The Ironies of History: From Pearl Harbor to Iran
Nonetheless, Ms Slavin is entirely right to point to internal conflict, which is enormous, and has to do with the survival of the regime, not with the Revolutionary Guards (taken to be a solidly unified bunch) vs the pols. The wonderful blog, homylafatte, recounts a recent episode in which the Basij commander got angry at the Tehran traffic control chief, Hojjatollah Behrouz, at a crisis meeting on Tuesday, December 1, when Behrouz said it would be impossible to prevent demonstrators from blocking traffic on Student Day. The Basij general shot the poor bureaucrat in the foot and sent him to the hospital…
It is hard to put the entire country in chains and still claim divine legitimacy, as Green leader Mir Hossein Mousavi intoned in a powerful public statement today. To the discredited regime, he says,
(You) insist that the people have been quieted and only students are left; and in universities it is only Tehran [that is vocal], and in Tehran it is only the mother universities that express themselves; and in those the centre of movement are a few non-local youths. If we expel them from the dormitory and sentence them to a ban from education, then the story is finished.
OK! You did all this, then why isn’t the story over?
Student movements are signs of realities greater than themselves.
And that is indeed the point. The regime is facing an enormous mass movement, not just a handful of intellectual kids. The “enemies” of which the supreme leader speaks are all around him, and his closest allies are now making deals with the regime’s gravediggers, taking out insurance against the day when the Islamic Republic finally falls. Khamenei hears their voices every night, calling from the rooftops. “Canons, guns, Basiji, prison, torture or execution; has no effect on us anymore.”
Remember Pearl Harbor.
The irony here is that when the regime does fall, the Obama administration will have had no plan on how to respond and will respond with the same vacillation and indecision that characterizes most else of what it attempts to do. Of course, our dear leader will take full credit for the fall as it truly will be change that we can believe in.
Disturber
Dear Sir:
Internal unrest in Iran is no doubt very interesting, but isn’t it all really irrelevant? As long as the leading Mullahs have oil money and command the loyalty of the militia, army and revolutionary guards, as long as they are willing to kill the people without limit, well, why should they not be able to stay in power indefinitely?
Iran has far more resources and wealth than North Korea and no one thinks the people of North Korea are going to be able to overthrow Kim and company anytime soon, or at all. We have heard for many years now how much opposition there is to the rule of the Mullahs, but how much opposition is there really to the policies of the Mullahs that most concern the US, namely their nuclear program?
It seems to me, at least, that the Israel (and the US) do not have the luxury of waiting until the internal opposition to the Mullahs actually does something decisive, if it can. Iran will have operational nuclear weapons within, at most, a few months. Once they do, nuclear attacks on Israel and nuclear terrorism in the USA will be only a matter of time.
Dying? Evidence please!
Only liberals think that wishing for something will make it happen.
Regime change in Iran would be a good thing. It won’t happen because of wishes. Twinkling a nose won’t work either. Nor will a majic wand waving be any good.
You need a plan, one that involves bombs targeted on the Mad Dog Mullahs and their minions.
There are those that argue bombing Mullahs will increase their internal support. They have just as much evidence supporting their theory as you do with your ‘make a wish’ plan. On the other hand, my bomb them theory has the upside of making support levels irrelevant. Being dead tends to do that.
The more opposition, the weaker the Iranian regime feels, the more determined they will be to obtain nuclear weapons. Their very insecurity combined with a heavy dose of Islamic paranoia & bizarre religious beliefs of hastening the return of their messiah, makes them likely to not just obtain nuclear weapons but to use them. They don’t care if they sacrifice the lives of millions of Iranians – Islamists are not nationalists, they don’t care about Iran, they care about Islam. The Iranian regime will use the Revolutionary Guards to stay in power at any cost – they will torture & kill any opposition.
Hopes that this regime will be over-thrown, like hopes that diplomacy or sanctions will stop Iran’s nuclear program are just wishful thinking & rationalization to avoid facing reality – and the reality is that ONLY military action will stop this regime of Islamic crazies from obtaining nuclear arms.
We talk about Pearl Harbor & the damage a sneak attack caused us but what have we learned? Imagine Iran conducting a similar sneak attack, this time on New York or Washington, imagine a nuclear exchange between Iran & Israel in the Middle-East & the consequences.
The total irresponsibility of world leaders, especially our own Fearless Leader, the Wimp-in-Chief Obama, boggles the mind.
The Iranian regime is clearly both corrupt and brutal, but it has not yet shown significant weakness. Worse, it has a massive advantage — we of the West might not see it — in that it claims its authority from Allah, and the great majority of Iranians are Muslims.
Defiance is the essential psychological underpinning of freedom. But it alone is not sufficient. Whether the Iranian people possess the other requirements of freedom in sufficient quantity remains to be seen.
If I were living in Israel right now I’d be very, very, worried. Dictatorial regimes are at their most dangerous when they think they’re about to fall. The fall of the Shah of Iran doesn’t really count because you were dealing with a petty tyrant that was simply trying to hold on to his power. But when you’re leading a philosophical an religious movement like the mullahs are, they do not have the luxury of failing. After all, if their regime falls, then all religious movements in the Middle East will be in trouble. People will see them as an example of just what a bunch of tyrants these religious maniacs are. Even in Afghanistan, the religious Taliban may be making progress on the battlefield, but there isn’t massive popular support for their cause because the people know what a new Taliban government would mean to them. So if the mullahs fail in Iran, it could have a huge impact on other religious movements, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and all of the other Muslim fanatics located throughout the area (both Sunni and Shia). So why should Israel be worried about this? Whenever a dictatorship is about to fall, they need an outside enemy to rally the people against. If the dictatorial leaders or leader can convince the people that they are being threatened by outside powers, then they can take the pressure off of their regime by rallying the crowds against this outside threat. So the mullahs can whip up some sort of bogus claim against either Israel or the United States (the little and great satan, respectively)and then attack either of them, starting a conflict that will rally the population inside Iran and act as a diversion as to what is going on within the country. I doubt the mullahs would attack the United States because we would have a clear reason for retaliating and that could endanger their hold on power. But an attack on Israel would be much more logical, given that the Iranians could launch some sort of devestating attack on Israel through Hamas or, more likely, Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Iranians have more than enough materials for several “dirty” bombs and they may even have some biological or chemical weapons they could use. The mullahs would also want the Israelis to retaliate because it would give them a reason to continue the conflict and, by extension, the distraction. Unstable dictatorships do strange and dangerous things when they’re about to fall, so if I were Israel I’d be worried right now.
Thanks ML for the reports. Here is a link to students liveblogging it.
How in the world would the US go about “preventing the return of the Hidden Imam?”
Does the Iranian nazi ruling clique believe we have powers over the supernatural???
Very distressing to read. We appear to be trying to ‘negotiate’ with bloodthirsty lunatics.
I still say that Israel *and* the US should strike at the thousand or so individuals who make up the ruling clique and destroy them utterly. No warnings, no deadlines, no ultimatums, no invasion, no occupation, no pacification, no winning of hearts and minds. Repeat as needed.
(the US should join that effort because–even if it’s just Israel that attacks–the US will be blamed too, no matter what we do. So if we are going to be blamed anyway….)
If the mullah regime falls, I’m sure our State Department will insist that Zelaya be restored to the presidency.
“Remember Pearl Harbor.”
Remember the Maine!
Remember the Alamo!
Remember the fifth of November!
Remember the Sabbath!
(Sorry. We now return to the regular programming.)
Hitler launched his v-2 bombs after the Normandy
landings by the Allies. So, Israel, be prepared
for something like that.
Michael, you are mentioned in today’s National Post, and one item that only the Dutch, to my knowledge, has done is the listing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. The current Canadian government gave a thumbs down, in 2007 to listing that group as a terrorist organization. Do you think that there are governments looking at that decision, and concluding it was the wrong one?
“But when you’re leading a philosophical an religious movement like the mullahs are, they do not have the luxury of failing. After all, if their regime falls, then all religious movements in the Middle East will be in trouble. ”
Not quite.. You’re giving them more sense than traditional secularist dictatorships. When Iran (the ultimate 21rst century Witchdoctor State) falls, it will be the message that their imaginary friend has abandoned them or is giving them the final test. As such they will have nothing less to move so they can just let the world burn in anger, or they will be asked to make the ultimate gesture of devotion. Mass suicide and mass murder for their killer god. The ultimate human sacrifice. So yeah, if I were Israel or anyone, I’d be scared.
Israel should k.o. not only the nuclear sites in Iran but also its oil industry. Thus doing, oil prices will go up giving the U.S. a shower of truth regarding its energy dependence. Then, It’s quite probably fancy plans like health care and CO2-lunacies will crash too. We are all going to suffer, but how much harder will be if it is not so?
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/international/news/20091207p2g00m0in015000c.html
According to the Above, it seems the Weather in Tehran was wet and cold… Not good for demonstrations…
probably the biggest demonstrations since the elections.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579687,00.html
Unfortunately, it looks like the regime is getting better at shutting down Comms and internet…
Of course, not a peep from the US Administration… Only Fox has in on their Front page of their website…
I’m afraid if/when the change comes, they will look at the US and ask, “what have you done for me lately?” and keep building the bomb (if they don’t get it before the fall)
actually internet functioned quite well, twitter worked throughout and phone cards beat the cell shutdown. the regime can’t tie their own shoes these days.
Once again my previous statement in saying that Israeli government—and in particular the right-wingers in Israel—are indeed hand-in-hand with Ahmadinejad and his thugs is real.
You people keep changing the subject, but this is the REAL loving relations that exist between the two sides in Iran and Israel, NO MATTER how many times Ahmadinejad wants to WIPE OFF Israel off the map, he is hand-in-hand with BB in giving each other what they need.
Prime Minister of Israel COULD NOT find any other day, but ONLY TODAY he has to come out and say this publicly that “Iranian regime has lost the support of its people”!!!!???!!!!! REALLY? IS THIS REALLY TRUE, Mr. Prime Minister? ARE YOU SURE? ISN’T THIS LIKE RUMOR?
No one else, but ONLY Israeli Prime Minister could shine his sun-glowing prophet-like message to Israeli people and the rest of the world in saying something like this!!!??? Now wait few days more and see how Ahmadinejad and Khamenie use this very message to connect the Iranian freedom fighters to Israel that even their Prime Minister is supporting them!!!
I stand corrected!
Cheers
I thought that one of the strategies should have been to bomb the nuclear locations, and perhaps even before that, when Saddam was toppled, they might have gone on to Iran, but that’s the Patton in me. Hence, sanctions… but now the metaphorical walls are falling, except Obama has no plan, or one that makes sense.
The Commander-in-Chief has annouced his strategy in Afghanistan, the troops will leave after 18 months. Brilliant. The Islamist Jihadists, mullahs, warlords and martyrs think in centuries, and the wars have just begun, since a decade is but a month.
Continue the awareness… from a concerned Canadian
http://www.onwardjames.blogspot.com
There are rumors floating around in Iran today. Apparently, the supports of thieves and murderers Mullas are spreading these rumors. The terrorists mullahs who have occupied Iran by force and through their terrorist activities have now are claiming that they have reach the enrichment level necessary to make bombs. I personally don’t believe Mullahs since they are born liars, cheaters, and murderers. Nevertheless, this is a dangerous development if it is even 10% real.
Interestingly reading the op’s blog readers will like this because it is correct so its good to see an author thats showing this for all to read