Militant Regime Running Iran Must Be Toppled To Guarantee Real Peace

Dr John Coulter✍ Next to North Korea, the current political regime in Iran is one of the most dangerous and volatile leaderships in the world - and both need to be toppled to maintain global peace.

North Korea is already a nuclear power, and had not Israel and the United States attacked Iran, the latter was well on its way to acquiring ‘The Bomb’.

The delicate military action which the Western powers must implement is not a case of wiping Iran off the face of the Middle East, but simply doing enough damage to the existing radical leadership that it sparks a rebellion of the people against those militants.

Put bluntly, this must become a people’s revolution in Iran where democratic moderate Islam replaces the current extremist theology of the fundamentalist radicals.

Such fundamentalist Islamic radicals have a very warped interpretation of the Koran and even the most politically liberal person with any titter of wit would recognise that should they gain the capacity to make a nuclear weapon, it would most certainly be used against Israel.

In global terms, there are two facts people need to know about Israel. Firstly, it doesn’t give a hoot about world opinion. It will do whatever is necessary to destroy the terror group Hamas in Gaza, or the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

Secondly, it is not afraid to indulge in a ‘first strike’ military option if it feels there is a threat to the survival of its existence. The current extremist Islamic leadership in Iran is one such regime which wants, like Hamas and Hezbollah, to see Israel eradicated as a nation.

Even since the Shab of Persia was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has become a thorn in the flesh of Western powers and even many of its Middle East neighbours.

But the Western powers need to tread carefully in dealing with Iran militarily in case the Russians, Chinese and even the North Koreans see any Iran/Israel conflict as an opportunity to embarrass the United States.

Is it any wonder we witnessed some colourful language from US President Donald Trump when he clearly demonstrated his frustration with both states over their respective definitions of what is a ceasefire, a secession of violence - and more importantly, when it should start.

It seemed both Iran and Israel wanted to make the final point with one more missile before the actual supposed firing stopped.

Likewise, America does not want to rush into putting boots on the ground in Iran like it did in Vietnam and Afghanistan. In both wars, the United States left with its tail between its legs militarily, leaving the opponents in charge.

After American pulled out of Vietnam in the Seventies, the communists took over. In recent years, the Islamic radical Taliban is back in charge of Afghanistan. Even the old Soviet Union could not defeat the Taliban when it invaded the country a few decades ago.

The Donald is also walking a very high political and military tightrope. He must deploy enough military action against Iran to stop Israel using its nuclear weapons against Iran.

Likewise, he does not want the United States, or the West, to be drawn into a war of attrition on the ground in Iran. But The Donald must juggle both clubs - diplomacy and military - to ensure the current Islamic fundamentalist leadership in Iran either gives a cast iron guarantee it will never develop nuclear weapons, or is totally toppled in a new 1979-style revolution of the people.

With many European nations facing problems around immigration, including the UK and Ireland, there is the real danger that Iran could sneak terrorists into the British Isles to carry out attacks in both the UK and the Republic.

After all, during the Troubles, the Provisional IRA and the INLA carried out bombing campaigns in mainland Britain. And Southern Ireland need not wave the flag of so-called neutrality. The United States uses airports in the Republic to land its planes. In Iranian fundamentalist eyes, that makes Southern Ireland a so-called legitimate target.

Even Southern Ireland’s military reputation of providing United Nations peace keeping troops would not be enough to save it from a pro-Iranian Islamic terror attack. Southern Ireland is no stranger to such terrorist murder and mayhem given the 1974 no-warning bombs which the UVF detonated in Dublin and Monaghan during the Troubles.

So what is the solution to preventing the West from being dragged into a potential all-out war in the Middle East between Iran and Israel?

The US and the UK will have to deploy its elite respective special forces to eliminate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard leadership in the same way as Osama Bin Laden was hunted after 9/11.

At the same time, the US and UK must identify moderate Muslims who could transform Iran into a stable Western-style democracy with genuine human rights, especially for women.

The people who could compromise such a moderate leadership may currently be in jail in Iran, in hiding in Iran, or even in exile. Surely the entire population of Iran is not as extreme as the Revolutionary Guard leadership? There must be a sizeable number of moderate Muslims in Iran who could support a democratically run state.

Just as the UK became a haven for exiled governments during the Second World War, the UK and US need to politically also establish a moderate ‘government in waiting’ in exile when - not if - the current Revolutionary Guard leadership is finally and permanently deposed.

What is abundantly clear is that the West cannot allow a situation whereby the Revolutionary Guard is removed, only for it to return a few years later with even more savagery. The military mistakes of Vietnam and Afghanistan cannot be repeated with Iran.

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM.