Obama and the Mullahs
Iran’s always tyrannical and sometimes apocalyptic mullahs have certainly been busy of late. They’ve been spinning faster than a champion dervish, trying to convince the gullible, at home and abroad, that their Hamas proxies in Gaza won a signal victory against Israel, and that Iran was the reason for their success. Meanwhile, they’ve called for the assassination of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, and Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni, and organized mass rallies against President Obama, complete with ritual burning of his photo.
Some of it shows the regime’s comedic skills at their highest pitch, such as the offer of a million dollars to anyone who killed Mubarak. That is a generous reward the mullahs know they’ll never have to pay off, since anyone who actually murdered the Egyptian president would hardly be in a position to collect. At the same time, Tehran provided us with one of their favorite bits of street theater: seventy thousand screaming citizens demanding to be sent to Gaza on suicide missions. There, too, the offer was cost-free, since Iran doesn’t send its own citizens to blow themselves up. They use the despised Arabs for such things. Nobody’s seen an Iranian suicide bomber since the fall of the shah in 1979.
The battle of Gaza showed at least two important things about the Iranians:
–They are totally ready to fight to the last…Palestinian;
–When push comes to shove, not even the most faithful proxy can count on Tehran for assistance.
No sooner had the fighting started, than top Iranians flew to Damascus to tell Hamas’s “leaders” (who never left Damascus; no battlefield ribbons for them) that they had better not stop fighting. No cease fire until the Israelis had been defeated. This produced the entirely predictable result of increasing casualties in Gaza (both Hamas terrorists and innocent civilians), and a clear victory by the Israelis.
The mullahs obviously couldn’t permit that result to stand, and so they declared victory. Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Majlis (Parliament) delivered the official version: “In Gaza, Israel for the first time succumbed to the resistance of the Palestinian people in its alleged territories and Gaza was actually liberated in this war…Gaza is the beginning of Israel’s serious downfall…”
To which one can only murmer, with such liberations, the Palestinian people is surely doomed. And not only the Palestinians; their sponsors don’t look very good on the morning after, despite the mullahs’ predictable claim of victory. Everybody in Gaza knew that this was the second Iran/Israel battle (the first was in Lebanon in 2006, involving Iran’s favorite proxy, Hezbollah), and that the mullahs, along with Iran’s favored troops had been smashed:
Palestinian sources reported Thursday that the “Iranian Unit” of Hamas, members of the group’s military wing trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, had been destroyed.
According to the sources, most of the unit’s members were killed in fighting in the Zeytun neighborhood, where they had been deployed by the military leadership of Hamas.
The unit numbered approximately 100 men who had traveled to Iran and Hezbollah camps, mostly in the Beka’a Valley, where they were trained in infantry fighting tactics. The militants were also trained in the use of anti-tank missiles, the detonation of explosives, among other skills.
The “Iranian Unit” was only a small part of Iran’s massive investment in Hamas. Iran provides approximately $20 -$30 million to Hamas annually and also trains Hamas operatives in Iran and Syria. Iran gave Hamas a $50 million “success fee” after it beat Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction in the 2006 Palestinian elections.
In the months before Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, Iran conducted extensive military training for Hamas members. Approximately 950 Hamas terrorists have been trained in building rockets and bombs, tactical warfare, weapons operation and sniper tactics by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a special division of Iran’s armed forces.
Great article. I don’t know what is it with U.S. administrations.What is it they don’t understand? The mullahs successfully have deceived every administration with mixed signals and messages by middle men while pursuing Nukes and the proliferation of arms and missiles to Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas and at the same time arming Shiites in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Guards’ Quds force leadership is in contact with Al Qaeda and have done joint terrorist activities such as the Khobar Towers bombing and events in Yemen. The West must understand after 30 years that there won’t be a Gorbachev in Iran,the mullahs who rule Iran will bury him if there ever is one in the hole of Jamkaran where the 12th Imam is said to be in hiding.No ONE INDIVIDUAL can change things in Iran cause its run by a shura.Are we really brain dead! And then you have the mullah’s lobbyist who call America the great Satan when they visit Iran but have full access to the State Department and fund campaigns of certain politicians!
Nice video with Michael Yon on PJTV.
The key to winning in Afghanistan is opium. The easiest way to get a win is to legalize the stuff and drive the price down to the price of celery juice. BTW George Schultz agrees with me about the futility of drug prohibition.
In any case if we don’t jettison the drug war soon we will have an Afghanistan South to worry about. Mexico.
The NIDA says Addiction Is A Genetic Disease. I don’t know how you fix genetics with police and armies. I’m willing to learn.
It would be more useful if instead of worrying over proper nomenclature, we used neutrons to decapitate the regime in Tehran.
1} Decapitate the regime via neutrons.
2} In the ensuing confusion, insert ground elements to properly secure Tehran’s Manhattan project, and to seize control of the vast archives in terror and carnage in Tehran.
3} During the power struggle that will rapidly follow, pick and choose winners, which to support with Special Forces, while simultaneously picking and choosing losers, who we pound from the air.
Result: REGIME CHANGE. And think too of the karmic nature of how that regime was “changed.”
“Condoleezza Rice was the perfect person to lead this campaign, but she abandoned her Iranian sisters. Barack Obama has similar credentials, and Hillary Clinton would seem a natural in this role.”
Our politically correct culture contends that race always trumps gender. The fact that the Iranian mullahs possess dark skin is of much greater importance than the abuse of women. By the way, this is the number one reason why Hillary Clinton lost to Barack Obama in the primaries. It’s almost all about race guilt.
Dan wants to do a Nixon with the clean neutron bomb? What’s the half-life of radiation from one of those? Lead suits for #2.
M Simon sounds as if he has an alterior motive.
Are the Mullahs going to want to become friends? Maybe fair weather ones. Reminds me of the Planet of the Apes. President Obama will be “bright eyes” in Iran with the Mullahs.
“What have you done to Hillary’s brain?!”
“It’s a madhouse!”
And we all know how it ends. It was Dan.
I’ve been talking to my friend for a while now. Yes he’s an Iranian and lives in Tehran. He spent two years in Canton Central because his mom is an American Jew and wanted to see America first hand.
I talk to him quite a bit and all he can say is how the Mullahs just don’t understand the people of Iran. When the Theocracy says something like this everyone their simply sigh, roll their eyes and walk on.
Obama has the makings of a good Dhimmi.
What a fantastic idea. It could be a foil to the “poor Palestinian” meme of the moment.
I LIKE IT!
“Iranian dissidents — especially women — are waiting for Obama and Hillary to speak out and support them.”
—That will be a very VERY long wait.
The past is prologue. It has been used in other circumstances, and it fits here.
Michael Ledeen would make a great UN Ambassador for the USA! Alas, now that the ‘smart’ people are running this country. I am sure that we won’t have to worry about Iran or Terrorist any longer.
Faster Puhleese….I can relate to Neutron Dan’s solution to the problem, better than 4 years of Barry and Hellary mishmash of diplomacy.
uh oh, got my post with links swallowed !!!
anyway, in résumé, the whole thing is a “Hide-and-seek” game since Brezinski opened the pendora box 3 decades ago, that, may-be, Israel, while not “being” aware of the underground “tricks” of the successive US administrations in ME (Bolton, same agenda), will have to pay the consequences in the next years, I am afraid
Iranian women are waiting for “the one” to help them? I hope they aren’t holding their breath.
No, Obama won’t support them.
Obamble is gonna throw these maniacs a new life line. This is so irresponsible and stupid. Pres Bush should have helped overthrow these mad Mullahs back in 2003-2004 period when he was freaking so popular inside of Iran for the liberation of Iraq & Afghanistan.
I wonder what Obambi will say when the Israelis raid the nuke facilities in Iran. You can be sure that Israel won’t wait to be snuffed simply because someone else’s president has the mind of a flea.
Obama as the chance to be a very transformational figure geopolitically. Sadly, his Carter-like pacifism and Baker-like realpolitik will ensure he’ll miss these golden opportunities. By 2010-’11, we’ll know for sure how the rest of his first term (and second?) will play out, in terms of foreign policy.
It’s almost like you can see the scenario unfold months and years ahead of it happening: Obama will end up appeasing Iran (although he’ll put it under the guise of “tough diplomacy”), Iran will continue to wage war on us and go after the bomb, and a year or two or three from now, Bibi Netanyahu will be forced to make the toughest decision any Israeli PM has ever had to make. I think you all know what that means.
Hiliary would if the price is right. Hell, most of our government would if the price is right.
Sell outs!
Obama’s only constituency is the international media, academic, entertainment and to some extent corporate elite: his arrogance, narcissism, shallowness and disregard for views not originating in his “circle” mirrors that constituency perfectly. He will always attend to their needs and self-image, and to nobody else’s.
“Obamble is gonna throw these maniacs a new life line. This is so irresponsible and stupid. Pres Bush should have helped overthrow these mad Mullahs back in 2003-2004 period when he was freaking so popular inside of Iran for the liberation of Iraq & Afghanistan”
-
Please Winston, you know better than that. Bush barely had enough support to win in Iraq. It’s almost impossible for a democracy to fight any kind of wars except existential wars or lopsided ones that are quickly over like the U.S/ Granada engagement.
“By 2010-’11, we’ll know for sure how the rest of his first term (and second?) will play out, in terms of foreign policy.”
—
We know now. Against their advice he’s ordered Gates and the Joint Chiefs to draw up plans to withdraw from Iraq in 16 months.
“Iranian women are waiting for “the one” to help them? I hope they aren’t holding their breath.”
I think we should leave this fight to the feminists here in the west. They are always up for a good fight.
Hillary and Obama never mentioned “iranian women;s struggle” during their campaign, so why should they care about them now?
The funny thing is the only politician running, during the campaign, who raised “Iranian women struggle” was Sarah Palin. Believe it or not!
Every-time Hillary visited Southern California, the Iranian group that raised funds for her were strong proponents of direct dialogue with Mullahs so they can make more millions. So, she has to pay them back.
I see Obama’s Middle Eastern views the way Carter’s was. Obama does not mind dealing with dictators and Mullahs’ regime as long as they behave nicely on the surface. The hell with human rights and majority of population over there.
The next Iranian revolution will be led by Iranian women with or without Obama’s help.
Check out this upcoming project. http://www.reelcontent.org/projects
The preoccupation with finding “moderates” is unmanly, in fact infantile and deeply embarrassing.
Confronted with people who passionately want us dead, we go looking for people who only moderately want us dead.
We could take them out cheap, hard and nasty in about 3 or 4 hours. Or we could do it much more delicately and expensively in about 3 or 4 weeks.
Either way, I can’t imagine what we are waiting around for.
The Persian people will get as much help from the Democrats in DC today as the South Vietnamese got from the Democrats in DC after the fall of Saigon.
The only thing Democrats care about less than the freedom of Americans is the freedom of foreigners. And they don’t like free Americans very much.
The Persians had better be thinking about doing this on their own. Besides, the world would respect them better for it.
Although, personally I don’t think they’ve got the stuff to pull it off.
OBAMA LIVING JIHAD FAIRY TALE
Dear Mr. President: there is a huge difference between the Islamic faithful and jihadist murderers.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/01/jihadists-1-obama-0.html
When Ledeen says “they’ve called for the assassination of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak,” the term “they” refers back to Iran’s mullahs. I have not heard that Iran’s mullahs have called for Mubarak’s assasination, so I tried looking it up.
The only report I found about an Iranian group calling for Mubarak’s assasination was made by the NCRI here:
ncr-iran.org/content/view/5948/1/
The group who supposedly made the call to assasinate Mubarak is called the “Guardians of Martyrs’ Blood”, and Mr Ledeen’s claim that the Iranian Mullah’s had something to do with it are false. The “Guardians of Martyrs’ Blood” has never been heard of anywhere ever before this supposed incident. The NCRI, who reported this, is a classified as a foreign terrorist organization by the US. Iran denies that this story has anything to do with their government:
english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8710221567
In summary:
A terrorist organization claims that a previously unknown group with the hilarious name of “Guardians of Martyrs’ Blood” has called for Mubarak’s assasination. Mr. Ledeen then claims that it was really the Iranian Mullah’s who made the call for the assasination.
“[Iran's Mullah's] called for the assassination of…Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, and Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni”
As for Iran’s Mullah’s calling for the assasination of Abdullah, I cannot find a report of this anywhere, even from terrorist rganizations. Regardind the Iranian Mullah’s calling for the assasination of Livni, that report comes from MEMRI:
memritv.org/clip/en/1986.htm?auth=25a76ebbeee72e214eb5fbd270738408
In the speech, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said about Livni:
“Every time I see that woman’s face, I wish somebody would waste a bullet on her.”
I had a Persian speaking coworker listen to the speech, and, surprisingly, the above quote is accurate! Wow. The statment, however, was an expression of disgust, and was not a serious call for her assasination.
“There are certainly Iranians who disagree with the official doctrine that is best summarized in the street chant we see so often on the evening news: ‘Death to America.’”
It’s a good thing civilized countries don’t do things like this:
“When the leader of Israel’s religious-Zionist Meimad Party recently addressed a meeting of 800 high-school students in a Tel Aviv suburb, his words on the virtue of Israeli democracy for all its citizens were drowned out by student chants of ‘Death to the Arabs.’”:
theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090126.wisrael26/BNStory/International/home
“No Hillary and Obama won’t neither will Hollywood or NOW.”
Amazing isn’t it–500 women running for office in Iraq and people clain there have been no gains. Iran cannot claim this kind of women’s rights for sure. At this point I have very little more hope for us than the Arab nations. Time for NOW and Code Pink to get behind the women of the east. They are ready. A little pressure on the Saudis wouldn’t be amiss, tho’ it may not do any good. Slamming Republicans should not be their ony jobs. (NOW And Code Pink.)
As long as women continue to accept the shackles of the Sons of Allah, they will continue to get away with what they have gotten away with.
Listening, and material support would go a long way in achieving this goal.
Dave 742,
Keep checking your sources, I’m sure they are not complete. They are interesting. In the mean time quit sounding like a Moslem apologist.
Oscar:
“In the mean time quit sounding like a Moslem apologist.”
Regarding my message nuber 28: Here is an anology corresponding the the issue I brought up:
Let’s say there was a domestic terrorist group whose goal was the violent overthrow of the US government. A much more violent and formidable version of the Weathermen. Let’s say that this “weathermen” group had a website, and on it they ran a story claiming that the US government announced that it is offering a reward for the assasination of Arab leaders. People in Arabic countries relay this story to the public, but in their version they leave out the part that the story originated with a US terrorist group, and simply report that the US government announced that it will give a reward for the assasination of Arab leaders. The US government denies the story, but the Arab public believes it. In this situation, would you object to the fact that the Arab public would believe a story that originated from a US terrorist group that seeks the overthrow of the US government? If you were to point out this fact, would you be a US “apologist”? Or would you be someone that values the truth?
Iran is very rich country in the region, but its people are very very poor!!! 80 percent are living under poverty line. Just recently, 3 men committed suicide, 2 ablaze themselves out side mullahs’ Majlis and Ahmadinejad’s office, 1 man who was a worker throw himself down from 8th floor. Is these sad for a rich country?? With so many oils and wealth!!How the wealth of Iranian is being spended? Mullahs are making nuclear bomb, exporting terrorism, making oil deal so the European governments would continue their appeasement policy with mullahs and against the right of Iranian people.
I am sorry that US has not realized yet, that negotiation and appeasement policy is a poison policy for the mullahs and if they delay to stop these evils … then the time would come that mullahs have got the atomic bombs and world can’t do any thing about it.
U.S. is making a delay for stopping these mullahs….. Hilary Clinton and Obama better stop asking mullahs to negotiate with them…
We the Iranian youth have learned and believe that what ever mullahs and their forces say to our people is upside – down! We know that when they say State Security Forces, that is the most dangerous forces to be avoided, when they say we want to enrolled people for helping brother nation Palestinians and Iraqis, … we are sure they are trying to make and plan another disaster for them in the region.
How is it that mullahs and their henchmen are after the rights of people of Gaza but abuse the rights of 80 million people of Iran every second and moment!!!
Hope Obama would understand that he can not find any one to negotiate with in mullahs’ government, 30 years these policies have been checked, and it is the time to stop the mullahs and their atomic bombs without any appeasement. Khatami, Khamenie, Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad, all of them are the same, dictator all the mullahs together must be overthrown so our people and specially the women get free.
I agree with Ahmad comment that everything the mullahs and their forces say is upside – down remember “Sardar Zarei” who was the head of moral police for “immoral women”, and he was arrested in naked in a corrupt house with five naked women!!!!!!!
We are very happy that NCRI and PMOI were removed from the injustice terror list of EU which was due to appeasement policy. That was a victory of justice to terrorist government of Iran. This policy is against the rights of all Iranians people and not just its fair resistance. And we hope that Obama would not continue this appeasement policy with mullahs again and let the people of Iran get ride of all of these inhuman mullahs!!!
The next Iranian revolution will be led by Iranian women. I agree with that, since the most pressure are on women right now in Iran. Therefore, the first ones who are after overthrowing of mullahs are the women in Iran who have been most suppressive during 30 years.
I wanted to thank you Mr. Michael Ledeen, for this great article, to make public awareness about mullahs and their terrorist actions around the world. I really respect such writers like you who write the reality and the truth and give us a chance to express ourselves which we are not able to do it in our country, Iran, under mullahs.