Cal Thomas: Iran’s record of terror

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Thursday, April 11th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

AUDIO: President Trump has designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization—or FTO. It’s about time.

Commentary now from Cal Thomas.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Other administrations could have done it, but didn’t.

In a statement the president said—quote—“The Iranian regime… exports dangerous missiles, fuels conflict across the Middle East, and supports terrorist proxies.”

This is not exactly breaking news. Iran’s government has been on the state sponsors of terrorism list since 1984. But Trump has applied a meaningful designation to another government entity—which the White House says is a first.

The stated goal is to “…increase the financial pressure and isolation of Iran and deprive the regime of resources it uses for its terrorist activities.”

It’s too bad the U.S. can’t recover the $400 million dollars the Obama administration sent to Iran in 2016—in what looked an awful lot like a ransom for four Americans held hostage.

Memories can fade quickly, so it’s a good time to recount just some of Iran’s terrorist activities.

After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the new religious leadership established the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—ostensibly to promote government social policy. But today its roughly 150,000 military personnel are major trainers of Islamic terrorists—and the means of funding outside terrorist groups.

The U.S. government has blamed Iran-supported groups for the deaths of American soldiers in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. These groups are also a constant threat to Israel, which Iranian leaders vow to one day eliminate.

Hezbollah is a chief beneficiary of Iranian support. That terrorist organization has buckets of blood on its hands.

Here are a few examples: In 1983, a truck laden with explosives plowed into U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American soldiers. An American federal judge ruled that Hezbollah was responsible for the attack on orders from the Iranian government.

In 1985, the hijacking of TWA flight 847 resulted in the murder of a U.S. Navy sailor and 39 American hostages.

In 1994, terrorists bombed a Jewish community center in Argentina, killing 85 people. Hezbollah admitted responsibility.

In 1996, another bombing—this one a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Nineteen U.S. service members died. In 2006, a federal judge ruled Iran was responsible.

So why did it take other administrations so long to respond to the obvious? It should be the policy of the U.S. government to support Iranians who want to overthrow their government—and the fundamentalist fanatics currently in control of it.

For WORLD Radio, I’m Cal Thomas.  

(Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP) In this picture released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks at a meeting with a group of Revolutionary Guards and their families, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 9, 2019. 

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