OPINION:
Last week, Cal Thomas wrote an opinion piece for this newspaper titled “Americans whining over gas prices ignore Iran’s greater threat” (Web, May 26).
In his piece, Mr. Thomas argues that our country is “plagued by complainers who whine about almost everything” and that “too many [of us] appear oblivious to the threat posed by Iran, preferring cheaper gas” to doing what is necessary to stop this evil regime from killing us.
He contends that the “entitlement sentiment … has gripped so many” that when our president “asks Americans to endure higher gas prices for a short time in exchange for Iran not getting a nuclear weapon,” we respond that we would rather have cheap gas today.
After rightly juxtaposing this myopia with the numerous sacrifices that our grandparents made during World War II — sacrifices that stopped Adolf Hitler from acquiring an atomic bomb before we did and thereby saved millions of people from obliteration — Mr. Thomas concludes with this simple admonition: “Gas prices have been high for only a few weeks. The Great Depression and World War II spanned 16 years. Stop whining, America.”
In short, Mr. Thomas argues that minor personal sacrifices, such as spending a little more for gas, are far less significant than what the Greatest Generation endured to protect and preserve the United States and its freedoms.
I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Thomas, and I am more than happy to spend a little extra to fill up the tank if that will help stop Iran from having the military wherewithal to impose its will on the world. I reposted Mr. Thomas’ piece to my social media and encouraged all my “friends and followers” to read it.
Then, you guessed it, I immediately received a contrary response: “Iran is a threat to Israel, not to the United States,” said one of my Facebook pals.
Now, aside from my “friend’s” cluelessness that the survival of our only trustworthy ally in the Middle East matters, how in the world could anyone be so dumb? “Iran is not a threat to the United States.” Are you serious?
A five-second Google search shows that for the past 47 years alone, this evil regime and its leaders have kidnapped, killed, maimed and beheaded Americans around the globe. Here is just a short summary:
• In 1979, Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 66 Americans hostage, keeping 52 of them for 444 days.
• In April 1983, Iran backed the suicide bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 17 Americans.
• In October 1983, Iran’s leaders orchestrated the Beirut barracks bombing, which killed 241 U.S. military personnel, including 220 Marines.
• In March 1984, CIA station chief William Buckley was kidnapped in Beirut and later killed.
• In December 1984, Kuwait Airways Flight 221 was hijacked, and two American officials were killed.
• In June 1985, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked, and a U.S. Navy diver was killed.
• In July 1989, the Iranian-backed, -trained and -funded terrorist organization Hezbollah kidnapped, tortured and killed U.S. Marine Col. William Higgins.
• In June 1996, the Iranian militants bombed the Khobar Towers and killed 19 U.S. airmen and wounded nearly 500 other people.
• In August 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed. Twelve Americans were among 224 total dead.
• From 2003 to 2011, Iran-backed militias killed at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq.
• In January 2007, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and its operatives killed five U.S. soldiers in Karbala, Iraq.
• In December 2019, an Iranian Kataib Hezbollah rocket killed a U.S. civilian contractor.
• In January 2020, an Iranian ballistic missile strike on the Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq injured 109 U.S. troops.
• In March 2023, Iranian drone attacks killed an American contractor in Syria.
• On Oct. 7, 2023, Iran supported and funded Hamas’ killing of 46 Americans and kidnapping of at least 12 others.
• In January 2024, Iran’s Kataib Hezbollah drone attack at Tower 22 in Jordan killed three U.S. service members.
The list goes on and on. In addition to their ubiquitous calls for “Death to America!” Iran and its proxies have killed, kidnapped, tortured and raped well over 1,000 of our nation’s citizens in just the past 50 years.
It is nothing short of astounding that someone would suggest that Iran is not a threat to the United States, and it is equally amazing that so many of us are unwilling to make a sacrifice as inconsequential as paying a bit more for gasoline if it will stop these mullahs from acquiring the means to do exactly what they have told us for decades they intend to do.
Cal Thomas is right. We should all stop whining and just do our part. Paying a little extra at the pump is literally the least we can do to avoid having a mushroom cloud over Oklahoma and Kansas.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery). He can be reached at epiper@dreverettpiper.com.
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