A declaration of war.

James G. Zumwalt reminds us that if don't learn from history we are bound to repeat the same mistakes.

...On Feb. 23, 1998, an event occurred that went ignored by the United States. Not until September 11, 2001 would its importance become clear -- and, thus, from the vantage point of hindsight, a "lesson learned." For it was then that a little-known terrorist named Osama bin Laden declared war against the U.S….

The lesson learned from bin Laden's February 1998 declaration is this: When an Islamic extremist leader speaks, we need to listen -- for what is said may well contain an ominous threat of action to follow. In Osama's mind, he was giving advance notice of his intent to attack. Had we listened, September 11 might well have been avoided.

… Another threat to do the world harm was issued last year. It remains to be seen what the world community will do to prevent that threat from becoming a reality. In October 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and for the destruction of the United States. These statements must be given full weight as to intent: i.e., they are Iran's advance notice that Israel and the U.S. need to be destroyed. …

During the Cold War, to deter nuclear conflict, the U.S. and the Soviet Union adopted the policy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) -- the effectiveness of which turned on the logic that if each side possesses enough weapons to destroy the other following one side's first strike, neither will initiate such an exchange. It also recognized that while millions would be killed outright in a nuclear exchange, millions more would succumb later to radiation exposure.

This logic seems to be totally lost on the Iranian leadership. The Israelis already are developing a submarine fleet armed with nuclear missiles so any first strike by Iran against Israeli land targets will still leave Israel able to retaliate from the sea. Radiation generated in an Iranian first strike would be spread by prevailing westerly winds back across Middle East states with major Muslim/Arab populations -- including Iran.

In Iranian President Ahmadinejad we have a mad leader, untethered by the MAD deterrent, hell-bent on creating the required chaos by paving the road for the 12th imam's return with the dead, and without concern as to whether the victims are Jews or Muslims.

Read the full article in The Washington Times.[Iran] [Ahmadinejad] [war] [letter] [Islam] [Muslims]