Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard troops attack a naval vessel during a military drill in the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran last Wednesday. (Hamed Jafarnejad, AFP/Getty Images)
Re: “The fatal flaw in the Iran deal,” Feb. 27 Charles Krauthammer column.
Kudos to Charles Krauthammer for his perceptive analysis. President Obama’s plan to contain and deter Iran’s march toward a deadly nuclear program is misguided and potentially dangerous.
With the Soviet Union missile crisis in the ’60s, the United States was dealing with a Marxist-Leninist regime that was never a staunch believer in the virtues of martyrdom. By contrast, Iran’s Shi’ism is based upon suffering and martyrdom going back to the murder of Imam Husayn in the seventh century. More recently, in Iran’s war with Iraq, Tehran sent child soldiers, as young as 10, to clear out Iraqi minefields.
With this mindset, Iran’s nuclear aim is far from pragmatic, but rather that of a regime that has little to fear from external pressures. The latest deal with Iran does nothing but buy time for Iran as it inches toward a bomb that endangers not only Israel but all of the Middle East.
Krauthammer is right: Keep the pressure (what little good it might do) and keep the sanctions.
Jenene Stookesberry,Denver
This letter was published in the March 4 edition.
