What part of "death to America!" don't we understand?

By Jerry Newcombe

No deal at all is better than a bad deal. I think that is especially true with the recent deal with Iran that President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry are touting.

On a weekly basis, Iranian leaders incite crowds with shouts of "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" We're the great Satan. Israel is the little Satan. They want our destruction – so why would our government ever pave the way toward Iran possibly getting a nuclear bomb?

I asked Robert Spencer of jihadwatch.org for a statement for this column on Iran and the bomb and Obama's recent deal with them.

Spencer wrote me: "The Iran deal is an unmitigated disaster. Not only does it sanction Iran's nuclear program, but by the removal of sanctions, it finances it. Obama has betrayed (yet again) an ally and endangered the entire free world. That is and will remain his true legacy."

Some of the Iranian leaders have even denied the Holocaust. Yet they seem intent on creating a new one. Liberals, like the president, have said they would like to see the world free from more nuclear bombs. Yet this deal could possibly start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

I have even heard some speculate that the mad mullahs in charge in Iran would be willing to use a bomb on Israel, if they got one. They know they would be destroyed by Israel in retaliation, but they would accomplish two things by this:

1. They would take out Israel, "the little Satan," which has been a thorn in the side of radical Islam since it was re-established in 1948; and
   
   
2. Even though millions of Iranians would die through retaliation, they would ostensibly die as martyrs for Jihad, therefore they'd go to paradise.
   

John Wohlstetter is an expert on the Middle East and is a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute. He wrote a book on nuclear weapons, called Sleepwalking with the Bomb.

In a recent radio interview about Iran and the bomb, he told me, "America worries about its security. Israel worries about its survival."

He added that if Iran got nuclear weapons, "I think that it is likely they will use them in some way. Now, if they're going to fire a nuclear weapon in the sense of aiming at cities, I think Israel is your most logical target. If they're going to fire at us, maybe they'd try a single shot that is an electro-magnetic pulse attack, which could short out our infrastructure in a worst case – our national grid. That one would be hard to trace."

Thankfully, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does understand this very real threat.

In his brilliant speech before Congress on March 3, 2015 (that the president snubbed), he said, "I'm standing here in Washington, D.C. and the difference is so stark. America's founding document promises life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Iran's founding document pledges death, tyranny, and the pursuit of jihad. And as states are collapsing across the Middle East, Iran is charging into the void to do just that."

Netanyahu reminded everyone that Ayatollah Khomeini, the prime mover in Iran's 1979 revolution toward draconian Islam, told his followers to "export the revolution throughout the world."

Although Iran is Shiite (representing roughly 15% of all Islam), the vast majority of Islam, the Sunni population, includes many radical Muslims as well. ISIS and Al-Qaeda are Sunni groups. Hezbollah is Shiite. One is tempted to say, pick your poison.

A Christian couple best known for their music ministry, Jimmy and Carol Owens, wrote an open letter recently to the president and secretary of state, wherein they quoted some of the Haddith, the sayings of Mohammed, showing that deception to advance Islam was okay.

Their open letter stated, "Here are some quotes from their founder himself, the prophet Mohammed:

"....Bukhari 4,52,267 Mohammed cried out, 'Jihad is deceit.'

"Bukhari 5,59,369 Bin Maslama volunteered to kill an enemy for Mohammed, then said, 'Give me permission to deceive him with lies so that my plot will succeed.' Mohammed replied, 'You may speak falsely to him.'"

And they summarize all this in a sentence: "If deception to an enemy is advantageous to Islam, it is not a sin."

The Bible is very clear. We should be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves. This deal is so bad it should be opposed by all Americans, especially the legislative body which Obama deliberately sought to avoid by not calling it a treaty. But a rose by any other name... What part of "Death to America!" doesn't he understand?

To paraphrase satirist Tom Lehrer, "We'll try to stay serene and calm...when the Ayatollah gets the bomb!"

© Jerry Newcombe