Friday, July 10, 2015

False Perception creating a Paradox

There are times when artists would be so absorbed by what they do, they fail to notice that what they put on paper, on a canvass or a strip of celluloid, is nothing less than the essence of what goes on deep inside their subconscious mind.

An example of this is the article that was written jointly by Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz, and was published in the Wall Street Journal on July 8, 2015 under the title: “The Iranian Nuclear Paradox” and the subtitle: “Once an agreement is reached, a U.S.-Iran confrontation becomes more likely, more quickly.”

You can already see in the subtitle that the two authors are going as far as to advise those of their ilk, it is better to accept the deal negotiated between Iran and the major Western powers, rather than reject it. Later in the article, they explain that with this strategy, they do not go against the grain because their goal remains the same as that of the collective; to keep inciting America to bomb Iran. The difference is that their new strategy will make the fulfillment of that goal more likely; and its potential attainment more quickly.

They go on to say this will come to pass because their strategy will increase the likelihood that a confrontation will erupt between the US and Iran. When this happens, America will be more inclined to bomb that country … which is what they and those of their ilk want. From the looks of it, this is what the two authors view as being the nuclear paradox. It boils down to this: you must accept the deal to hasten its rejection.

Well, let's say all that may be true but only if you look at the situation from their point of view. It is that they perceive the Iranians as being evil characters who cannot prevent themselves from building the bomb. Thus, Marc and Mark believe that sooner or later – beside pursuing an aggressive policy in the region – the Iranians will cheat, will be caught red handed, and America will be tempted to bomb them … which it may or may not do. It is like letting a pesky prisoner escape so that you may have the excuse to shoot him dead.

They see that scenario unfold in the following manner: “Mr. Obama's deal-making is in effect establishing the necessary conditions for military action after January 2017, when a new president takes office.” They are certain that things will happen this way despite what some people think who: “assume that the Iranian regime will give priority to economics over religious ideology.” But the two authors assure the readers that: “Such a regime by definition would never bend to America's economic coercion.”

And that's not all, say Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz, because something else that is just as important lurks in the background. It is that “the clerical regime cannot be understood without appreciating the centrality of anti-Americanism to its religious identity.” To explain this point, they toss in the air a few ideas that don't make sense. And there is a good reason why; it is that they claim to understand something which isn't there.

The fact is that the concept of hating someone or something defining a religious identity happened only once in history. It is that Judaism is founded on the hatred that the Jews are required to hold in their hearts for Egypt. This is a religious dogma they have been celebrating on Passover Day for three and a half millenniums. Take that out, and Judaism disappears. Thus, the Jews cannot live without hating Egypt and never have. By contrast, the Iranians have lived without hating America for two centuries or longer. They only changed when the latter started hating them at the urging of the Jews. And so, the Iranians returned the favor.

But that's not how Gerecht and Dubowitz perceive the situation. Their view is that nuclear deal or not, the Iranians are now and will remain terrorists to the core. When this is added to their anti-Americanism, conflict between the two countries will become inevitable. And this, they predict, “will eventually provoke a more muscular U.S. response.”

But the two are pessimistic about this happening even if the deal fails, no peaceful alternative is offered and Mr. Obama is out of office. The odds are that in the end, the military option will be rejected because it will not be a one-time affair. Thus, “even a hawkish Republican president may well default to containment.”

And they deliver a parting insult to the Iranians and to Obama: “if Washington does strike, it will be because Mr. Obama showed that peaceful means don't work against the cleric's nuclear and regional ambitions.” What a couple of clowns posing as defenders of democracies.