[This is the fourth in a five-part series in which Buzz relates his personal experiences serving our nation in uniform and his current observations. In this series, we look at exactly what’s going on in Israel, Gaza, Iran, and the neighboring region from someone who’s spent much of his adult life serving there.]
In this series, we’re exposing the truth, the reality of the terrorist evil that prevails in the Middle East from someone who lived it for decades as a US Air Force pilot. I’ve served in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, Oman, and Pakistan. I will provide you with some absolutes (and some handy talking points) about today’s conflict, exploring the foundations of the State of Israel, the true nature of the region referred to as Palestine, the reality of Hamas and Hezbollah, and the ultimate nexus of evil that is Iran. We’ll explore the complicity of the American Left, their antisemitism, and their underwriting of terror globally.
Today, we’re examining the origins of the terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah and the nexus, the nation of Iran, the single greatest exporter of terror around the world. In my next column, I’ll reveal the complicity and support for these terror organizations by America’s “progressives.”
See the previous installments here:
BUZZ CUT: Gaza, Your Primer, Part 1 (of 4)
BUZZ CUT: Gaza, Your Primer, Part 2 (of 4)
BUZZ CUT: Gaza, Your Primer, Part 3 (of 4)
As discussed in the previous piece, 1979 was a year that forever changed the Middle East and our world. In fact, 1979 was the seminal touchstone that accelerated the growth of corrupt governments in the region and the terror organizations they created and continue to arm and fund. The ultimate shot in the modern Arab war against Israel and the West began when Iran expelled the Western-friendly Shah of Iran and ascended Ayatollah Khomeini into power. Within days, Iranian forces (under the guise of being “college students”) stormed the US Embassy in Tehran, seizing the property and kidnapping 66 American diplomats hostage for 444 days. Sound familiar? Islamofascists use innocent humans as shields in their ungodly schemes. Jimmy Carter was the president at the time and launched a failed attempt at a hostage rescue that resulted in the deaths of eight American servicemen and the destruction of U.S. military aircraft and helicopters. It’s referred to as “Desert One” and forever changed the way our military looks at special operations. It's still being studied today. Ultimately, it would usher Carter out the door as a one-term president. Enter President Ronald Reagan.
Iran’s terror arm is deep, with many tentacles.
Just days later after the American Embassy seizure in Tehran, Islamic fundamentalists seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest site in Islam. The leader of the insurgency called for the return of pure Islamic law to the Middle East and the denouncing of modernization. Saudi Arabia’s rulers quickly acquiesced to the Wahhabist demands and instituted archaic societal changes. Iran’s Khomeini simultaneously blamed the U.S. for the mosque takeover, further inflaming the Muslim world.
Finally, that year Iraq’s Saddam Hussein rose to power and began his murderous regime that ultimately led to the wars Desert Storm One and Two, and his eventual death. 1979, in a nutshell, introduced unparalleled state-sponsored terror to the Arab world and beyond and is the root of the death and inhumanity we see unfolding in Israel, Gaza, and elsewhere.
Motivated by Ayatollah Khomeini’s rule, and with the help of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the brutal terror organization Hezbollah (the Party of God) was born in 1982. Their charter was and is the ultimate destruction of Israel and the death of all Jews. America’s presence in the region and support for Israel was also a target, and they got right to work.
In 1983, the newly-created Hezbollah drove trucks loaded with explosives up to the U.S. Marine Barracks gate in Beirut, Lebanon killing 241 Marines. That same year, Hezbollah bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans. On the evening of the Marine Barracks bombing, the Air Force put me on alert to fly to Lebanon and bring home the bodies of our Marines. I was fully expecting that mission only to be alerted shortly thereafter to fly to Grenada on the first day of the invasion ordered by Reagan to prevent Soviet expansion in the Caribbean and to rescue American medical students who were stranded on the island by Cuban and Soviet armies.
Since 2003 Hezbollah has aligned itself with Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Hamas. Hezbollah perhaps is the greatest military presence in Israel’s neighborhood, due almost solely to the funding and support of Iran.
Its sister terror organization, Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement), was created in 1987 by the Muslim Brotherhood with significant funding and support from Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. Hamas’s avowed mission is to liberate “Palestine” from its Israeli “oppressors.”
Hamas has a resume of extreme violence, suicide bombings of Israeli citizens, and whatever terror is required to achieve its long-term goals of exterminating Jews and destroying the state of Israel. The attacks of October 7, 2023, were exactly that: Israel’s 9/11.
The epicenter? Iran and the American Left. We’ll explore the Left’s antisemitism, anti-American and anti-west beliefs, and treasonous efforts over the years that have brought us to the brink of WWIII.
