If you want to know the scope of the illusions of Western liberal elites, you should read the fascinating editorial published in the Guardian on October 22, 2003. It shows the willingness of these elites to disregard the cruel facts, the radical agenda, and the apocalyptic ambitions of the Iranian regime.
Six years ago, the regime in Tehran executed the same policies, and was driven by the same ideology, as today. And the same Western political elites tried everything in their power to distort the perception of their counterparts in Tehran in order to avoid the harsh truth: the mullahs want to crown Imam Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution with a nuclear weapon.
The Guardian wrote that day:
Iran’s agreement to allow unlimited UN inspections of its nuclear facilities and to suspend its uranium enrichment programme marks a tremendous success for European diplomacy. It shows just what can be achieved when the European powers work together, rather than in opposition.
At the time, it was as clear, as it is now, that the three European ministers involved lied to themselves and to us. On their flight back, they knew that the surprising agreement they took home wasn’t even worth the paper it was printed on, but it was better to pretend that the mullahs were guys like them rather than accept the stubborn reality that some value systems and some concepts of human dignity are incompatible.
So in spite of all the facts, trends, and signs, the Guardian wrote:
Britain’s Jack Straw, France’s Dominique de Villepin and Germany’s Joschka Fischer have good reason to be pleased with their day’s work. Anxious perhaps not to tweak American noses, Mr Straw played down the significance of the achievement. He should not be so modest.
This policy of delusion — talk to the mullahs, threaten them with boycotts, accept their regime as a legitimate expression of Iran’s popular will, but never threaten, let alone use, “hard power” — was continued without a single gesture of goodwill from Tehran.
The hardcore establishment of the Islamic Republic only feels revulsion for the decadent and infidel Western diplomats who come begging for some cooperation. The mullahs know that the Western media and the political organizations to which these politicians belong will never allow the threat of a violent confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program, so year after year they smilingly welcomed these straw puppets and enjoyed themselves, using the simple tricks they practiced to gain precious time.
After years of delusional European diplomacy, the Iranian nuclear project has spread to hundreds of locations. It is undeniably a majestic operation, Iran’s most impressive achievement in modern history. The mullahs succeeded in creating the conditions for the construction of a nuclear bomb — and by controlling Hezbollah and Hamas, they forced the Israelis into passivity.
Even more impressive is how they controlled the Americans by helping to kill thousands of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead of drawing America’s fury, the mullahs convinced two administrations that a peaceful Iraq is impossible without Tehran’s willingness to stop the flow of roadside bombs, instructors, and various weapons across its borders. Basically, they took the American army hostage in Iraq — and they never saw the shadows of vengeful B-52s gliding over the roofs of their buildings.
No, they witnessed American politicians incapable of demonstrating the will to carry on to the media and their voters. The wings of the American eagle were clipped by a group of cheating and manipulating religious men who perfectly understand the mechanisms of the Western media game. They knew that a direct military confrontation with America would leave their palaces in rubble, but they also knew that a steady stream of dead American soldiers would strengthen the broad opposition in America to the war. In particular, opposition to war in Iraq and to a possible war against Iran, because these conflicts were President Bush’s, a man incessantly ridiculed in the Western media. The mullahs correctly concluded that they could play the liberal Western elites — trained in the sacred neo-Marxist concept that all major conflicts in the world are socio-economic in nature and all cultures are equal — and secretly expand their nuclear installations.
This is how the editors of the Guardian celebrated the agreement with the mullahs and, en passant, expressed their contempt of President Bush:
Factions within the Bush administration will be skeptical that any deal struck without direct US involvement will stick. US concerns about Iran’s links to terrorism will not be affected by this agreement. Iran will doubtless remain an axis-of-evil rogue state in George Bush’s florid lexicon. But Washington must not try to undermine this accord. To date, its polarising, aggressive pressure tactics have mostly made a difficult problem worse. Europe demonstrated yesterday that there is a different, more effective way. And it is not the American way.
In other words, those stupid Yankees fail to see that you have to treat the mullahs respectfully and not upset them by calling them part of an axis of evil in order to get a deal.
The Europeans could have confronted the mullahs, but after two devastating world wars they have lost the ability to actively defend their interests. They cannot absorb the prospect of the ultimate sacrifice of their sons. And since the Vietnam War, America’s room to operate is regulated by the liberal media, which is deeply influenced by European cultural relativism and secular pacifism. As a result, players who are aware of these characteristics of modern Western societies (i.e., Vladimir Putin, the Arab dictators, and the mullahs in Tehran) calculate their steps in sync with the limitations of Western modi operandi.
The project of the Shiite bomb has spread over so many sites that only a devastating attack by American forces could make an end of it, with terrible collateral damage. The Israelis can only execute some tactical destruction, in the hope that it will delay the project.
The Europeans were never serious in stopping the mullahs. They only have “soft power” in their arsenal, because the liberal European ideology has no chapter about European exceptionalism, European idealism, European ability to bleed, sweat, and suffer for its own sacred values and traditions. The Europeans, concerned about oil imports, commercial interests in Iran, and the loss of influence in Tehran to Moscow and Beijing, fear Israeli action more than an Iranian bomb. President Obama, who would have been an excellent editorial writer for the Guardian, is even more European than the Europeans.
Well, they got what they were looking for.
It has never made sense to talk to the mullahs. It is their core business to confuse and mislead, create chaos, kill opponents, torture students, organize terrorism, and weaken Western resolve. They do what they do because they are defined by it. If they were to stop what they are doing, they would give up their identity and the soul of the Shiite revolution. The mullahs are close to fulfilling the central dream of Imam Khomeini’s revolution: a weapon that can destroy Israel and undermine Western nations.
It’s too late. The mullahs won. Only the desperate and heroic people in the streets of Iran can turn the tide.
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