Allowing the Islamic Republic of Iran to endure would signal to regimes everywhere that deception, brutality, and aggression pay off — and that the free world will not finish what it starts.
This is a primer on the nature of good and evil, and that victory of the moral and just reside not in the abstract, but in the hands, will and action of humans willing to to go beyond mere defense of those tenants and fight, physically, technologically, and intellectually to eliminate the humans, individuals and groups, that hold back moral progress of our societies.
Good job, Joshua. This essay should be placed on the desks of every member of the governing bodies of the countries of the free world.
If the regime survives, its malevolence will only intensify, because the regime will have confirmed that the West lacks the fortitude and moral courage to confront and destroy evil. This is a war of ideology not geopolitics. If the regime survives, the ideology survives, and they will claim victory even if they are weakened and the country lies in ruins. Israel has the resolve to finish the job. Does the U.S.?
After WWII the west lost the notion of fighting to obtain complete surrender of an evil empire. Since then we fight for compromise as if that worked before the need to go to war. This is especially true in the Middle East wherein compromise itself is weakness. Take Israel’s post-1967 war status. Each time it is forced by enemies to go to war, it’s then forced by allies to stop before finishing the job. Israel’s enemies (also the West’s enemies) know this, so they are never “defeated.”
As this wonderful essay shows, without strength there is no freedom. Indeed, true free has been a rare worldwide quality. We need to fight for it unequivocally.
It’s difficult for me to understand what “finish the job” means exactly. You posit “ it means removing not just capabilities, but the belief (deeply embedded in its leadership) that time and deception will always secure its survival.”
How do you remove a belief? Large numbers of Iranians hate the west. Their hate is ingrained in them. They will always hate us. They will strive to kill us and to do so by any means possible.
You correctly note that many in Iran go along with the regime. Do we kill millions of Iranians?
No. We bomb them and their State and their technology back to the Stone Age. They will be a threat to no-one by the time The West finishes the Military campaign, just as what was done in Iraq and Syria.
Difficult problem, but maybe exposure to a different way of life (through the internet?) may cause a reckoning of of what the value of their lives are worth to each of them individually under these repressive regimes. Can’t shut down a mind that has an idea that comes to light by thought, through the free flow of information.
You set the wrong goal. Although you can’t “remove a belief “ you can deny it sovereignty and the might it uses to enforce its malignancy. WWIi is the prime example. Yes, Nazis remain. But they have no sovereign territory or military to project their ideals. Stripped of those, Naziism must compete in the marketplace of ideas. Thus far, it has converted few acolytes. Thus far.
Thank you for your thoughts, Bobby. For sure, there are many younger Iranians who like the west, as evidenced by their love of Western music and blue jeans. I assume that they were influenced by what they saw/heard on the internet. Are there enough of these people? Will they take control? Will they force "regime change" from an internal effort? Hard to predict.
Very concise analysis. It is clear that failure to remove Iran as an ongoing threat will embolden every autocratic government to pursue aggression against their neighbors. It was bad enough when you had Obama saying "Don't cross the red line in the sand", only to retreat from any action, or Biden's famous "DON'T" message to the Russians about invading Ukraine. After WW2 there was some semblance of collective effort by the west to deal with the threat of the Soviet Union (ala NATO), but that fractured quickly where the US wound up being the defacto enforcer of the status quo to keep the Soviets in check. I am skeptical that the west will ever step up to the challenge. It is almost like western society is suffering from fatigue and is unwilling to even defend its own founding principles and it doesn't seem anything will wake them.
I thank Trump for all he has done to date. If Harris had won, Iran would have gotten the bomb, nuked Israel and Israel’s response at a minimum would have been to nuke the entire Middle Eastern energy infrastructure thus causing worldwide economic collapse. And quite possibly this would have spiraled into a global nuclear war.
The Regime has been changed in Iran, we are told, for The Military and not the Clergy are now in charge. They will never be a Western Democratic nation in the Western sense. The regime now in charge may be as good as it gets and might be all we can expect. I warn against snatching Defeat from what is actually the jaws of Victory: Iran’s Nuclear program has been destroyed and so is their ICBM manufacturing, which would have hit Europe and even the USA. Iran is absolutely defeated as a military power.
This is a primer on the nature of good and evil, and that victory of the moral and just reside not in the abstract, but in the hands, will and action of humans willing to to go beyond mere defense of those tenants and fight, physically, technologically, and intellectually to eliminate the humans, individuals and groups, that hold back moral progress of our societies.
Good job, Joshua. This essay should be placed on the desks of every member of the governing bodies of the countries of the free world.
If the regime survives, its malevolence will only intensify, because the regime will have confirmed that the West lacks the fortitude and moral courage to confront and destroy evil. This is a war of ideology not geopolitics. If the regime survives, the ideology survives, and they will claim victory even if they are weakened and the country lies in ruins. Israel has the resolve to finish the job. Does the U.S.?
Israel would have no choice but to go nuclear
First class article.
The conclusion is carefully evidenced by the historical and contemporary facts explained all the way through every fascinating part of the article.
I hope, I PRAY that Trump has the courage to finish the job.
Iran Delenda Est
After WWII the west lost the notion of fighting to obtain complete surrender of an evil empire. Since then we fight for compromise as if that worked before the need to go to war. This is especially true in the Middle East wherein compromise itself is weakness. Take Israel’s post-1967 war status. Each time it is forced by enemies to go to war, it’s then forced by allies to stop before finishing the job. Israel’s enemies (also the West’s enemies) know this, so they are never “defeated.”
As this wonderful essay shows, without strength there is no freedom. Indeed, true free has been a rare worldwide quality. We need to fight for it unequivocally.
It’s difficult for me to understand what “finish the job” means exactly. You posit “ it means removing not just capabilities, but the belief (deeply embedded in its leadership) that time and deception will always secure its survival.”
How do you remove a belief? Large numbers of Iranians hate the west. Their hate is ingrained in them. They will always hate us. They will strive to kill us and to do so by any means possible.
You correctly note that many in Iran go along with the regime. Do we kill millions of Iranians?
No. We bomb them and their State and their technology back to the Stone Age. They will be a threat to no-one by the time The West finishes the Military campaign, just as what was done in Iraq and Syria.
Difficult problem, but maybe exposure to a different way of life (through the internet?) may cause a reckoning of of what the value of their lives are worth to each of them individually under these repressive regimes. Can’t shut down a mind that has an idea that comes to light by thought, through the free flow of information.
You set the wrong goal. Although you can’t “remove a belief “ you can deny it sovereignty and the might it uses to enforce its malignancy. WWIi is the prime example. Yes, Nazis remain. But they have no sovereign territory or military to project their ideals. Stripped of those, Naziism must compete in the marketplace of ideas. Thus far, it has converted few acolytes. Thus far.
Thank you for your thoughts, Bobby. For sure, there are many younger Iranians who like the west, as evidenced by their love of Western music and blue jeans. I assume that they were influenced by what they saw/heard on the internet. Are there enough of these people? Will they take control? Will they force "regime change" from an internal effort? Hard to predict.
Very concise analysis. It is clear that failure to remove Iran as an ongoing threat will embolden every autocratic government to pursue aggression against their neighbors. It was bad enough when you had Obama saying "Don't cross the red line in the sand", only to retreat from any action, or Biden's famous "DON'T" message to the Russians about invading Ukraine. After WW2 there was some semblance of collective effort by the west to deal with the threat of the Soviet Union (ala NATO), but that fractured quickly where the US wound up being the defacto enforcer of the status quo to keep the Soviets in check. I am skeptical that the west will ever step up to the challenge. It is almost like western society is suffering from fatigue and is unwilling to even defend its own founding principles and it doesn't seem anything will wake them.
I thank Trump for all he has done to date. If Harris had won, Iran would have gotten the bomb, nuked Israel and Israel’s response at a minimum would have been to nuke the entire Middle Eastern energy infrastructure thus causing worldwide economic collapse. And quite possibly this would have spiraled into a global nuclear war.
The Regime has been changed in Iran, we are told, for The Military and not the Clergy are now in charge. They will never be a Western Democratic nation in the Western sense. The regime now in charge may be as good as it gets and might be all we can expect. I warn against snatching Defeat from what is actually the jaws of Victory: Iran’s Nuclear program has been destroyed and so is their ICBM manufacturing, which would have hit Europe and even the USA. Iran is absolutely defeated as a military power.