This discussion is about Clifford D. May's article that came
under the title: “Iran after
Geneva ” and the subtitle: “America 's
wisdom and will are likely to be tested over the months ahead.” It was
published on November 28, 2013 in National Review Online. But before I get to
that, I need to go on a tangent so that I may illustrate a point that will help
me explain a crucial matter.
Those of us who are old enough to have become familiar with
Walter Cronkite's on-screen persona will remember that one of his traits was
the ability to express his emotions while reading the news. He did so using
facial expressions and a mannerism that was his own. In this regard, he once
did something that may have been instrumental in introducing a Middle Eastern
expression into the American culture. Known to treat the Arabs and the Israelis
with an even hand – which he maintained most of the time – he nevertheless
would indicate his displeasure at one side or the other if he became annoyed at
something. And so, it happened one time that he made a face while quoting an
Arab who had said something to the effect that “they try to break our will.”
Shortly after that, expressions such as “testing our will”
and “breaking someone's will” came into vogue in America . Not long after that, the
Israelis – who used to say they were able to execute the 1967 blitzkrieg in the
Sinai because they had more telephones on a per capita basis than did the
Egyptians – now started to say that they were able to pull off that blitz
because the Jews had the will to fight more than did the Egyptians. It may be a
coincidence or it may not be. Who knows?
Now, why is that point so crucial to this discussion? It is
because you encounter the following passage in the Clifford May article: “In
1935, Hitler commissioned a film called 'Triumph of the Will.' Last week, Ali
Khamenei addressed the Revolutionary Guard Corps. My colleague, Reuel Marc
Gerecht noted that Khamenei spoke of a struggle of the wills. The Supreme
Leader stressed that proud Muslims have the will to win.” The implication here
is that Khamenei's Iran is
the ghost of Hitler's Germany
because the word “will” clearly stands as the nexus that links the two. Well,
that's what they used to say about Saddam's Iraq ;
and that's what they later said about North Korea . But when the mushroom
clouds didn't go kaboom like they predicted they will, the false prophets
changed their tune to now predict that it will happen with Iran . And you
can be certain there will be someone else in the future. This is not a
prophecy; it is almost as scientific an observation as to see a stone you throw
in the air come falling to the ground.
The question to ask is this: Does the Farsi culture contain
a reference to the human will the way that the Arab culture does? Or is it that
Khamenei picked up the word from Walter Cronkite? Or did he pick it from Hitler
like Clifford May says Marc Gerecht is saying? Or maybe he picked it from the
Israelis who had picked it from Walter Cronkite. Well, to tell you the truth,
I'm not going to waste my time trying to untangle this mystery, but I put it
out there for anyone who may wish to try their hand.
As for me, I get bored listening to people who see
historical analogies where none exists. I get bored with these people as much
as I do listening to conspiracy theories that swirl around assassinations which
took place decades ago. And when the intent behind making this sort of
analogies is to scare the world into believing that mushroom clouds are about
to form in our skies, I see someone thirsting for blood. As it happens, only
the Jews and their American lackeys see a Hitler in the people they start to
hate; people about whom they motivate America to put its children in
harm's way, and do what often turns out to be an illegitimate and ill-advised
deed.
In making the current analogy, these people insinuate that
the one they hate for the moment has expansion on his mind and the wherewithal
to attempt it. But the truth is that in the modern era, no one has the wherewithal
to expand by military force. Israel
was taught this lesson several times, and there is proof it has learned it. The
fact is that Israel
no longer equips its army with tanks, the instruments by which to invade lands
and occupy them. Yes, Israel
still occupies the West Bank of the Jordan , but that's the legacy of a
past it can no longer repeat.
Knowing this, Clifford May and people like him advance their
point of view by making quick reference to the military situation in the 1930s,
then switch to a safer ground. For example, speaking of Iran , they feel more at ease talking ideology
than talking the number of tanks and soldiers it would take to occupy the Middle East or the whole world, for that matter. Here is
an example: “The ideology of Nazism called for the creation of a racial
aristocracy. The ideology Iran 's
rulers embrace calls for a religious aristocracy.” Wow, if that doesn't tell
you Iran 's rulers are about
to invade Czechoslovakia ,
you know nossing about za history of za Nazi Chermany.
If not that, what can the Iranians do that will emulate Nazi
Germany? To respond, Clifford May offers this scenario: “Sooner rather than
later, the sanctions rope unravels … There will be calls to reestablish
economic pressure but it may be too late. Iran 's rulers will continue toward
their near-term goal: a quicksilver nuclear-breakout capability.” Because this
does not sound too scary, he tries to inject melodrama into the scenario. This
is how he does it: “Their longer-term goals include hegemony over the Middle
East, control of the region's petroleum resources and the Strait
of Hormuz .” The problem is that he does not say how many tanks and
how many soldiers it will take to achieve these goals, and whether or not Iran has that
capacity.
Still, undeterred by the absurdity of what he is predicting,
he continues his flight of fancy with this: “Non-proliferation will be dead –
the Saudis and others will obtain the weapons they need to defend themselves.”
But how and when will they do that? Before they have been occupied by Iran or during
the occupation? May says nothing that would answer these questions; but he
looks ahead, thus turns the pool of absurdities he has been filling into an
ocean: “Over the decades ahead, the odds of a war in which nuclear weapons are
used will rise.” Nuclear war between whom? The occupier and the occupied?
With people like these in charge of America 's security, you know now how and why the
superpower that was America
turned into a joke in less than a generation under an administration that was
headed by the Rove, Cheney and Rumsfeld triumvirate of clowns.