General James Conway, the 34th Commandant of Marine Corps was among more than 600 dignitaries and VIPs from around the world at the Grand Gathering of the Iranian people and their Resistance in Paris, France on June 13, 2015.
Gen. Conway told a huge noisy crowd of Iranian expatriates who have gathering in Villepinte, Paris from 5 continents “The nation of Iraq represents the greatest threat to world peace since the fall of the Soviet Union. The reason for that is every day that the powers of the world and their delegates listen of the rhetoric of the Iranian negotiators, is a day that they are closer to nuclear weapons. The problem with Iran having nuclear weapons is that they are one of four nations on the face of the globe who accept terrorism as a means to project national policy. That should concern us all. Now these powers of the earth have said Iran will not have nuclear weapons. I for one don’t believe that the negotiations will succeed. So, let’s examine quickly what are the options to ensure that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapons capability. We could return to the sanctions. But as Ambassador Bolton noted sanctions are seldom effective. They impact people like you and me. They do not get into the palaces or to the dining table of the ruling elite. We could exercise a policy of containment, saying you can have a nuclear weapon but you dare not use it. The problem in the Middle East will be that Saudi Arabia and Turkey and Egypt will also have nuclear weapons. So the world is indeed a much more dangerous place as a result of that approach. We could execute military strikes. There are two types of strikes. We can do precision strikes to attempt to take out their capacity. But our experts say even with the best accuracy that will buy us about 18 months. It won’t stop the ultimate development of a weapons system. We could invade with a coalition force, but if you know your geography, Tehran is a long way from the landing beaches, and that type of attack would cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iranians, and tens of thousands of coalition forces. It would indeed be a very bloody affair.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is a fourth option, and that comes from the wellspring of hope that we have in this room tonight. That option is change from within. My observation is that you have the leadership, you have the resources, you have the determination for regime change. You can and must make that happen.
Bless you all