Published by Algemeiner

October 5, 2014 10:16 PM

Last month, in a primetime national address, President Obama laid out his four-pronged strategy to “degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS.” The U.S. military has already begun to carry out the President’s directive; airstrikes against ISIS positions in Iraq have increased and we can likely expect a prolonged campaign against ISIS strongholds in Syria in the very near future.

While the efficacy of the President’s approach – which is based on never involving American combat troops – is questionable, his objective – the destruction of ISIS – is no doubt a reasonable goal. Not only does ISIS pose a clear threat to the United States and its allies, it is also by any measure a morally reprehensible organization, seemingly committed to violating any and all international standards of human rights.

But there is an equally grotesque actor in the Middle East, one who is also guilty of deplorable human rights abuses. This entity, like ISIS, treats women and minorities like second class citizens; like ISIS, it performs grotesque public executions of those guilty of committing the “perverse sin” of being gay; like ISIS it attacks and jails Western journalists and human rights defenders; and like ISIS, it poses a clear and direct threat to the United States and its allies. This actor is of course the Islamic Republic of Iran. And while President Obama and his European counterparts are committed to eradicating ISIS, they are seemingly equally committed to allowing the Iranians to attain nuclear capability.

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