printThe excerpt is from my new column, now on Taki’s Magazine:
“Americans are still in the grips of a Bush foreign-policy hangover. Obama refocused a drunk-on-democracy country, by reminding it that ‘the difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as has been advertised. Either way, we were going to be dealing with an Iranian regime that has historically been hostile to the United States; that has caused some problems in the neighborhood and is pursuing nuclear weapons.'”
In other words, thumping majorities in the Middle East do not necessarily coincide with American national interests. …
Iran’s leading reformist, the mullahs-approved Mousavi, backs Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and has said he would not suspend uranium enrichment. Most Iranians concur. Like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mousavi doesn’t recognize Israel. Since the Holocaust appears to have become a centerpiece—and a precondition for diplomacy—in neoconservative talking points, they might be interested in this tidbit: on Holocaust denial, Mousavi and Ahmadinejad are on the same pseudo-scientific page.”
Read the complete column, previously on WND, and now on Taki’s titled “Fighting Tyranny Should Start at Home.”
Miss the weekly column on WND.COM? Catch it on Taki’s Magazine every Saturday.
(For the purpose of this column, Majnun is madman in Arabic.)
Update I (June 19): Bob’s comments hereunder about the Iranian Supreme Leader and his powers remind me of another Big Man in another country. What’s that place’s name again? Aha! The US! Have you counted the number of newly created, Messiah-appointed and supervised fiefdoms lately? Czars, anybody? We were supposed to have a government run almost directly by the people and their representatives. I bet we have a larger Managerial State than Iran has. We’re just so good at dubbing all that it does “freedom.” Oh, and we don’t wear towels. Please! We need to look in our own political plates.
How many people would die in the streets if Americans had the gall to protest in such numbers and at such a volume as the Iranians? We lose quite a few naughty citizens to Tazers—and other “necessary”—“discipline” almost daily, except these incidents are filed as “keeping the peace,” and “guarding our liberties” against those who would destroy them (such as Anne Gotbaum, the 100 pounder She Devil).
Update II: LITTLE SATAN STRIKES. So you think we can lord our freedoms over Iran. Again: look in your own backyard. Today, on behalf of Ron Paul’s Campaign For Liberty, The American Civil Liberties Union launched a suit against a lawful criminal gang: the Transportation Security Administration. What said bandits did to staffer Steve Bierfeldt the TSA thugs do daily, even hourly. The population complies. This time they got caught out “for the ‘illegal’ detention of the Campaign for Liberty’s treasurer in April at a St. Louis airport.”
“The ACLU damned what it called a ‘troubling pattern’ of aggressive invasions of privacy by the TSA.” Don’t we know it. Bierfeldt “recorded his confrontation with the airport security agents on his phone. The audio caused waves of indignation across the Internet, as he was seemingly harassed merely for carrying cash and Ron Paul campaign material.”
Harassed? The man was cussed, sworn at, and threatened.
On March 29, 2009, Steven Bierfeldt was detained in a small room at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and interrogated by TSA officials for nearly half an hour after he passed a metal box containing cash through a security checkpoint X-ray machine. Bierfeldt was carrying the cash in connection with his duties as the Director of Development for the Campaign for Liberty, a political organization that grew out of Congressman Ron Paul’s presidential campaign.
Bierfeldt was detained and questioned as he returned home from a Campaign for Liberty event transporting proceeds from the sale of tickets, t-shirts, stickers and campaign material. Bierfeldt repeatedly asked the agents to explain the scope of their authority to detain and interrogate him and received no explanation. Instead, the agents escalated the threatening tone of their questions and ultimately told Bierfeldt that he was being placed under arrest. Bierfeldt recorded the audio of the entire incident with his iPhone.
But we call this a minor issue in the greater cause of safekeeping “liberty.” Reality check: American airports and airlines are the scariest most oppressive in the world. Want a safe, civilized flight? Fly Emirates Airlines. Who are we kidding!
Update III (June 20): Pat Buchanan and I are on the same page (no surprise there). The following are excellent strategic policy points:
“This is another reason President Obama is right not to declare that the United States is on the side of the demonstrators in Tehran or the other cities – and against the regime.
Should this end in bloodshed, Obama would be blamed for having instigated it, and then abandoned the demonstrators …If Obama cannot assist the demonstrators, why declare we are with them? That would call into question the nationalist credentials of the protesters by tying them to a power not universally loved in Iran. It would play into the hand of the regime by confirming charges that the crowds are “rent-a-mobs” like the ones Kermit Roosevelt and the CIA used to dump over the regime of Muhammad Mossadegh in 1953.”
[SNIP]
On the other hand, here’s Chuck Krauthammer, pushing for some action.
“Real or not, the possibility that the vote in Iran is the product of widespread fraud is simply none of the United States’ business.”
So true, Ilana, but without a doubt the vote was unreal.
It was tantamount to Virtucon staging an election to determine who might play Dr. Evil’s Number 2. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_2_(Austin_Powers)
Where else but in Mike Myers’ fertile imagination could over 80% of the electorate cast votes only to result in both candidates declaring themselves to be the winner by a landslide margin?
Fraud? Not to worry. The “Supreme Leader” will sort things out to the satisfaction of all. He must. After all, he was appointed by a panel of “Experts.”
By the way, the Supreme Leader of Iran, according to Wikipedia, “is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, controls the military intelligence and security operations; and has sole power to declare war or peace. The heads of the judiciary, state radio and television networks, the commanders of the police and military forces and six of the twelve members of the Council of Guardians are appointed by the Supreme Leader.
Makes you wonder what all the fuss is about.
A good point to remember: “In case the advocates of a muscular response have failed to notice, we’re pinned down like butterflies by our own tyrants.” This is exactly the point we need to focus on. Some want to make the world safe for democracy, whether the world wants it or not. I think concentrating on our own liberties (or lack thereof) and re-establishing constitutional government here ought to be our aim, and not trying to tell everybody else how to govern themselves. It hasn’t worked particularly well up to now anyway. To paraphrase John Lennon — let’s give sanity a chance.
The best Beatle reference for this article is “The Fool on the Hill”, which is a McCartney tune about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Transcendental Meditation, and pacifism. Since there is no profit in disagreeing with you, and I am a capitalist, I am just going to go meditate for a while. Does wonders for the blood pressure, they say. I do agree we need to seriously clean our own house before we start critiquing others, even if they are theocratic tyrants who are about to go nuclear on Israel. Your are still my favorite libertarian.
[You sound afraid. Grin. You can be a little harsher.]
Great column. We have been making the world SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY for nearly 100 years now since Megalomaniac Worldsaver Wilson’s First Holy War. 44 years ago, LBJ sent in the first “combat troops” to Vietnam and on June 19, Thieu and Ky took over after 10 governments in 20 months (when the CIA killed Diem). Back in my youth, these songs came out while we prolonged civil war in Vietnam, resulting in 4 million dead (thanks, partially, to spilling over into Cambodia) before the Stalinists could kill the 200,000 South Vietnamese they would have killed without us. The songs are still relevant today:
— Tom Lehrer has in his song “Send the Marines”:
“What do we do? We send the marines!
For might makes right,
And till they’ve seen the light,
They’ve got to be protected,
All their rights respected,
‘Till somebody we like can be ELECTED.”
Play – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHhZF66C1Dc
— This is from Phil Ochs “Cops of the World”:
“We’ll spit through the streets of the cities we wreck
We’ll find you a leader that you can’t (can?) ELECT
Those treaties we signed were a pain in the neck
‘Cause we’re the Cops of the World, boys”
Play – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTcvJ98TgaE
Great article, Ilana. And I have to hand it to WorldNetDaily, as they publish great editorials like yours and Pat Buchanan’s along with opposing (and to my mind, disgusting) pieces like Oliver North’s. He is so disingenuous in his article, invoking the memory of Ronald Reagan while attempting to re-cast U. S. Cold War objectives in light of the current neocon script, whose tagline is always, “liberating the oppressed through spreading democracy.” My memory of the Cold War era was that the Soviet Union was seen primarily as a threat against _us_; “liberating” the oppressed of Eastern Europe had very little to do with our support of Ronald Reagan, but you wouldn’t know that from North’s article.
As you also mention the recent situation in re: Georgia: It’s interesting that Sarah Palin, shortly after arriving on the national scene, handled some of McMussolini’s daily phone calls with the Georgian leader. What was she telling him, I wonder? That the U. S. would intervene militarily against Russia should her team be elected? I think your recent characterization of Palin as too ambitious for her own good is spot on.
[WND has been publishing me for close on a decade without ever censoring me. The story is here. Why anyone would think any libertarian organ has been freer is beyond me… ]
Just getting a response gives me the Grins. We disagree on the merits of pacifism. I see it as being quite similar to communism … a means to achieve utopia. It is just more ancient but has been recast in New Age mysticism as the pathway to god. It is one of the tenants of libertarian thinking that explains why libertarians can lurch to the left or right with ease, depending upon the emotion of the day. Now I’ve probably gone too far.
[Too far in that you have not researched the object of your criticism: Mercer a pacifist! That’s insane. Anyone who has read me for not very long knows I’ve advanced arguments against that mindset. Oh for the days when people would read before assuming/asserting. Try reading Facing the Onslaught of Jihad”. Her’e what I wrote on Memorial Day:
“AGAINST PACIFISM. Pacifism is evil. Myron, whose delicious postings on BAB we relish—and who deserves a fan-base—has fallen into that error. There are most certainly just wars, just as surely as there is evil in the human heart. Myron, quit hanging around anarchists in cyberspace, or else you will, as the hard-left has and does, continue to reduce human evil to the state’s doing, thus relinquishing the philosophical cornerstone of civilization: free will and human agency. Here on BAB I argue from the vantage point of those tenets. Anarchism, invariably and by default, argues from the stance of social determinism. Or, in simple terms: the State made me do it.”
There is an archive you could research. Here.]
Ilana, Iranian elections are irrelevant. As far as I’m concerned, they have the government they deserve. If they want to be rid of it, I will certainly cheer them AFTER they make good but I waste little time worrying about the “good” people of Iran while the mullahs rule. While there are no doubt some very pro-American Iranians, they are not the majority of the people. If they were, Ahmadinejad would never have been elected the first time. Iran is a sovereign nation. Let them handle their own problems. Freedom isn’t free. If the people of Iran want to be free from the mullahs, they are going to have to make the requisite sacrifices to attain that freedom.
I have read you for many years. I knew I went too far. I’ll not carry the argument further. I obviously have misunderstood your views and those of other libertarians regarding war and pacifism. I will go back and review some of your articles, including this one, so I can get the correct understanding. Grins.
[Peace; but pacifism is a cuss word here. :)]
Ilana – when the US engages is dumb wars to turn foreigners at gunpoint into a “democracy”, I wind up siding with the anarchists, commies, and Moslems on occasion – as do you and Ron Paul. I admit to liking some of the anti-war songs. I do think there are just wars (when the US gets attacked) but being a Global Cop is not a good idea. My foreign policy idea is more like Washington, Jefferson and John Quincy Adams:
http:www.presidentialrhetoric.com/…/adams_jq/foreignpolicy.html
But while I am a non-interventionist, I am neither an isolationist nor an anarchist. In fact, I have not even been convinced that roads should all be privatized (so I would definitely be thrown out of Anarchy 101) – especially if it means Haliburton monitoring our movements with an RFID chip!
I saw a an Apache helicopter gunship in North Dallas a week ago. It was flying low and slow over the freeway and then turned northward and aimed itself at the Galleria Mall.
I know it was an Apache gunship. I was with a family member. He is an aerospace engineer in the defense industry. He has worked on the B-2 bomber, the MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) as well as the space station. He confirmed the identity of the helicopter.
I could not figure out why a gunship was in North Dallas. George Bush resides in Dallas, but not anywhere close to this location. So, it could not have been for Bush.
I figured it out later after checking the news online. The only possible scenario? Cindy Sheehan was in town for an anti-war protest near George Bush’s house.
More interesting still was the conversation I had with an acquaintance a few days ago. He had gone to see Ron Paul speak here in town. Paul had finished and my friend had decided to leave. While walking to his car he passed a Dallas cop in a police car. The car was parked on the side of the road. Propped up in the middle of the front seat was an AR-15 rifle. My friend carries a gun and has a concealed carry permit (Thank God I live in Texas!). He said to the officer as he walked by: “Nice piece of iron you got there officer.” The cop sputtered in response, and said, “Thanks.”
You gotta wonder about the brownshirting of American when a mild mannered elected official like Ron Paul allegedly poses a threat to the elites cowering behind the curtain.
Hello Ilana,
Love your articles even though I don’t agree with all of your views. Majnun? If Bush was (or is majnun)then what shall we say about the abd-Arabi who occupies the now “Beit al-Aswad”? The KLA are nothing but Muhammadenite terrorists. How ironic that the first syllable in”Kosovo” begins with the most vulgar word in Arabic!!! And for all the liberals (especially my “brother” Jews) does “Handzar SS” mean anything to you?
P.S. Mousavi (correct Arabic word is Musawi) is nothing but a soldier in the army of Khomeini and Khamamen’i. Ahmadinejad (najes) is only the Ace of Spades. Mousavi is the Joker. It’s still the same deck. Until the Persians throw off the yoke of al-Islam, nothing will change. Time to re-establish Ahura Mazda for allah.
Krauthammer makes two fundamental errors.
First, he assumes the demonstrators in the streets “want to bring down the tyrannical, misogynist, corrupt theocracy that has imposed itself with the very baton-wielding goons that today attack the demonstrators.” Krauthammer would have to be a psychic to know such motives. It’s probable the greatest portion of the protesters want the theocracy preserved.
Second, he assumes one word from Obama’s lips will affect “a true revolution that brings down the Islamic Republic.” Even the Anointed One understands the power of his oratory does not extend so far. Words in this case are meaningless without action and action based on Krauthammer’s first assumption would be foolish.
Obama’s words should convey two messages.
First, the people of the United States enjoy and believe in rights of life, liberty and property for all individual persons, and the US government will use force necessary to safeguard these rights for its citizens no matter the circumstance.
Second, the US government will not use force to intervene in disputes over political rights among citizens of other sovereign nations, no matter how momentous it considers these disputes to be.
Though he attempted to utter the second, Obama is incapable of conveying either message for reasons you make so clear in your article.
Joining Pat Buchanan, Ilana Mercer, and Ron Paul on the side of reason is paleo-conservative writer Daniel Larison:
On the other hand, paleo-conservative economist Paul Craig Roberts in his recent article does come across as an apologist for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranian regime. Mr. Roberts falls into the same trap as many on the left who (rightfully) oppose American interventionism and neo-conservatism. Opposing American interventionism on one hand and jihadist entities like Iran on the other need not be mutually exclusive.
The Krauthammer piece is fairly unbelievable, except that I did read it and can attest to the fact that such stuff was, indeed, published. Sorry Charlie, U. S. “intervention” vis-a-vis the Iran election will not “do to Islamism what the collapse of the Soviet Union did to communism — leave it forever spent and discredited.” Citizens of Muslim states who _want_ Islamic theocracies bear no resemblance to East Europeans who strove to break free from Soviet influence decades ago.
One has to wonder, at times, what these neocons are smoking, or whether they might be better employed designing rides for Disney–Fantasyland, of course.
Paul Craig Roberts often goes into the deep end blaming Israel or the Americo-Israeli Conspiracy for every evil every concocted in modern times. As for Krauthammer, he talks about an “Arab Spring” coming from Iran even though the Persians are not Arabs. I thought the Arab Spring was going to come from our Cakewalk Liberation. The neocons never stop this daydreaming that the entire planet is made up of like-minded neocons waiting for President McCain to liberate them with the magical word of “support” that Neville Chamberlain Obama won’t utter. Silly nonsense.
It is interesting that our political and media elites are encouraging revolution against an Islamist regime in Iran, while caving into Islamists here in the US. Recently, in Dearborn, MI (which has a population that is approx. 30% Muslim) a federal judge ruled against a group of Arab Christians who sought to peacefully evangelize at an Arab festival. Yet another small victory achieved by the stealth jihadists with the aid of our own stupid and corrupt elite.