Recently, Israel staged a massive display of air power in the western Mediterranean designed reportedly to impress the Iranians with their reach and the consequences of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. I read and hear almost daily that the drumbeats of war with Iran must be silenced. This begs the question: What to do about Iran’s ambition, particularly when the mullahs’ mouthpiece practically froths at the mouth when shouting Israel must be erased from the map of the world, proclaiming to the world that Hitler was right after all?

It is understandable that so many people misunderstood Sen. John McCain’s ill-advised comment about being in Iraq for 100 years. He was making the comparison with garrisons we still have in Germany, Japan and South Korea – despite the end of World War II and the “truce” in Korea – and why it is essential for world peace that we be there. It is equally imperative that there be U.S. presence in the Gulf to not only stabilize the region, but to prevent Iran from unleashing a second holocaust.

So I come to the question of “empire” posed by a member of the Maine Veterans of Peace, Dud Hendrick in the June 21 column “Evidence shows America is an empire.” In his long diatribe there was nothing that addressed how we should deal with Iran, when the international community is powerless to do anything but threaten ineffective sanctions against a regime that scoffs at their concerns and merrily pursues a course that will only lead to a catastrophe for the Iranian people of a magnitude not seen since Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The “empire” Hendrick speaks of so disdainfully is the only power that can stop Iran’s march to destruction. I have great fear for the people of Iran who through no fault of their own will bring this calamity to their country because of the irrational headlong rush to martyrdom too many of their leaders are so desirous of.

Despite Hendrick’s “evidence” of the American empire, it is surely not an empire in the old sense of what the word used to mean. At the end of World War II we sought not to occupy and conquer lands, but the end of fascism did not end the ever growing danger to the world from Communism, though many disputed the extent of the danger. Joseph Stalin’s murderous regime was finally exposed after the deaths of millions. Yet the ambition of the Soviet’s to extend their definition of what is empire did not abate.

The Cold War was won because after decades of bankrupting their country in order realize their dreams of expanding their equally bankrupt theology, their system collapsed from within. It would not have done so but for the steadfast determination of Ronald Reagan to end the specter of thermonuclear war, and in the end, we were dealing with leaders who decided they loved their children as much as we do.

Today, we are not dealing with people who share that love. Being for peace does not guarantee peace. No matter the sincerity of those that support the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine, it does not answer the question I posed. How do you stop Iran from the path it has chosen for itself? How do we compel them to think of their people and especially their children? Our next president has a daunting task.

Mark F. Ginn is a Bangor resident who retired from the U.S. Navy in 1999.