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Dr. Lamont Colucci is a professor of international relations and national security at Ripon College. He has served in the Department of State, and his primary area of expertise is United States national security and United States foreign policy. Colucci is the coordinator for an interdisciplinary national security studies program and teaches courses on national security, foreign policy, intelligence, terrorism and international relations. He is also the author of the book, Crusading Realism- The Bush Doctrine and American Core Values after 9/11 (July 2008, University Press).

Dr. Colucci has this to say about the problems with Iran

In typical American media fashion, the organs of the press obsess about one topic so long that the deep problems of any particular situation are lost to the hyperbole of the moment. A case in point is the problem of Iran. We obsess for weeks about anti-Jewish statements by Ahmadinejad, then we obsess about uranium enrichment, then we obsess about missile tests.

Yes, Iran's defiant and continued development of nuclear materials is a threat to Israel and the entire region, and may someday be a threat to the United States, but Iran poses more immediate threats to American national interest - those that could fundamentally affect America's economic stability, peace, prosperity, and those of her allies. Cut down to the bare essentials, there are six critical areas of concern:

1. The Iranian government is pursuing a “Pax Iranica” in the Persian Gulf especially in the geographical location knows as the Shiite Crescent stretching from Lebanon in the west, through Iraq, the Gulf States, and eastern Saudi Arabia in the center and Iran in the east. The potential for dominance and disruption (most notable in Iraq) is extreme.
2. Iran can attempt to control the access of oil through dominance or disruption of the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. 1/5 of the world’s oil supply flows through this geostrategic artery.
3. Iran continues to be the number one supporter of the Shiite militias and insurgents in Iraq. This has directly translated into American casualties and American military difficulties.
4. Iran poses a mortal threat to Israel, openly calling for her destruction.
5. Independent reporting from organizations like STRATFOR indicates that Iran not only provided safe haven for Al Qaeda operatives post 9/11, but is now allowing Iran to be used as a jihadist transit point into Afghanistan. I am fully aware of the Sunni/Shiite divide but one has to realize that Iranian foreign policy goals trump such disputes.
6. Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world. They are the major supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.Iran established the Islamic Revolutionary Council in 1981 to coordinate its state sponsorship of terrorism. We must never forget the Iranian directed Hezbollah attack killing 241 American soldiers in Beirut in 1983 nor the 19 American servicemen killed in 1996 by Hezbollah in Saudi Arabia.

    

In a more dramatic fashion, Iran poses a second, more serious threat to American vital interests; and these threaten the very existence of American civilization.

This threat is primarily focused on three facets: the Iranian development of a reactor that could some day produce plutonium, the current uranium enrichment program to produce weapons grade nuclear material and the most clear and present danger, the dramatic strides Iran is attempting to make in missile development technology. The only purpose of which is to create a weapon that can hit well beyond the borders of Iran, and someday the American homeland

All of this might be bad enough were it not for the type of regime that exercises de facto control over Iran. This “Mullacracy”, which possesses the faint window dressing of democracy, is in reality an abhorrent dictatorship where ultimate power rests with the Islamic Guardian Council under the thumb of supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Sayyid Khamenei, who controls the armed forces, intelligence services, security services, judiciary, media networks and appoints half of the Islamic Guardian Council. Iran has no substructure of democratic institutions and no civil society. In philosophical terms, the democratic institutions of the United States and our civil society are founded on immutable natural law concerning human dignity, rights, property and liberty under law, all of which are non-existent in Iran. The problem for the United States is fundamentally the maniacal policies of a repressive rogue regime who abuses their own people in a quest for greater control and power.

Contact Rod Mitchell @ 281.350.5506 or Click Here