How many other countries out there employ this sort of rhetoric, about destroying other countries? No nukes for you. “Iranian military commander: We must destroy America,” by Reza Khalili for the Daily Caller, March 15:
The head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force says his country has no choice but to destroy America in order to build an ideal society.
In a video broadcast to Basij members on Feb. 26, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi said the Islamic regime’s “independence and unhindered advance toward perfection is subject to removing the despotic powers and the Zionists,” referring to America and Israel.
“In every field in which the Islamic Republic of Iran tries to advance,” Naqdi said, “America is there to create obstacles for us. “¦ When we want progress in science, they enforce sanctions and kill our scientists.”
The Basij force is a militia unit, established in 1979 by revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini, best known as a security force responsible for reacting to protests and other assemblies of dissident groups. It is a subset of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Naqdi, who was born in Iraq, was a member of the Iranian Quds Force “” another Guards subgroup “” and involved in international terrorism before Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed him to command the Basij in 2009. He has previously threatened to assassinate American generals in retaliation for the killings of Iranian nuclear scientists.
Last year, the U.S. Treasury slapped sanctions on Naqdi for human rights abuses during the country”s 2009 pro-democracy uprising.
“As long as America exists, we will not rest,” Naqdi said. “In revealing the truth about America and the Zionists, we must raise public hate against the despotic powers and create the environment for the destruction of America.”