Iran's Holy War

It isn’t the Iraq War, it’s the Iraq operation. The "War" is much bigger than that. It’s so many things connected together. In many ways, it’s Iran’s Holy War.

Bernard Lewis, said by some to be the greatest living Western scholar of Islam and someone with deep sympathy for the Muslim world, wrote an editorial in yesterdays WSJ that is deeply troubling. He points out that, unlike the Cold War, this enemy wants to die.

Iran, it’s Mullah’s and Ahmadinejad have a apocalyptic death wish with designs on bringing back the 12th or hidden Imam through chaos and darkness:

“There is a radical difference between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons. This difference is expressed in what can only be described as the apocalyptic worldview of Iran's present rulers. This worldview and expectation, vividly expressed in speeches, articles and even schoolbooks, clearly shape the perception and therefore the policies of Ahmadinejad and his disciples.”

Here is the piece that really hits home though, and we all need to understand this clearly:

“In this context, mutual assured destruction, the deterrent that worked so well during the Cold War, would have no meaning. At the end of time, there will be general destruction anyway. What will matter will be the final destination of the dead - hell for the infidels, and heaven for the believers. For people with this mindset, MAD is not a constraint; it is an inducement.”

You must read this Lewis article... here.

James Lewis from The American Thinker:

Ahmadinejad may be mad, but he’s cleverly mad. Today’s Iranian proxy war on Israel was cleverly designed, both strategically and tactically. The mullahs may therefore wait a few years until they have their nukes all lined up. August 22 comes once a year, and 2006 may not be the time they choose. Or they might fire their long-range missiles at Tel Aviv or even Jerusalem on August 22. GPS-guided missiles could be devastating. However, no doubt Israel has make it unmistakably clear what kind of action would trigger massive retaliation. The Syrians at least are not eager for martyrdom.

Hitler overreached when he attacked Russia. Ahmadinejad may also overreach. It fits his malevolent paranoid style. The big question today is how many people he will take with him if he does overreach.

If the Bush doctrine of nuclear preemption is ever justified, it would be in cases like this. But there are no easy answers. We are just lucky to have a tough-minded administration in Washington, and not the flabby thinkers of the Carter and Clinton years.

It seems clear to me that Iran is pulling the strings everywhere. They’re driving the Shiite uprising in Baghdad. They’re driving the Hezbollah attacks on Israel. They’re supporting chaos and terror… and yet short-sighted thinkers here in the U.S. and elsewhere are crying "it’s the Bush Administrations incompetence" causing the problems.

You can definitely argue that Bush has made some mistakes and miscalculations on how to deal with the these issues – in fact I think almost everyone would agree that he has, but Bush is not creating the problems. Iran and the Islamic extremists who want to either rule or annihilate the world.

Here is another tidbit from Bernard Lewis regarding a passage from the Ayatollah Khomeini quoted in an 11th-grade Iranian schoolbook:

"I am decisively announcing to the whole world that if the world-devourers (i.e., the infidel powers) wish to stand against our religion, we will stand against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of all them. Either we all become free, or we will go to the greater freedom which is martyrdom."

We need to start calling Irag a “conflict” or an “operation”. We certainly have trouble with North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, China, France... and terrorist organizations all over the globe.

The real “War”, however, is big and broad, and when it comes to the greatest threat to our country and to civilization as we know it, all roads lead to Iran. Believing anything else seems like pathological wishful thinking.

(As Glenn Beck notes... it's too bad they don't have a kick-ass olympic hockey team that we can unite against.)

Click here for all of Cox & Forkum's cartoons on Iran... they're fantastic!

Democracy in Iraq is great. Democracy in Iran would change everything.