Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Sen. Jon
Kyl: Iran Nukes 'Biggest Challenge' to United
States
Saturday, May 27,
2006
WASHINGTON -- Senator Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., told a group initially
formed to educate the American public about Soviet aggression during
the Cold War that the "Iranian nuclear crisis . . . is the biggest
challenge in the near and immediate future" the United States will
face.
In a May 25 speech before the Committee on the Present Danger,
Kyl urged Americans from all political backgrounds to agree on "first
principles" about Iran that "can win the adherence of decent people
everywhere."
He described seven concepts he felt should guide U.S. and
international policy-makers in confronting the aggressive behavior of
the Iranian regime led by hard-line president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
Doing nothing about Iran's nuclear
programs amounts to acquiescence to a nuclear Iran, Kyl argued.
2) Take Ahmadinejad at his word.
Claims by Iran's president that Iran
will wipe Israel off the map and attack America "may be mere bluster
. . . However, the more prudent assumption to make is that
Ahmadinejad is a dangerous man, bent on doing us harm and seeking the
capability to act on his oft-stated intentions," Kyl said.
Comparing threats by the Iranian president to the famous incident at
the United Nations in New York when Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev
vowed to "bury" the United States, Kyl noted that "Ahmadinejad is not
simply banging his shoe on the podium . . . Given the tremendous
costs – financial and diplomatic – that the regime is
bearing, it is safest to assume" that it sees advantages to becoming
a nuclear power.
The U.S. intelligence community "has
a terrible record predicting when countries will ‘go nuclear,'
Kyl said. In fact, "in nearly every case other than the most recent
pre-war Iraq intelligence, our estimates have underestimated the
capacity of determined regimes to secretly develop their
programs."
The CIA was surprised by Soviet nuclear tests in 1949, Chinese
tests in 1964, Indian tests in 1974 and 1998, and again with Pakistan
and North Korea. "Given this uncertainty, it is wise to act as if the
more pessimistic estimates of Iran's nuclear timeline are warranted,"
he said.
"The abuses of international law
perpetrated by the Tehran regime have been flagrant and repeated, and
attempts to use diplomacy alone have failed," Kyl said. "The time has
come for us and our allies to impose targeted sanctions and penalties
against Iran. The Europeans need to ratchet up the pressure in the
U.N."
The U.S. should use Iran as a "litmus test for responsible
international citizenship," specifically with Russia and China.
"There need to be consequences for their continued intransigence. We
need to look at options such as organizing boycotts of the July G-8
meeting in St. Petersburg, or the 2008 Olympics in Beijing."
"By and large, the people of Iran are
younger, better educated, and more pro-Western than their
counterparts elsewhere in the region," Kyl said. "They are the
greatest hope for regime change, which in turn, is the only hope for
a moderate Iran. The West must build connections with the Iranian
public, and signal that our gripe is not with them but strictly with
the regime in Tehran."
Noting that most economic activity in
Iran "is controlled by the State," Kyl favored sanctions targeting
state-run businesses and Iran's economy in general, because they
would "disproportionately hit the leadership."
The IMF has been tracking "significant outflows of international
capital from Iran," he said. "Coordinated sanctions will make foreign
investors still more skittish, and make the regime's business
interests less profitable."
Kyl adopted other suggestions from a recent paper on Iran by the
Committee on the Present Danger, in particular: "bringing a case
before the International Criminal Court, charging Ahmadinejad with
inciting genocide," because of his repeated threats to wipe Israel
off the map. "Doing so would isolate the Iranian leadership
internationally," Kyl said.
"It is hard to believe that
Ahmadinejad could be deterred from using nuclear weapons once
acquired," Kyl said. Because of this, the United States should
consider pre-emptive military action, should current diplomatic
efforts fail.
Along with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Kyl called on national
security experts from both political parties two years ago to
reconstitute the Committee on the Present Danger, which had been
disbanded at the end of the Cold War.
Lieberman also addressed the Committee last night, and called for
"rational" discourse on national security affairs, including the
Iranian nuclear crisis.
"We cannot deal with such issues on a partisan basis,"
Lieberman said.