A practiced mob broke into the British embassy in Tehran Tuesday, broke windows, smashed furniture, emptied file cabinets into the streets, and terrorized the staff.
The consequences were swift. As soon as its people were out of the country, Britain give Iran 48 hours to close its embassies and get its ambassadors and Iranian nationals out of England. France, Germany and the Netherlands all withdrew their ambassadors and Norway said it was closing its embassy as a precaution.
France’s budget minister, Valerie Pecresse, said the 27-nation European union should consider an embargo on Iranian oil or a freeze on its central bank holdings in Europe.
Iran watchers worried that Iran’s militants would take these strong reactions as assaults and escalate the violence against whatever Western elements remain there, leading to military action at some level. Others pointed out that closing the Western embassies in Iran would make it even more difficult to monitor Iran’s progress toward developing nuclear arms.
Condemnation of the Iranian mob has been universal. It was made up of members of the Basij, an extremist youth militia that has been used by members of the religious hierarchy which hold supreme power in Iran to suppress street protests or attack opponents.
The attack on the embassy, in other words, was ordered by Iran’s rulers.
THIS ESCALATION of tension between Iran and the West introduces a new test for the eight who are seeking the Republican nomination in our nation. Thus far in the long string of debates America’s foreign policies have been all but ignored. Now, they will be bound to say where they stand, what they would do as president to respond to future anti-West attacks by Iran or others.
The sacking of the British embassy Tuesday in Tehran brought America’s role in the Middle East back to center stage.
Reporters will want to know what the candidates would do if Israel decides it can wait no longer and destroys Iran’s ability to create the nuclear materials needed to make nuclear weapons. Would they partner with Israel openly? Send U.S. bombers in? Be ready to declare war if Iran attacks Israel?
Are they ready, in other words, to start still another Mid-East war that will cost still more American lives, drain still more borrowed billions from the U.S. treasury?
Which of them feels competent to lead the nation as the world faces still another major conflict? The United States remains the strongest military power on the globe. It cannot stand idly by if Israel, its only true ally in the region, comes under attack — or becomes the aggressor itself in the name of self-preservation.
No only must President Barack Obama and those who would take his place take a stand on Iran, the American people must ask themselves who they would rather have as the decision-maker in the White House if Khamenei takes the Middle East to war again.
This election business may turn serious.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
