How did this happen, without anyone seeming to notice? I think it is because we are not permitted to tell the truth about the war: we defeated al-Qaeda, Iran and Syria in Iraq, and the consequences of that defeat have been very serious for our enemies. They preached that Allah had blessed their jihad, and when they were beaten, it raised terrible questions to which they have no truthful answers. But the truth is quite obvious to the would-be enemy fighters, who know that the promise of victory was not fulfilled on the Middle East’s major battlefield, and whatever your view of the Afghan fighting, nobody I respect really believes that we are being beaten by the Taliban.
We’re right on the edge of an historic watershed, in which our totalitarian enemies can be driven into history’s bin of losers. It is time for us to declare victory and then impose our will on our enemies by giving their oppressed people the opportunity to free themselves from the bloody tyrants.
It’s up to our leaders to demonstrate they have the will to win. Win a real war, not just a political poll. And by the way, if our current leaders were to do that, they’d do a lot better in the polls.
Faster, please.
“It’s up to our leaders to demonstrate they have the will to win.” Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha…laugh, laugh, chortle. Will to win is not shown by leading from behind.
We can only hope the specops guys already on the ground can hold it together for 18 more months.
I suspect, however, that we may not have more than 6 or 7 months. See Spengler yesterday on Egypt.
ta
Chortle….mmmmhhh
On the same tone, we could say that the Commie in Chief has disappeared and the only thing that remains visible of him is the teleprompter.
(It’s a new classic: “Through the Subversive Glass”)
Alicious!
oddly enough the financial crisis in europe may be the proximate cause for the downfall of the Mullahs or at the very least a major stress factor for them
this is because the crisis has depressed the market for crude and crude oil is essentially the only important source of revenue for the Govt in Iran
the lower crude oil price however, probably helps Turkey’s govt in that the largest import cost for them is oil
What if they gave a war, and nobody came?
At this stage of world history, given ALL that’s transpired due to the election of “Lead from behind” Obama, I think it would be terrible if the latter in any way, shape or form, made a change in his feckless foreign policies.
The big picture demands that he LOSE. If he did have an epiphany and helped Syria and/or Iran lose their dictators, it would be a disaster if THAT action, on the margin, made him win another LONG four years as president!
Maybe luck will be a lady, tonight—that is, in the dark “night” known as the times freedom-loving people in Syria and Iran have been suffering, perhaps it will be Syria that simply collapses, without too much overt support by the US government.
Yes—let Syria free herself from the grip of Assad, while Obama fiddles away in DC. A thus friendless Iran might soon enough likewise lose its tyrants.
Why not a trifecta?
Obama loses; Syria and Iran enjoy a revolution, that could bring them into the modern world.
The odd thing about war, you need not go to it, for one way or another, it comes to you. Most often revolution ushers in as bad or worse than what was ushered out, think, France, Russia, China, Cuba and Iran. The people who know what to do are not the ones making the decisions. I find the current crop of so called leaders problematic, and that is being charitable in the extreme. I wish the Syrian and Iranian resistances well but they should expect little from the White House, the Suit is currently on display elsewhere.
For starters Iranians and Syrians shouldn’t count on Obama for a shred of help. He may no longer view the mullahs as possibly being rational enough to do business with, but to his way of thinking he’s still a long way from helping Iranians and Syrians get rid of their thug leaders.
I’ve read about the Iranians setting up some kind of missile base on a Venezuelan peninsula. But what does Cuba expect to get out of this anti-American solidarity game? Is Fidel, in his dotage, trying to relive the good ole days? The Latin left has seen better days.
For our leadership to “want” a victory will require new leadership.
Our present lot are locked into a Sir Richard Francis Burton level of romanticism about the “mystical, spiritual East” vs. the “cold, unfeeling, materialistic West”- and they want the mystics to win. In the belief that it will bring about a millennial advent and Eternal Peace.
They also hate Israel for being a “Crusader State” that brings a bastion of “evil Westernism” into that perfect mystical civilization.
They aren’t “closet Muslims”- just a bunch of overaged frat boys (and sorority girls) who have never outgrown their infatuation with anything that gives them an excuse to pretend to be “counter-culture” while sucking on a bong. Most of them have never read the Qu’ran, but can quote Hermann Hesse and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from memory. And firmly believe that Islam and their crypto/pseudo-Buddhism/Hinduism (which bears no resemblance to either of the real things) are one and the same.
I used to think that better education would solve this problem. But this administration has proven that it can’t. As the old saying goes,
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.
You can lead a man to knowledge but you can’t make him think.
Until we have someone in charge who is capable of actual critical thought, and of seeing the world as it really is, as opposed to looking at it through the haze of their own fantasies, we can look forward to more of the same. More lost opportunities, more violence, and maybe even a full-on war.
With our “Fearless Leaders” cheering the enemy on. And blaming -and punishing- us for the carnage.
clear ether
eon
Their people can only be free in Christ.
Good News: we won. Bad News: We’re broke.
What about the Pok-is-stan network holed up in the mountains? Hamas is controlling Gaza. Hezbollah is controlling Lebbanon. Terrorists are setting up beachheads in Venezuela and Cuba. Terrorist are coming in over over the border. Al Shabbab is in Somolia and Americans are joining the Jihad. And MoBros front groups run interference here in the good ole U.S.A. So we cut off a toe, but the head and body is very much alive.
And, your course of action is . . .?
These regimes are transitory and the war will not end when they fall. The enemy is a supremacist, imperialist, totalitarian political system posing as a religion. Until we abandon the idiocy that it is uncivilized to criticize religious beliefs we will make no lasting progress in the 1379 year old war Islam is waging against civilization.
The more aggressive we are in waging a propaganda battle against this death cult the fewer military engagements we will need to fight against this enemy of mankind.
Thank you. That’s the one thing that our leadership class simply will NOT acknowledge — the barbarism of Islam and its utter incompatibility with ANY Western nation.
At a minimum, every Muslim seeking to come to the U.S., or here but not yet a citizen, should be forced to declare in writing that under Islam it is acceptable and proper for ANY person to apostasize, criticize Mohammed, criticize the Koran, or oppose the institution of sharia in any country, and if the Koran, the Hadith, the Sura, or any muftoons, mullahs, imams, maulanas, maulvis, ulema, or sheiks state otherwise it or they are wrong, ignorant of the true precepts of Islam, and falsely represent the wishes of Allah.
An additional salutary feature would be to promise a U.S. passport, immunity from extradition, and $25,000 per year for 20 years to any person who kills an imam anywhere in the world outside the U.S. who issues a fatwa calling for the death of any American. Iranian mullahs exported IEDs to Iraq and Afghanistan to kill our troops. Let’s see how they like what we export.
That would get things off on the right foot in the Western Union Department and, while only a teeny, tiny step in the right direction of demonstrating a Western position that Islam is a curse upon mankind and Muslims inherently subversive of any Western nation, would be an indicator that the West is capable of recognizing and acting upon a civilizational threat, the day-to-day murder and viciousness of which — only since September 11, 2001 — is chronicled at TheReligionofPeace.com.
Quite by coincidence, the lead item on this site at this very moment is about a Christian pastor in Iran facing execution for apostasy. This is one sick “religion.”
Michael,
As I understand it, the financial scandal in Persia is SO BAD, it is as if an appropriate number of rail cars were pulled up at the US Treasury, and the treasury completely looted. Please advise if I am correct.
Dr. Shalit
The lynchpin is Iran. If Iran can be turned to the west then almost all of the other problems in the middle east will dissolve. I actually think the timing is good. We’re going to have a new Republican president in 14 months. In the meantime, the current occupant is paralyzed. (and as Gunwalker continues to unfold the entire administration will become even more paralyzed). Things move slow enough in the middle east that the new American president will have the opportunity to affect lasting change leading to real peace. We just have to hold out for the next 13 months.
We can’t win when the commander in chief doesn’t wan to.
Regime change in any Muslim majority country is likely to bring something much worse. In addition both countries have weapons that will be dispersed to our enemies some of whom are certain to be terrorist groups.
Why are you so eager to see more instability and weapons in the hands of our enemies? Faster? Why should we wish any of this is happening? It is not a fairy tale. It is the real world and nobody in that part of the world lives ‘happily ever-after’.
Good thing we didn’t have you along in 1942. We want countries that oppose us to be unstable because making effective modern state sponsored war requires stability. This is so obvious that our enemies pretend to have elections, and pretend to stability, and pretend to modern war making powers. Assad threatens war in an attempt to get stability back.
We win they lose. What is wrong with that?
I’m not at all sure anything can be done for the people of Iran, no matter their benefactor. These people have for centuries managed to screw up everything good that comes their way. Is there such a thing as having “a propensity for failure”? Otherwise known as “The Midas Touch in Reverse”, where everything they touch turns to ca-ca instead of gold.
Oh, wait,,, that describes just about every Muslin controlled nation on the planet. If they aren’t sitting on an ocean of oil that some other developed country found and produced for them, they’ll pimp their mothers and daughters for a buck.
As Mike noted above, what will to win, Obama seems to think he can win over the bad guys by his personal charm, and his advisers are probably telling him that the whole thing is due to Israel not giving the Palestinians a state or that the Tea Party is responsible. Anyway he is too busy running for re-election to care, to say nothing of his contempt of those misguided enough to want freedom rather than domination by their betters.
BTW I cannot see moral support being enough to defeat the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, either in Iran or their new home away from home in Syria. My guess, Assad and Khameni (I know I misspelled his name but the chief thugs of Iran all seemed named after Italian foods so if I write something that sounds like a pasta I know I will be close to the correct spelling) will gradually exterminate enough of the opposition to remain in power. Something more specific is required, like several armored divisions.
This reminds me of the crumbling of the USSR. I thought it would happen only through a violent convulsion, and it happened, but without the dreaded violence, and surprised virtually all of us, by which I mean all of us depending on the media for information. But it was not unprovoked. Reagan knew what he was doing. The “Evil Empire” was a well aimed rhetorical missile, and together with an authentic military build-up, it struck. Right now, our administration appears bashful, but we don’t know where the Kurdish minority gets its weapons, so there is some hope. But the “radio silence” of our State department, anyone has any idea what the calculus might be?
“In Iran, the opposition is overwhelmingly pro-Western, and eminently worthy of our support (once again, for those tuning in late, I’m talking about political, technological, and financial support, not military anything), while in Syria we should steer away from those many characters linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist crowd.”
Here you said “not military anything,” but in the previous paragraph you said, “Somehow the Kurds are being armed, and they are notoriously good fighters.” Well, they could be getting weapons from us, or they could be getting weapons from the Saudis, who hate the Iranians (it’s a Sunni vs. Shia thing). But no matter how you slice it or dice it, some military action will be needed to overthrow the mullahs. Whether it’s used to de-stabilize the government, or it’s used to strengthen the rebel forces against the government, some force will be needed, especially since you have a bunch of maniancs in charge of a country who are willing to die for their cause.
The rebels in Iran also need to be very well organized and trained, because if you don’t do this, they will simply be exterminated like they were after the 2009 elections. A big hope is that some military units will rebel against the Iranian regime, as is happening now in Syria. That would certainly bring down the regime very quickly if the Revolutionary Guards knew they would have to face some real opposition. But if all you do is hand a bunch of average people a gun and say, “go ahead, overthrow the country,” chances are they will lose. Even the Libyan “rebels” could not have survived without A LOT of military support from NATO and the United States.
If America is serious about overthrowing the mullahs in Iran, then we should be flooding the Kurds not only with weapons, but with US Special Ops and Special Forces troops. Not a lot, but enough to train these people in how to overthrow a government without getting crushed themselves. That is the only way this is going to work in a ruthless country like Iran. We saw what happened to peacefull popular demonstrations in 2009, and a lot of people got killed with poor results. No, some military action will be needed to train and arm these people if they are serious about regime change in Iran.
The road to Damascus will be through Iran. Overthrow the mullahs first and everything else will fall into place. Let’s hope Obama takes this opportunity to make it happen. If not, we’ll have to wait until a Republican is elected in 2012. Personally I think Obama is going to do nothing, because he doesn’t want to risk the Iranians fighting back in either Iraq or Afghanistan, preventing Obama from pulling all of our troops out from there. So lets hope the Iranian rebels can hang on for another year.
Michael,
It does appear you’re being overly optimistic. Our current president has squandered our nations resources on increasing funding for social programs, green energy pipe dreams and new entitlements….not to mention diverting billions to his campaign contributors and labor unions. We don’t have anything left to provide to the Syrian/Iranian resistance.
Yabut as long as there’s an Obama, a Holder, a Geitner and a Bernanke, we can always print as much money we need to feed the beast.
Our National Command Authority, and the political chain of command do have a will to win. Unfortunately for our poor country, their chosen “winners” are Assad and Ahmadinijad. Any attempt to overthrow them will be met with US tacit support for the regimes. The only people better than snatching defeat from the jaws of victory than our own current regime, are the Institutional Republicans, who are terrified of defeating our own domestic regime.
Subotai Bahadur
Yes. Exactly. You are a realist.
correction to #2 above
“better than snatching defeat” should be “better at snatching defeat”. Need more coffee.
Subotai Bahadur
They are still all muslim believers though, so whoever is in charge we can expect more of the bigoted same.
Unfortunately, post-WWII, the USA connived with the local mullahs to get rid of the anti-colonial, secular intelligentia because they were invariably socialists.
No doubt if you were writing then you would have been militating against the secularists.
Be careful what we ask for. We just might get it. In Iran, the mullahs have political power they have never had anywhere in the Islamic world. They will fight with tooth and nail to keep it. They aren’t about to go back to their mosques and a life of prayer and study. In essence, the overthrow of the mullahs means an overthrow of Shia Islam itself. In Islam, there is no concept of separation of Mosque and State, period. That is a purely Western idea. There is a mountain northwest of Teheran, in the elBurz range. It is called Alamut. It used to be the seat of the Sheikh-al-Jebal, the Old Man of the Mountain. His followers liked to use red-handled daggers. They were the Hashashin, the Assassins. Who is to say that a modern-day Hassan as-Sabah might not send his men (or women) to Europe or America?
Those men and women have already infested the West and are biding time in sleeper cells waiting to pounce on innocent women and children whence they receive the word. The only difference between them and those who followed Sabbah is that they will probably not take a few hits of primo grade A Hashish before doing their dirty deeds, but who knows? So, the argument of “lets do nothing lest they get pissed off” is academic.
And, yes, the fall of the Mullah’s will inevitably lead to the decline of Shiism. Good. In case any of you good folks have any interest in learning about what Shiism really is (not a religion, by any stretch of the imagination) you may consider reading Ahmad Kasravi’s book, which is called Shiiegari. I have read it in Persian and it is eye opening. It has been translated into English titled “On Islam and Shi’sm” ISBN-10: 0939214393 and ISBN-13: 978-0939214396. The poor guy was murdered by the followers of Navvab Safavi’s Fedayeen Islam, a precursor to the animals in charge of Iran now.
Many people still believe that secularism will, eventually, overcome Islam. This view is from the non-believing sector of the universe. It is incorrect.
What is needed is an alternative narrative to Islam. It is not practical to convert 1b or so Muslims to another religion. It is more productive to show them how Islam was hijacked on the road to Medina…thus giving them the alternative within the existing faith.
It is my view that the situation in MENA is so volatile that the revisionist view could go viral; especially in a society that sees conspiracies everywhere…viewed against proof positive that current Islamic thinking does not work.
ta
Micheal,
Am I the only one here who remembers your previous piece /”http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-brothel-named-iran/, published in back in July?
The thing that struck me at the time when I read this was the fleeting nature of virginity, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t virginity, by nature, a “one time deal”? If these Iranian pilgrims were only interested in female comfort from 12 to 35 y.o. virgins, then there would have to be a very long line of female virgin volunteers lining up at the back door of these State run brothels to satisfy the demand.
What’s wrong with this picture?
This only tells me that there is something fundamentally wrong with the Muslim mindset, in other words, these men are nuts.
Iranian plastic surgeons earn their living mainly from two procedures in terms of volume, and I am not sure which one has a bigger demand. 1) Rhinoplasty and 2) Hymen reconstruction.
Excuse: But rinoplasty should fit somewhere
in PajamasMedia illustrious columns.
Yes, Michael, the defeat of both evil regimes in the region certainly it would be a world-changing event. And also it will constitute a crushing blow to their opportunistic defenders, the biggest advocates of the evil regimes from Tehran to Damascus, and from Pyongyang to Caracas “Russians and Chinese”.
The only thing our leaders want is re-election. And our current ‘president’, who is no friend of Israel, probably is not too worked up about Iran and Syria.
Between them they have 0 electoral votes.
The article makes you sound like someone in his dotage engaging in wishful thinking, and not aware of his political surroundings. What American administration are you dealing with in your world ? I know it is hard to give up your dreams for the middle east, but it is a failed area living a 7th century existence. Better to look for alternative energy, drill here and stop 3rd world immigration to the West. Your middle eastern brethren don’t think they need saved.
I’ve been saying this for twenty years now, and it just gets more true. What we need is Kurdistan. Somehow or other Kurdistan needs to be reborn. Nothing wrong with having the best fighters in the middle east as your bosom friends who owe you for bringing back their nation. We owe the Turks squat, the land of the Aryans could do with a bit of reduction, and Iraq is the only real problem. Somebody smarter than I am needs to figure it out and then give the long-suffering Kurds their homeland again. We’re nearly a hundred years late on delivering what was promised after WWI, and the Wilson/George division of the region didn’t do so well over time.
Long live Kurdistan.
No need to tear up Iran, brohim. Get rid of the Islamic Republic and you will have your bestest bosom buddies among the population of Iran. At least until another Carter or Obama comes around and knocks the world for a loop. But I have to tip my hat (fedora, as it is) to Carter for at least having the chivalrous decency of going to Iran before 1979 to personally kiss the Shah before screwing him.
Renaissance Nerd,
There you go, thinking again. Do you have your official EPA, DoL, DoJ permits, Union card and are your dues up to date?
God bless you, Renaissance Nerd ! The problem is that our NeoCon ‘friends’ want to use the Kurds, their ethnic cousins, the Baluchs, the Iranian Turks (Azerbaijanis), Arabs and Turkomans, and other non-Persians just as “notoriuos” mercenaries in order to reinstall a racist Persian ‘King of Kings’ in Iran. The Kurds and others including a significant segment of the Persians have matured, remembering well what happened in 1953.
The Kurds know well that, after the fall of Saddam, had the Iraqi Sunni and Shia Arabs in some significant numbers cooperated with the the West, the Americans and the Brits would have been more than glad to betray them(the Kurds) again. The Kurds know that as soon as a pro-West regime takes over in Baghdad, the West will betray the Iraqi Kurds again. The Kurds know well what is happening with the Kurds in Turkey and with the Baluchs in Pakistan, both Western allies. Criticism of Pakistan continues to be a taboo for our NeoCon friends as criticism of Turkey was before the notorious (sic) Islamists captured power in that country.
The Kurds, Turks, Baluchs, Arabs, Turkomans, Lors and other Non-Persians will continue to prefer the Shia Mullas, preferably their Reformists, to a Pahlavi ‘king of kings’or to a Rajavi or a Leftist. I wish Dr. Michael Ledeen had used his influence convincing the Iranian Opposition abroad, particularly the Palavists, to decalare in a serious, formal and meaningful way, their acceptance of a Confederalist system a la Canada, for a future Iran.
Dear Michael, Let me be frank: We the non-Persians of Iran know well that as soon as a pro-West regime is installed in Tehran you guys will care as much about us as you did during the Pahlavi Regime in Iran — and as you do about the Baluchs, Sindhis, Saraikis, and Pashtuns of your beloved Pakistan. I think the Kurds of Syria and Turkey have also begun thinking on the same line, preferring to get whatever they can from the Assad-Alawite ruling clique and from the Turkish Islamists to fighting as mercenaries for the West FOR NOTHING accept getting the title: “NOTORIOUS”.
Tomorrow is Yom Kippur. While praying to Avinu Malkeinu seeking forgiveness for “our” sins of various kinds, in my thoughts I will include in this “our” some of our friends for their continued flirtation with Pakistan and for their utter selfishness while dealing with the Kurds and the Baluchs and Iranian Turks, Turkomans and Arabs.
The Kurds, Lurs, Baluchs, Arabs, Azaris and the rest of the ethnic groups that comprise Iran are killing the Shia RG’s and Basijis by the dozens (baker’s, that is) whenever the opportunity avails itself. Did you conduct a local gallup poll to gauge the political preference of these ethnic groups as to their preference of one political thought over the other? I kinda sorta doubt it. You are only projecting your own fantasies on a make believe reality that only occupies the Sim City created by the erratic firing of certain neurons that may have damaged the software. Matrix, revisited, maybe? I dunno, ask Weseley Snipes in the hooskaw.
Victory indeed can be ours. But all good victories need to have a good piece of music to dramatize and further propel those who are struggling for it. The French had the Marseillaise, the Bolsheviks had the International, the Jews returning to Israel had Giuseppino del Biado and Smetana to thank for Hatikvah. For our victory I want this great man to write the revolutionary score:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/7/irans-voodoo-extremists-trump-our-enviro-nuts/
What is so special about the current oppressive regimes in Iran and Syria that the USA would to start wars against them?
How are they in any way a real credible threat to the USA?
Why not N Korea? Myanmar? Saudi Arabia?
After all, N Korea already has nuclear weapons and the majority of the 9/11 perpetrators were Saudi nationals.
How does the USA have to resources to start two additional wars and occupations?
Where is the additional trillions per year in spending come from?
Will China will be willing to lend the USA even more money to underwrite it’s new military adventures along with the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and occupation?
Both wars now having gone on years longer than the USA involvement in WW2.
And one should keep in mind the tragicomedic and farcical track record of the USA, going back to 1951, in managing the internal affairs of Iran.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
~ Einstein [attributed]