Iran's New Leader: An International Criminal?

Just like so many victims of Nazi death camps, who have been terrorized for the remainder of their lives by the horrors of abuse from their captors, now some American hostages are certain that Iran's newly elected President is one of the Islamic student radicals that abused them during the 444 day Iranian hostage situation.

If the mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is indeed one of these terrorists that abused American civilian hostages and mistreated them at gunpoint cruelly for 444 days, then it is very difficult for America to have any constructive relationship with Iran. One former hostage, Donald Sharer remembers Ahmadinejad as very "cruel". This has to be a source of huge pain and trauma to these abused Americans.

America may have made a huge mistake in continued support for the Shah of Iran after so much evidence of abuse, torture and political dissent suppression was reliably reported from so many human rights organizations. America saw some states such as Gamel Nasser's Egypt become part of the MidEast Arab revolt against British rule seek political alignment and support from the Soviet Union, while the Persian nation of Iran had a strong anticommunist leader in the Shah of Iran. This made the Shah America's most important leader in postWWII MidEast relations between the American and Soviet chess game for world control by use of allied states like Iran to blunt the growing Soviet alignment by some MidEast States. Even Iraq's Saddam Hussein was a virtual student of Gamel Nasser's rise to power as a radical Arab socialist leader. Iraq was organized around a political nature built on the 1958 rebellion against the 41 year failed British attempt to maintain colonial rule in Iraq. Britain even used massive mustard gas and firebombings of entire villages in Iraq to maintain control and to "pacify" Arab nationalist resistance in it's losing attempt to main control which started in 1917 as an outgrowth of WWI and lasted well after the conclusion of WWII. A revolution in Iran was certain someday. Only the iron hand of the Shah prevented such a MidEast revolt in Iran, so all human rights abuses were ignored or accepted by Washington as politically "necessary" to blunt the similar regional Arab socialist rebellions that could sweep a proMoscow government into Persian Iran and threaten the sea lane of oil to America. Torture in Iran was tolerated for gasoline for Main Street, USA's booming postwar economy.

Iran controls the Strait Of Hormuz, by which all MidEast oil flows to the United States. All oil tankers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar mustflow through this very narrow and vital sea lane. All the problems with the cruelty of the Shah were ignored by all Presidents by the Shah since 1941 until his fall from power in the Iranian revolution of 1979, because of the cold war with the Soviets, and the important flow of oil for the booming post WWII economy in the U.S. America should have developed a policy of human rights support in Iran, political cooption of a moderate leader to replace the Shah, and reasonable efforts to keep the sea lane open to the flow of oil.

Sooner or later, the United States will probably have major war with Iran for one reaon or another. In Ezekiel 37-39 in the Bible such a major war with Iran(Persia) is clearly warned of. This war is not the final battle of Armageddon some fear, but another serious world war far worse than any previous world war. It is the only future war so dangerous that it is warned of by the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel is a unique prophet in that his book in the Old Testament is the entire history of the Jewish people in the MidEast. And it has been entirely accurate in every detail so far. All historical events have been accurately stated by Ezekiel, and all future events such as the destruction of Judea and Sumaria, and the re-establishment of the modern 1948 state of Israel have been accurately stated by Ezekiel as well. There is every reason to trust that Ezekiel's warning about a future war, the worst of mankind being in the future of the MidEast, caused by Iran is an event that is absolutely certain to happen.

A hardliner or not, a hostage abuser and international criminal or not, President-Elect of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should cooperate with the U.S. in an useful dialog. Neither Iran or the U.S. would gain anything from being major players in a huge MidEast war. But all the warnings of prophet Ezekiel are dangerously falling into place. Normally Bible events that are foretold occur within a lifetime, and the 1948 re-establishment of Israel is within this time frame. So there are many reasons to fear the worst may happen with Iran-U.S. relations. And major war may be in the near future for Iran and the United States.

Iran needs to make important steps to curtail their nuclear program, offer better dialog to the U.S., and if the current leader is one of the student radicals who abused American civilians in the hostage crisis, choose a different leader better able to offer a useful relationship to America, and to better serve all Iranian political interests. But the signs are not good, as radical Ahmadinejad has attacked even Western style fast food outlets as "Western decadence". He shows every intend to force Iranians into a dark age of absolute hardline Islamic rule over the lives of all Iranians. America now has problems with a huge Taliban type state that is a major source of foreign fighters into Iraq, sponsorship and homeland to terrorist organizations, counterfeits American currrency to bolster their economy and to hurt America economically, and eyes the development of nuclear weapons to create possible terror as well as the destruction of Israel. Iran is indeed a grave threat to America. And all in America should be aware of that cold hard fact.