Let Iran stew in its own juices

Submitted by Peter Herz (United States), Feb 13, 2010 at 14:36

Iran seems to be another warning that any attempt to save fools from their own folly is to fill the world with fools. The Chinese intelligentsia was all fired up and impatient to see scientific socialism applied to their country, and it took Mao Zedong to awaken them from their dream--while the best intentions of Japanese militarists and American Cold warriors only served to make that dream seem rosier. In the same way, the Iranian people badly, badly want to be ruled by people who will bring back the Twelfth Imam, and probably need a few more years of the Islamic Republic before they're cured of this delusion.

After World War II, Germany could be remade because it was not only the land of Jahn, Bismarck, Wilhelm II, and Hitler, but also the homeland of Johannes Althusius (a 17th century advocate of the federalist ideal), Immanuel Kant, and a galaxy of liberal thinkers who could be dusted off and reconsidered when jackboot nationalism had to be reconsidered. As far as traditional piety went, what there was was Christian, and, contrary to the flood of guilt-ridden post-Shoah reconsiderations, there's a lot more to Christianity (and even Martin Luther) than anti-Semitism. Iran, by contrast, seems to offer no alternatives but the mad mullahs on the one hand and the Mojaheddin-e-Khalq on the other.

Yes, Iran can be conquered and pacified. Huleku Khan and Temur Lenk showed us how. But would their tactics, which reduced cities like Tabriz to piles of rubble and severed heads, fly with the American people? Probably not.

Let Iran stew in its own juices for another thirty years. At the end of that period, the chief casualty will probably be Ithna'ashariyya Shi'ite Islam itself.

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