Ah, the wisdom of the nations. The wisdom of Mssrs. Bush, Obama, Biden and Trump. The wisdom in the EU and the UN. O yes! The wisdom, in particular, of the UN nuclear inspectors. I am going to put to you one simple question: When was all of the following written?
Book title: The Rise of Nuclear Iran.
Subtitle: How Tehran Defies the West.
Book section titles: Part I: “The Anatomy of Diplomatic Failure.” Part II: “The History of Misreading Iran.” Part III: “Why Western Dialogue with Iran Failed.”
Now, chapter titles under Part I:
“The Art of Diplomatic Deception.”
“Could the Islamic Republic of Iran be Deterred?”
“The Revelation of the Iranian Nuclear Program and the Western Response.”
Chapter titles under Part II:
“Underestimating Enmity”
“Iran attacks America in Beirut”
“Nuclear Expansion under the Robe of Moderation”
Chapter titles under Part III:
“Where Did the West Go Wrong?”
“The Iranian Octopus: Tehran’s Subversion Across the Middle East”
“The Last Opportunity to Stop Iran”
The last opportunity: sounds dire, no?
Sounds like all this could have been written on June 12, 2025, no? Everybody knew all this, right?
June 12 was the day that the UN inspectors said that Iran has been lying for 20 years about its “peaceful” nuclear program. It was also the day before Israel attacked Iran.
June 12 was the day before leaders and followers around the world finally located the inner strength to get past decades of denial and say out loud the obvious: Iran wanted Israel destroyed and wanted all of the Middle East turned into a fundamentalist Islamic state of repression.
Remember my question: When was all this written? When did everybody finally understand the rise of nuclear Iran?
It took the long, twisting route of Obama’s nuclear deal, of Europe’s embrace of Obama’s nuclear deal, of Trump’s cancellation of the nuclear deal, of Biden’s uber naïve, sterile negotiations with Iran, and then Israel’s defeat of Hezbollah and Syria’s collapse — it took all of this, didn’t it, finally to “get it” on Iran?
Don’t tell that to Dore Gold!
He is the author of The Rise of Nuclear Iran. When did he write a whole book on the rise of nuclear Iran?
2009.
Sixteen years ago.
Before Obama’s nuclear deal.
Before the parade of self-deceived world leaders, diplomats and “experts” telling us that there was a diplomatic, peaceful resolution to the Iran nuclear program.
But no. It should not have taken the blindness or spinelessness or naivete — you pick which — of four American presidents, countless European leaders, numberless deluded diplomats and oodles of Middle East “experts” to see what Dore Gold saw in 2009.
Not that he was the only one to see the truth.
Who else saw the truth? People who were part of a religion — any religion — that held certain truths to be immutable and authoritative. These believers in an absolute faith saw Iran’s Islamic Shiite ayatollahs as they were. The ayatollahs’ absolute was evil. This is of course not true of all Shiites, but it is true of the Shiites who have been in charge of Iran and its nuclear program.
Relativists have trouble understanding such things. Relativists populate the State Dept., which puts one arm behind their back in conducting diplomacy in the Middle East, which is populated mostly by absolutists. Relativists are convinced that all people, at bottom, are the same.
People who believe in an absolute truth know better. They know that not all people are the same; they see that there really are some people who value death above life, murder above compassion. These values are, for radical Islamists, an absolutist religious commitment. Other absolutists, notwithstanding their very different religious values, can more easily see the enemy of humanity for what it is. Adherents of an absolute faith know that believers in absolute evil mean what they say and will act on what they say.
Without a single qualm.
Throw in the American idea that there is no problem without a handy solution and toss in a touch of cowardice and self-deception, poof. Now you know why no national leader paid attention to Dore Gold, who set down all of the facts about Iran that we ever needed to know back in 2009.
© IJN 2025
