Shake the Roman throne

We Can’t Win Wars by Permission

By Alan Nathan

FrontPageMagazine.com

June 20, 2007

Arguments are erupting over whether or not we should go after Iran militarily in light of the widely reported NATO, European and American intelligence having shown physical proof of President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad’s Qud forces operating alongside al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

- AL-QAEDA leaders in Iraq are planning the first “large-scale” terrorist attacks on Britain and other western targets with the help of supporters in Iran, according to a leaked intelligence report.

Spy chiefs warn that one operative had said he was planning an attack on “a par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki” in an attempt to “shake the Roman throne”, a reference to the West.


“Al-Qaeda Planning ‘Big British Attack,’” The Sunday Times UK, April 22, 2007


- NATO officials say they have caught Iran red-handed, shipping heavy arms, C4 explosives and advanced roadside bombs to the Taliban for use against NATO forces, in what the officials say is a dramatic escalation of Iran’s proxy war against the United States and Great Britain.


“It is inconceivable that it is anyone other than the Iranian government that’s doing it,” said former White House counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant.


“Document: Iran Caught Red-Handed Shipping Arms to Taliban,” ABC News, June 6, 2007

Three questions:


Why treat proxy-war enemies differently than direct enemies?


Why respond only if the enemy’s threat is imminent?


And, why has the risk of collateral killing taken priority over defeating the enemy?


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