November 6, 2011 | 5:00 pm

Ron Paul is off his rocker about Iran!

Posted by Karmel Melamed

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Ron Paul

Over the past year there have been a host of American talking heads and politicians who have opined about Iran from both sides of the political spectrum, saying some of the most ridiculous garbage I have ever heard in my life. Yet today the comments made by Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Congressman, Ron Paul on the Fox News network today about the U.S. “offering friendship to Iran and not sanctions” takes the number one spot on my list of downright asinine things any American politicians has said this year about Iran.

As a journalist who covers Iran, is fluent in the Persian language and closely follows the state-run media outlets from Iran’s radical Islamic regime, I can say that without a doubt Paul is living in some “far off dream land” if he really thinks the Iranian regime will suddenly change overnight and become friendly to us if we offer the mullahs an olive branch. The fact of the matter is that Iran’s regime since its inception in 1979 has been calling for the unconditional destruction of America and has never once waived from that policy. Moreover the Iranian government has funded countless terrorist attacks against American troops in Lebanon in the 1980s, more recently in Afghanistan and in Iraq. Not one day has gone by in Iran where the regime, its radical Islamic leadership and state-run media have not called for America’s destruction and chanted “death to America”. The regime in Iran is opposed to the freedom of religion, free of expression and other freedoms the U.S. stands for and wants to impose their radical Shiite Islamic beliefs on the entire Western world—including on America. The regime’s leaders have said this clearly in the news media and when addressing the people of Iran publicly. They do not want peace with the U.S., the Iranian mullahs have said they want one thing only… to destroy America. One cannot offer a hand in friendship to another who wants to cut off that hand of friendship!

Sadly Paul has not learned the hard lessons that former U.S. President Clinton learned after he tried to make friendly gestures to Iran by removing some sanctions against certain food items and rugs from Iran in the late 1990s. What Clinton got in exchange for his “friendly gesture” of removing sanctions, were increased calls for America’s destruction and the Iranian regime moving forward with their then new nuclear program! Again President Obama in 2008 and 2009 offered Iran’s leaders an opportunity to negotiate on the nuclear issue, remove U.S. sanctions on Iran and also spoke to the regime in “friendly” terms in hopes of bringing the Iranian mullahs to the negotiating table. What Obama got in return was a clear slap in the face with Iran’s leaders refusing to negotiate, calling for the U.S. to be destroyed, increased military support and funding for terrorist groups in Iraq and Afghanistan to attack U.S. troops and even discovered a recent plan by the Iranian regime to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington D.C. These are clear and unmistakable results of what will happen to the U.S. when they offer “friendship” to Iran— a country whose leadership wants to destroy the U.S. and would not hesitate to do so if they had the means.

I am by no means endorsing a military strike on Iran but at the same time I am not naïve like Paul to think that the evil “Iranian regime” is a simple issue that can be easily resolved by “friendly rhetoric” toward that regime. So one is left wondering if Ron Paul has either become senile in his old age or has been smoking some bad drugs to make him believe that just by the U.S. offering Iran’s mullahs friendship that they will miraculously change their attitude toward America. How do you expect the U.S. to offer friendship to a regime that is actively trying to destroy it and has sworn to destroy the U.S. by any means possible?! Are you kidding me Ron?!  Hey buddy, wake up to the reality that Iran’s regime wants to destroy us!