in the DFW area.