Are We In a Panic Over Iran?
We don't seem to be. In a panic over Iran, that is; over the very real danger this country poses both to her immediate neighbours and to the world at large. Iran is currently guided by a man whose erratic behaviour swings from hysterically belligerent (and with full intent) to quasi-reassuring - that he and his country mean no harm to anyone, just seeking what is rightfully their inheritance, since Allah has given his blessing through the intermediary of the state's Ayatollahs that it is perfectly all right to enrich uranium.Some of the Ayatollahs, unfortunately have also gone a step further, still in the name of Allah, to assure fellow Iranians that it is perfectly all right to threaten and kill, if necessary, and necessarily kill, Jews and foreigners, but above all, Jews. Needless to repeat, but bearing repetition is Iran's demonstrated obligation to its Islamic inheritance and ancestral-theistic vows to annihilate Israel - and then the region, they are assured, will be returned to Allah and to peace. As if.
As if the greater burden of its neighbours trust in Iran's intentions. As if this country's Arab neighbours would wish to be guided by a Greater Persia. As if, once assured of success in removing the blight of Israel from the Middle East, Iran would be instructed by Allah, the Ayatollahs and President Ahmadinejad to rest on its laurels. As if the world in general can now breathe a sigh of relief, that present danger has been averted. As if, faithful to their fervid interpretation of the Koran, world domination in the ineluctable name of Islam would not remain first and foremost on the agenda. As if non-Muslims will be led to believe that they can conduct civil, mutually-respecting discussions with Iran on its place in the world.
There are those who believe that just as the Soviet Union and its Russian overlords could be intimidated, bargained with, so too can Iran. The Soviet Union had its hard-earned nuclear weaponry and we saw a dance of deterrence played out on the world stage; neither the Russians nor the Americans could ever see their way through to unleashing Armageddon, although there were times when nervous trigger-fingers came perilously close. But Nikita Kruschev, unhinged as he sometimes appeared to be, was a highly intelligent and moral man. Does anyone really believe the same of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?
There are thoughts of preventive strikes against Iran in the hopes of forcing nuclear bomb-making to be placed reluctantly on the back burner, to buy a little more time, in the hopes of a popular revolution that would conceivably place the burning ardour of the Islamists back into permanent history. Wait long enough to do just that, and a "pre-emptive" strike will surely fall upon Israel, in a display of smug nose-thumbing at the world. Iran could conceivably, quite in line with its violently vitriolic rhetoric choose to hand nuclear weaponry over to non-state interests to do with as they will. And most certainly they will; it would be only a matter of time.
The agenda certainly is there, in blazing black and white. And in case anyone has difficulty reading those words of irrationally bitter intent, one can always go directly to the source and listen to the tirades frothing from the mouth of Iran's inestimable leader. Aw, come on!, right? How to take such miserable rantings seriously? The man is mad. Which is exactly the point. A madman has complete and total rule of one of the most populous nations in the Middle East. If its neighbours are nervous and feel they have good cause to be, why then would the rest of the world not be?
Yet, are we? Well, President Ahmadinejad feels we should be nervous. Nervous, polite and respectful. To him in particular, to Iran in general, and most certainly to his vision of the future of the world; a changeover catastrophic to the world at large, but extremely satisfying to him and his Ayatollahs. In the greater service of God, of course. This man states that anyone who objects to Iran's "achievements" in nuclear capability should be "angry, and die of this anger". Typically Middle East reasonableness.
Nonetheless, the world, albeit objecting to Iran's continued statements that the Holocaust is a hoax in the service of extortionate Israel, and he and his country are bound and determined to eliminate that pestiferous Jewish State, appears to have some difficulty in assimilating the knowledge that an unnervingly manic president of a seriously belligerent country can be serious about his stated intentions. And so, while applying itself through the efforts of the United States, the European Union, Russia and China to encourage Iran to step down from its dangerous heights, dread for the future appears to be somewhat diluted by the belief that no one individual, no one country could possibly be that recklessly intent on causing the unthinkable.
Ha, ha! The joke's on us!
So who exactly is sweating here? Israel, for sure. Jews world-wide, as well, since President Ahmadinejad would be most grateful if Jews conveniently agreed to converge en masse toward Israel and spare him and his regime the tedious leg-work involved in seeking them out in the diaspora. Just a little pest of a country in any event; who would miss them? Certainly not their neighbours. Not a Europe which continues to breed new waves of anti-Semitic enthusiasts every few decades or so, despite protestations to the contrary.
Will no one be sufficiently alarmed to rid us of this savage beast? Saviour of the world at large; kindly step forward and take your place in the annals of fame for world deliverance. As if.
posted by Pieface @ Friday, September 08, 2006
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