On The Road In The Kingdom Of Fear

The biggest threat to world peace today?

Say what you will about the continuing catastrophe in Iraq, or indeed, the desires of Pyongyang for Nuclear weapons, but to my mind, the biggest threat to the stability of the world is Iran.

A year ago I was hopeful for improvement. The previous President, Rafsanjani, was a ‘reformist’, a moderate in Iran’s radical Islamist theocracy. After eight years as President some laws were being relaxed. Women could walk around outside holding their boyfriends hands, though admittedly, homosexuals were still stoned to death or forced to have sex changes. This was a vile regime, though it was moving, albeit slowly, in the right direction.

Last August the bubble of Iranian reform burst. The hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected to office. We are not talking about a hardliner in the British sense of the word; he is not a Michael Howard, or even David Davis; Ahmadinejad is closer to Hitler. This is epitomised by his rabid anti-Semitism, ultra-conservative policies and his desires for the reassertion of Iranian military might.

The West was hopeful he would warm to the international community. The Europeans used the carrot of economic aid, in an effort to coax Iran off their nuclear ambitions. This has failed woefully. Indeed, Ahmadinejad has continually stated that Iran has every right to Nuclear weapons. Some members of the left and the anti-war movement even support him, arguing “Israel has them, why not Iran?”

I was once sympathetic to these views. Now I realise the crucial difference between the Israelis and the Iranians; the Iranians, to quote their new President, want Israel “wiped off the map” while the Israelis want to live in peaceful co-existence. The criticisms of Israel’s human rights abuses in Palestine are compelling, but Ahmadinejad’s desire for Israel’s destruction is tantamount to the Holocaust. In short, the Iranian regime is evil and must be stopped.

In light of Ahmadinejad’s comments, it is imperative Iran never acquires Nuclear weapons. If they do they will be able to hold the West hostage and may even provide nuclear capabilities to the network of terrorist organisations working within the Middle East. In the coming months I would not be surprised to hear of Israeli strikes at Iran’s Bushehr reactor.

“Will Iran dare risk a confrontation with Israel?” I hear you ask. This is a valid point. However, when we take a look inside the psyche of the Iranian regime we see this may not be an issue. Ahmadinejad is a staunch supporter of the Islamic revolution in Iran, a revolution which, during the Iraq-Iran war, used children as human mine clearing devices, promising them Paradise in the name of Allah.

Can the representatives of a regime that sent children as young as nine to die as human minefield clearers be trusted with nuclear weapons? The unequivocal answer to this is no. Will the regime care about the innocents residing in Jerusalem? In all likelihood, I think not.

In the 1980’s Israel averted its destruction at the hands of Iraq by attacking the Osirak reactor. Today they are attempting to go through diplomatic means first, calling for Iran’s expulsion from the UN. This will not work; the UN is a crumbling Cold War institution that could not prevent genocide in Darfur or Yugoslavia, or hold the US and Britain accountable for the invasion of Iraq.

During the 1980’s a confrontation with Saddam was becoming unavoidable. He was a tyrannical dictator hell-bent on creating an Arab super state like his hero Nebuchadnezzar. The state of Israel did not fit into this design. The bombing of Osirak only postponed the inevitable, i.e., a war with Israel or the West. The first Gulf War signalled that this prophecy had come to fruition. Likewise, Ahmadinejad wants the destruction of Israel, and likewise, wants a worldwide Islamic revolution, saying in June this year, “the Islamic revolution will soon reach the entire world”. The parallels are unnerving.

I fear, with Ahmadinejad and the Imams in charge of Iran, war is not just likely, but almost a certainty. Indeed, we have been seeing the beginning stages of this conflict with Iran’s alleged involvement in southern Iraq.

Our only hope is that the UN or other Middle Eastern leaders will somehow persuade Ahmadinejad to back down his pressure on Israel. If this fails, as I fear it will, Israeli war planes will be flying over Bushehr in the coming months. Many will criticise this as pre-emptive aggression, but in the face of a modern day Hitler, what other option is there?

posted by Alexander Try @ 3:26 pm