Connecting the Dots

Below is a list of events. See if you can determine what they all have in common.

1. The American embassy in Benghazi, Libya is attacked by about 100 extremely well armed terrorists who destroy the building and manage to kill 4 and wound 17 Americans.

2. The websites of Bank of America and Chase come under massive cyber attacks in the form of denial of service. In other words, someone gets massive numbers of computers to all flood the bank sites with requests so that the banks sites are overwhelmed.

3. The single biggest demonstration against America as a result of the youtube video is held in Beirut, Lebanon, under the leadership of Nasrallah of Hezbollah.

4. No meaningful demonstrations against the youtuve video are held in Iran.

5. Many terrorists trying sneak across the border this morning into Israel are discovered by Israeli troops and killed in a fire fight. One Israeli soldier dies in the conflict.

6. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, makes a speech at a military parade this morning and announces the Israel is behind the youtube video.

7. The filmmaker of the youtube video first tells the world that he is Sam Bacile an Israeli Jew. He turns out actually to be neither Israeli nor a Jew; he is Egyptian.

8. News comes out that the underground power lines to two different Iranian nuclear installations were blown up the other day. No word is given on whether or not this damaged the centrifuges in those installations.

9. A previously unknown group claims credit for the attacks on Chase and Bank of America. It says that the attacks are due to the youtube video.

10. Intelligence sources in the USA say that the attacks on Chase and Bank of America are the work of the Iranian government.

11. Iran announces that it is deploying submarines in the Persian Gulf. It also announces that it has deployed anti-ship missiles along the shores of that body of water and the Straits of Hormuz.

12. Time is running out for military action against the Iranian nuclear facilities.

If you think about these events, one thread that ties them all together is that each one pertains in a major way to the activities of Iran and its goal of getting nuclear weapons. Since the mullahs took power in 1979, they have consistently used distrations and proxies to achieve their ends. Think about it. During the Iraq war, militias supported by Iran killed thousands in Iraq, including a great many Americans. One estimate is that a majority of the IEDs used with great effect against America forces were manufactured in Iran. Those IEDs, however, were placed by Iraqis or others, never by Iranians. In Afghanistan, there are whole areas of the country where the Iranians have supplied the opponents of America. In that country too, many Americans have been killed with weapons supplied by Iran to their proxies. In 1983, the USA sent marines to Lebanon as a peacekeeping force. The barracks housing the marines were blown up by Shia Moslems following directions from Teheran. Nearly 250 marines died. In 2006, as the focus of the world was on Iran's nuclear ambitions and America was having some success getting Arab countries to join the effort to prevent the success of that Iranian effort, Iran had both Hamas and Hezbollah kidnap Israeli soldiers with the result that Israel fought a war with the two terror groups.

All of these events are part of an Iranian campaign to prevent any action from being taken against their nuclear program until it is too late. Iran hopes to paralyze Washington with the fear of widespread Moslem outrage over any attack. The youtube video upset is meant to be just a small indication of what would follow an attack on Iran. The submarine and the bank web site attacks are also meant to show Washington just how much damage Iran might be able to do if attacked.

The truth, however, is very different from the picture that Iran is trying to paint. Most of the world's Moslems do not hold Iran in high regard. After all, Iran's Moslems are Shia and not Sunni. Further, the military capabilities of Iran are insignificant when place in proper context. The American navy ought to be able to track an Iranian diesel submarine in the Persian Gulf and sink it the minute it began to take any belligerent action. The anti ship missiles in Iran would be a threat for the first few days of conflict, but American air power could wipe them away rather quickly. Attacks by terror groups controlled by Iran will always be a problem, but the likelihood of such attacks is greatly lessened if the mullahs come to understand that the existence of their regime depends on dialing down their support for terror rather than the opposite. In other words, in the face of strong action, Iran would have no choice but to quickly cut and run. The alternative, the destruction of the Islamic regime in Teheran, is not one that the mullahs would ever allow.

Now, before I get the emails telling me that I am being too simplistic, let me hasten to add this: I know that what I am saying is part analysis and not just a recitation of facts. I also know that in fighting that would result from an attack on the Iranian nuclear program, there would be many casualties. I also know that some of those casualties inevitably would be Americans. On the other hand, however, I also know that the mullahs in Iran understand that they will have to back down if faced with the real threat of imminent action against their nuclear program. Such a threat requires America and others to make clear to Iran just what the consequences of its actions are to be. Right now, we have a president whose reaction to the youtube video and the terror attacks is to deny that terror actions even took place and to place ads on Pakistani television to deplore the video. That is not projecting strength or even the appearance of strength. It is not leading from the front or even from behind. It is clearly projecting weakness to Iran. It is Obama telling the mullahs in effect that he is prepared to do anything to avoid confrontations before election day.