World Threats

Excuse the Team America reference, as this is a pretty serious news item. The title suggests Iran is “threatening” to use suicide bombers against the U.S., but a closer reading reveals Iran is not threatening, but saying they are going to  use suicide bombers.

The speaker of Iran’s parliament and their former representative in the nuclear talks (proving once again the fallacy of those talks), Ali Larijani condemned U.S. military actions in Pakistan and Syria, saying:

“The US method and conduct, expressed by this aggression, will only be stopped by a clear-cut and unexpected response, whose grounds were set by the martyr Hussein Fahmida,” referring to a 13-year old suicide bomber from the Iran-Iraq War.

Now does that sound like a threat or a description of how Iran will retaliate for American’s so-called offenses against Islam?

Eliminating any further doubt as to the type of retaliation Larijani was referring to, he further said: “America should be aware not to put its huge body on top of the suicide bombers’ explosive devices.” Ayatollah Khamenei made a similar threat the same day, saying anyone not respecting Iran’s sovereignty would have their “hands cut off,” indicating this is a calculated rise in hostile rhetoric.

While conservative commentators are bashing President-Elect Obama’s choice of a chief of staff in Rahm Emanuel, I support the decision as he served as a volunteer in Israel’s Defense Forces during the Gulf War and appears to be under no illusion about the threat we face.