One of the greatest dangers to any country is that it will not pay enough attention to the threatening actions of an aggressive enemy nation.
Britain waited far too long to react when it became clear that Nazi Germany was gearing up for war. Although Germany was ultimately defeated in World War II, Britain paid a high price for its delay.
Today, the United States faces a serious threat from the radical Muslim regime in power in Iran.
Iran regularly sponsors terrorist acts through groups such as Hezbollah. Its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has expressed a clear desire to wipe the nation of Israel off the map. And recently, Iran was implicated in a bizarre plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States — on U.S. soil.
Now, Iran wants to deploy missile-armed warships to international waters close to the U.S. coast.
“[W]e will have a powerful presence near the U.S. sea borders,” the head of Iran’s Navy announced.
Of course, no one considers Iran a major naval power at the moment, and its ships plainly would be no match for U.S. naval capabilities.
But remember: Iran is strongly believed by many nations — not only the United States — to be developing nuclear weapons. While it might not be able to launch a missile from Iran that would be capable of reaching the United States, it could potentially strike America with a short-range missile if it had a ship near our coasts. Even one nuclear missile fired from one Iranian vessel could do unimaginable harm to some heavily populated area of our nation.
Unfortunately, we cannot dismiss Iran’s threats as mere bluster. Its terrorist actions in the past and today make it plain that Iran backs up its threats with violence.
Will the United States and other nations make the same mistake that Britain made before World War II — wrongly assuming (or hoping) that a belligerent foe won’t actually turn its hostile words into hostile actions?
We do so at enormous peril.