There's a parallel

Submitted by Peter Herz (United States), Nov 2, 2006 at 07:25

I'm for skimmering down a bit. Yes. Ahamdinejad is a fanatical fool armed with nuclear weapons--but so was Mao Zedong, and his country was a whole lot bigger.

Also, I'll believe that Iranians want the mad mullahs removed when I see it. Back in the 1930's, Japan believed it could save a divided, civil war-wracked China from the Communists by invading; and that such a China would be a pushover. While Japan did manage to occupy most of China's best land, China nonetheless tied down roughly a million Japanese troops from 1937-1945. In the end, Republican China was fatally weakened and collapsed in a coivil war which the Communists won. Also, Japan had to return Taiwan to China in 1945, after holding it for 50 years.

I fear that many who are plugging for a war with Iran are underestimating the power of nationalism. Most Iranians may indeed think that the mad mullahs are evil; but they're the Iranians' own evil men. Will the Iranians indeed trust an army perceived as so many Kaffirs to "liberate" them? I doubt it. Further, given that the biggest opposition in Iran is the Mujaheddin-e-Khalq, a group that combines Muhammad and Marx, and boasts in its own circles that its people were the first into the "Nest of Spies" back kin 1979, I'd lay off Iran. Let it stew in its own juice a while longer, and see what happens when the Hidden Imam fails to appear, or turns out to be the dud that he surely will prove to be.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".