Publisher's Note
Annapolis To Tehran
Andrew A. Buerger
Publisher
If I were a betting man –– but I won’t know for sure until I take a referendum –– I would have said last week that Senate Bill 214 and House Bill 371 wouldn’t become Maryland law this year.
But around midday on Tuesday, Maryland’s upper chamber voted “yes” to force the state to divest any pension money invested in any companies doing business in Iran. As of press time, there had been no action in the House. Still, Gov. Martin O’Malley can sign the bill into law –– which he has said he will do — with just the Senate measure.
I’m hoping that he inks this document. After all, it does not cost the state anything, it sends a strong moral signal and it helps promote a non-military response to Iran’s obvious dangers.
Sure, we have some pressing issues confronting us –– such as creating a balanced budget, funding our schools, and saving our treasured Chesapeake Bay for leisure and industry. But somehow our elected officials found time to prevent same-sex couples from getting hospital visitation rights, and prevent childhood victims of sexual abuse from filing lawsuits after age 25.
We wasted time making sure those laws didn’t pass; when it comes to trivial actions such as doing our part to prevent a nuclear Iran, it’s felt like, “Let’s wait until next year when they’re that much closer.”
I realize I have a special interest here –– the State of Israel, where the first Iranian nuclear bomb would fall. But you don’t have to be part of the alleged Israel lobby conspiracy to know the United States is the target of the second detonation.
Iran (that’s with an “n” and not a “q”) is the biggest threat to the United States and to our strongest ally in the critical Middle East — Israel. Iran is quickly readying a nuclear device. Even most non-neocon experts agree that the only way to stop Tehran is to shut down the economic engine that provides its funding. Iran needs outside help to process its oil and natural gas. Without that help, its economy will be hit hard.
That’s why we need large pension funds to sell stock of companies that prop up Iran. If these companies do not sell, they will be hit with sanctions and a depressed stock value.
In the 1980s, we learned from South Africa that multi-national companies will leave rather than face penalties. That brought the desired result. In recent years, we learned in Iraq that war won’t bring what we need –– even after a $1 trillion expenditure, 4,000 dead and 20,000 critically injured U.S. soldiers and 100,000 dead Iraqis and countless wounded. We don’t need to go to war with Iran to stop it.
I know that Maryland doesn’t have the nation’s largest pension fund, and that only $176 million is at issue. Still, it’s important to show leadership. Others states are already doing so, requiring divestiture from companies doing business in Iran. Missouri, California, Florida and Louisiana have passed similar laws. If Maryland followed, others might.
More importantly, I don’t want my tax dollars invested in companies helping support terror. Iran backs Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, surrounding Israel with armed terrorists.
Our own Baltimore Jewish Council, through its Maryland Jewish Alliance, worked hard for this law. Thanks to them and a few others, Maryland can now show leadership and problem solving at this crucial time of international terror.
Our country, our proud soldiers and our good friends in Israel deserve this legislation. Maryland should vote with its tax dollars to show where we stand on the war on terror. We stand with our overstretched troops. We don’t need another war; we need to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb and from continuing to threaten the democratic State of Israel –– and then the United States.
Thankfully, our legislators finally gave the Iran Divestment Law the time and attention it needed. Now, assuming Gov. O’Malley signs, it will be great to know that our hard earned tax dollars will be part of the solution to the War on Terror.