Israel is now surrounded. To the north Hizbollah controls southern Lebanon, and to the north east Syria sits, hostile as ever. In the Gaza Strip Hamas now rules supreme, and the West Bank is no better. We should not kid ourselves, Fatah has not suddenly becomse a moderate, secular, peace loving organization. They are just as violent as Hamas, and Hamas might be as popular in the West Bank as it is in Gaza. Though Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel it would be foolish to assume that they would try to stop Hamas from building their arsenal and launching a war against the Jewish State. Israel has been surrounded by Iranian allies and proxies.
Of course, it is not just Israel that suffers because of Iranian meddling and war mongering. Iraq is gripped by a terrorist campaign, conducted by both Shiites and Sunnis, that is being waged from Tehran. The Mahdi Army is attacking Sunnis, Al-Qaida is attacking Shiites, and we're in the middle trying to bring peace and Democracy. No matter what happens Iran wins. Every day the war becomes more unpopular here. Even as the violence decreases and most provinces are peaceful Iran can claim victory if they can force our forces out before the job is over. If that happens the violence in Gaza will be inflicted on Iraq only on a much larger and much bloodier scale.
Iran has been, for 28 years, the center of Islamic terrorism. Today it is even more so. It is supplying the Taliban in Afghanistan with weapons, it seeks to bring Iraq into its orbit, and it wants to completely wipe out Israel. It's doing all of this while it feverishly pursues nuclear weapons. It's ambitious if nothing else.
Instead of using that ambition to help the people of Iran, who suffer under a dictatorial political system, and a failing economy, they waste their time on Jihad. The world should take the Iranian regime seriously. To most of the world it might sound like nonsense when it talks about holy war, or the 13th mahdi, but the Iranian regime is deadly serious. Because they are so serious we should be as well, our seriousness should be used to find a way to stop the Iranians from becoming a nuclear power and the Hegemon of the Middle East.
Just like global communism couldn't die until the collapse of the USSR, global jihad will not fall until the terrorist groups lose their state sponsors. We are at war with terrorists, and it would help our war greatly if we removed their benefactor. We can't afford to let Iran wage its war, our victory depends on stopping them.