In today’s Washington Post, Dana Priest reports that U.S. intelligence and terrorism experts say they believe Iran would respond to U.S. military strikes on its nuclear sites by deploying its intelligence operatives and Hezbollah teams to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide. Iran would mount attacks against U.S. targets inside Iraq, where Iranian intelligence agents are already plentiful, predicted these experts. There is also a growing consensus that Iran’s agents would target civilians in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. [emphasis added]
If these reports are accurate, we have two choices. The first is to allow ourselves to be blackmailed by not taking military action as a last resort to prevent Iran from going nuclear. If we allow ourselves to be blackmailed by an Iran that is not yet a nuclear power, imagine how easy it would be for the mullahs to blackmail us after Iran has the Bomb. The second is to serve notice that, if our civilians are attacked, we will respond in kind. As distasteful as the second option is, it’s better than the first. The long-standing policy of the U.S. is that we don’t negotiate with terrorists. A corollary to this policy should be that we will not allow our national security policies to be determined by the threat of terrorist actions.
[...] UPDATE: March Schulman of American Future had this to add in a recent post: [...]
Where are those human shields when we need them? I’ll need at least six to form a circle around me in order to protect this innocent civilian.
9/11 was essentially an attack on our civilian population centers, and what was our response. We decided to bring the gifts of our civilization, democracy, liberty, free-market capitalism, to those that killed us with impunity. Certainly, there was a military component to our response but even here, the military’s goal is to bring about the conditions that will allow democracy to establish itself. Why would Iran be afraid of killing U.S. civilians?
Barnabus
Every nation that has had the benefit of a long-term US troop presense has prospered. I seem to remember that Iranians waved signs that read “bomb us next” after the US launched it’s attack on the Taliban. Even Iranians recognize the consequences.
In other news today, expert researchers funded by the Department of Energy discovered that water is wet, oxygen is necessary to breath, and Russians are irresponsible about selling weapons to Third World countries.
Is the idea that Iran would use terrorism as a tool of warfare that novel an idea to these people?