The Persian Problem

Bob Newman

One of the hot spots I found myself in after entering the field of special operations was off the coast of Iran (once known as Persia) aboard the USS Okinawa, which was part of the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit (MAU) out of Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. I was a 22-year-old sergeant and a recon team leader. This was in the spring of 1980.

Remember the spring of 1980? A peanut farmer was in the White House and Iranian terrorists had seized the United States Embassy in Tehran. As Jimmy Carter ineptly attempted to run a Delta Force rescue mission from the Oval Office, my platoon was studying ways to capture the Soviet “trawler” (small spy ship) that had been following our MAU since leaving Pearl Harbor.

We knew something was up aboard the nearby USS Nimitz, from which Delta would launch on their ill-fated mission, and we didn’t want the Soviets to get wind of the operation and give a heads-up to the Iranians, hence our plot to take down the trawler.

Our scheme was to have an EA-6B Prowler (an electronic-warfare platform) jet off the Nimitz jam all outgoing transmissions from the vessel. A few moments after the jamming operation began, my platoon would board the trawler by rappelling from a helicopter onto her decks, shoot our way to the bridge, take control of her until the rescue mission was complete, then kill any Soviets on the ship who were still alive and scuttle her to the bottom of the North Arabian Sea.

But, as fate would have it, that never happened, much to my platoon’s chagrin.

Carter let the Iranians off the hook. Three years later, Iran’s terrorist government ordered its personal terrorist group, Hezbollah, to attack the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. The attack killed 63 embassy personnel. President Reagan did nothing about it. Six months later, 241 Marines and sailors were killed in a Hezbollah hit on the MAU barracks at Beirut International Airport. Again, nothing was done about it. With no retaliation, these successes prompted Iran to send Hezbollah after more and more American targets.

Today, Iran is sending Hezbollah into Iraq to kill still more Americans. And a couple of weeks ago, we caught two Iranian spies reconnoitering potential targets (the subway, ferries, bridges, busses, trains, landmarks, et al) in New York City. These “security guards” for Iran’s mission to the United Nations were preparing “target folders” for Hezbollah, which was planning to carry out mass-casualty attacks but to leave bogus evidence pointing to al Qaeda, thus keeping Iran of the hook.

Now some of our naval power is heading toward Iran should President Bush decide to do something about Iran’s not-so-secret nuclear weapons program and their multitude of attacks on Americans since 1979.

By their own admission, Iran’s terrorist leaders want every American man, woman and child dead. If they think they can hit us and get away with it, they will. And if they get a nuke, they will use it God knows where.

The beast called Iran has been growing stronger and more aggressive for 25 years. It has butchered hundreds of Americans and likes the taste of our blood.

It is time to slay the vile beast of Persia.

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Bob Newman, a retired, decorated US Marine, is co-host of "Redmond & Newman" on 630 KHOW in Denver, and is the military science and terrorism columnist for The Denver Daily News.

bobnewman@clearchannel.com