Not learning the lessons of history, or worse yet, refusing to learn the lessons of history, will always get us into big trouble. And one of the lessons we all should have learned by now is that appeasement against tyrants is never going to be helpful.
Indeed, whenever we try to cosy up to dictators and seek to appease those who have declared their hatred of us, all we do is ask for, and get, trouble – and lots of it. Chamberlain was not the only appeaser that comes to mind in recent history.
Sadly they are still around today. People like Ron Paul seem really quite clueless about the threats America and the West face, from radical Islam in general and Iran in particular. He seems to want to out Chamberlain Chamberlain as he makes apologies for Iran while denigrating his own nation.
In case you are not savvy as to Paul’s foreign policy credentials, just one paragraph from Joseph Klein helps explain why he is such bad news:
“Rep. Ron Paul believes the United States is a greedy, militaristic empire that brought 9/11 upon itself. He believes that Iran poses no threat to U.S. or Israeli security and that Iran deserves to have a nuclear weapon if it wants one. As for Israel, he does not think it should have ever come into existence as a Jewish state. Nevertheless, Ron Paul, whose crackpot beliefs would be disastrous for the United States and the free world if ever implemented, is a serious contender for the GOP presidential nomination.”
If someone like Paul ever made it into the White House, we would all be toast, beginning with Israel. Yet for some incredible reason there are people who consider themselves to be conservative Christians who absolutely love this guy, and think he is the Republican equivalent to the Messiah that Democrats have thought about Obama.
The truth is, Paul is not at all a conservative, but a rather radical libertarian who has all sorts of nutter ideas on all sorts of issues. But it is his utter naivety and cluelessness about our external enemies that is here under discussion. Fortunately we have some more sober-headed people who are fully aware of the dangers of militant Islam and a nuclear-armed Iran.
Consider the words of Gavriel Queenann who assesses some very recent words from Iran’s leadership: “Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday endorsed a new doctrine explaining why it would be ‘legally and morally justified’ to commit genocide and wipe Israel off the map.
“The article was written by Khameini’s close adviser Alireza Forghani and endorsed by the Supreme Leader whose writings played a critical role in its drafting. The article has since appeared on numerous Iranian government and military websites. ‘Israel is a cancerous tumor in the Middle East,’ the article in the ultraconservative Farsi-language Alef news site. ‘Israel is a satanic media outlet with bombers. Every Muslim is required to arm themselves against Israel.’
“‘I have already noted the usurper state of Israel poses a grave threat to Islam and Muslim countries. Islam and Muslim states must not lose this opportunity to remove the corruption from out midst. All of our problems are because of Israel – Israel of America. The first step should be the absolute destruction of Israel. To this end, Iran could make use of long-range missiles. The distance between us is only 2,600 KM. It can be done in minutes.’ The crux of the piece says Iran would be justified in launching a pre-emptive strike against Israel because of the threat the Jewish state’s leaders are posing against its own nuclear facilities.”
Melanie Phillips offers us the bigger picture to all this: “War with Iran is a truly fearsome prospect. Its likely consequences would include attacks on US air bases from thousands of Iranian missiles, the unleashing of terrorist attacks within the US and Europe, the rocketing of Israeli towns from the tens of thousands of missiles trained on Israel from Lebanon, the closing of the Straits of Hormuz thus paralysing western oil supplies, and doubtless other horrors.
“But however fearsome this prospect, that of a nuclear-armed Iran is worse. The consequences are simply insupportable. A regime which has seen itself at war with the west ever since it came to power in 1979, and which has been involved in arguably every major terrorist atrocity against it, will be equipped with nuclear weapons to bring the west to its knees. Working as it does through puppet rogue regimes and terror organisations, it could perpetrate acts of nuclear terrorism – or threaten to do so.
“It could mount its long-threatened attempt to wipe Israel off the map, thus provoking a nuclear response to prevent a second genocide of the Jews. Last but by no means least, it will spark a nuclear arms race throughout the region, thus ensuring that nuclear weapons come under the control of some of the most unstable and belligerent regimes on earth. To all these threats and more, the west will be paralysed by Iran’s nuclear capacity, just as it is currently paralysed over North Korea.”
She too cites Iranian leadership. They have made their aims perfectly clear, and we ignore these warnings at our own peril: “The deeper problem is the west’s assumption that the Iranian regime is capable of ‘coming to its senses’ – its assumption that these are rational actors who ultimately will act in their own interest. Few in the west understand that, on the contrary, the Iranian regime is impervious to reason. Educated, intelligent and cunning they may be – but they are religious fanatics driven by an entirely different set of considerations. That’s what makes this situation so terrifying.
“As I have written over and over again, from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei downwards the Iranian regime is dominated by people (adherents of a sect called the ‘Twelvers’) who believe that the Shia messiah, the Mahdi, will return to earth either as result of or to bring about the apocalyptic end of days. It is that apocalypse that they are intent upon facilitating. That is why the argument that ‘they wouldn’t dare launch a nuclear attack because they know half of Iran would be obliterated as a result’ is so fatuous. They would be happy if that were to occur.”
Being naive about our enemies and seeking to appease them helps absolutely no one. And another important lesson of history is this: when someone says they want to annihilate you, you had better take them seriously. I close with a short video clip which I suggest you all watch. Douglas Murray seems to have more understanding in his little pinky than people like Ron Paul have in their whole body: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dBzslDdQ_g
And just in case that is not very convincing, I suggest you watch this even shorter video clip to see what we are up against here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs0xLdFqU_s&feature=related
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/28/ron-pauls-destructive-foreign-policy/
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/152478#.TzDTT8X9PDO
http://www.melaniephillips.com/why-iran-will-not-come-to-its-senses
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