The Loss of Honor and Strength

In an unfortunate turn of events, 15 U.K. servicemen have been captured by Iranian forces in the Persian gulf. It is certainly unfortunate because given the current tension between Iran and the West, an incident such as this one can cause the situation to boil over to full blown military conflict. Although the Iranians claim the U.K. naval and marine personnel had strayed into their territorial waters, the U.K. and Iraqi eyewitness accounts place the soldiers in Iraqi territorial waters. Regardless of the exact location of the U.K. personnel, it is clear Iran intends to use this as an opportunity for leverage in its ongoing debate with the U.N. and to further gain Arab sympathy by portraying the soldiers as Western invaders.

What is totally unexplainable is the reaction that the U.K. is having to this event. Oh boy, they are mad. Everyone in the U.K. government is really, really mad. They are so mad, they are having meetings. They are meeting each other. They met the Iranian ambassador, twice even! They are threatening that they are going to have a third meeting with the Iranian ambassador. Tony Blair has stated this situation is totally unacceptable. I am sure the Iranians are trembling in their pants!

So the big question is, when did Western nations turn into the school yard nerd that gets pushed around and bullied constantly? At least the U.S., to some extent, got out of the vicious cycle of appeasement and attacked a completely belligerent country. It took an appalling 12 years of Saddam Hussein giving the U.N. the finger until finally the U.S. took care of him. Unfortunately, the back bone of the American people has wained and the democrats are gaining control. It looks like appeasement is going to be fully in fashion by 2008.

What the West continually fails to understand about the Arab and Persian world is the concept of "honor and strength". The fear for the Iranian leadership is not equated at all with the consequences of their actions (as we in the West would think). Their fear lies in coming out of this situation looking like a fool and being weak. They will commit suicide as long as, according to their beliefs, it was honorable and they demonstrated they were strong. It is so deeply ingrained into middle-eastern society to such and extent that diplomatic processes that work fine in western culture, fail to progress anything through a framework of negotiation.

So when the U.N. slaps another round of sanctions on Iran, they do not respond by thinking "Woops, that nuclear program of ours sure has had some bad consequences. Let's rethink this". It is more like, "Those A-holes in the U.N. are trying to make us look like fools. Let's do something else to show them how strong we are". The fallacy here is that we are trying to shove Western logic into the mind of Arab and Persian society. It's the old square peg into a round hole conundrum.

Therefore, what should be done is that the West needs to take the same position of maintaining "honor and strength". This is the only way middle-eastern countries will arrive at some level of respect for the West. For example, the proper response that the U.K. should take would be in the form of an immediate ultimatum. I would suggest chopping the Iranian ambassadors head off and mailing it to Iran - it is horribly gruesome, but this is the type of society that you are dealing with. They will laugh at the U.K. if Tony Blair picks up the phone to say, "Can we please have our soldiers back". The ambassador's head followed by aerial bombardment of Tehran will go much farther in achieving an ultimate peaceful agreement. The Iranians would actually respect the U.K. more for an act such as the one I propose.

I have written this before that the West needs to deal with belligerent nations driven by Islamic fundamentalism the same way that someone trains a dog. You beat them over and over again until the behave themselves. In the end of the day, the dog respects you all the more for the discipline that you dished out. I only wish the Brits would role up a newspaper and start smacking the Iranian leadership as soon as possible. If not, the perception that the West has neither honor nor strength will continue to encourage those that wish for the West death and destruction.

Next on the Hit List?

In the never ending battle of the liberal left to continually drive panic into the hearts of Americans, a common question raised is if Syria and Iran are going to be the next preemptive war targets of the U.S.? This question is posed in such a manner which implies that Syria and Iran are peace loving innocent countries. The reality of the matter is that Syria and Iran have been at war with the U.S. for a very long time. One might mark the start of the Iranian/U.S. conflict in 1979 with the Iranian hostage crisis. Syria is a long supporter of terror and as such, an enemy state as far as the U.S. is concerned. These are not peace loving innocent countries. They are countries led by Islamic fundamentalist regimes dead set on establishing an Islamic caliphate throughout the world. Just because armies have not engaged in direct conflict does not mean that a state of war does not already existed between the U.S. and these nations.

It continually saddens me to read articles which blatantly contradict facts and distort the truth with the goal to portray the U.S. and George Bush in particular as some rampant cowboy, attacking countries randomly in order to achieve mythical world domination. These opinions come from those that do not see us at war at all. In their twisted logic, the U.S. brought 9/11 upon itself. Terrorism is justified and when the U.S. fights back, that is what is wrong in the world. Certainly not the peace loving jihadist who blows himself up for a delusional cause; he is a freaking hero to the liberal left.

The continual non-sense from left wingers is unfortunate. Especially since major media outlets support the same views. You will never see an essay like this in the New York Times. What you tend to see are the following types of statements (following are quotes from http://www.helium.com/):

"Mr. Bush appears to thrive on war, killing and the loss of respect he has brought to this nation."

"We have added fuel to the fire by continuing to occupy a Muslim country under false pretenses."

...and then the usual one-off shots such as; bush lied, halliburton, poor disenfranchised muslim, Israel as an apartheid state (Thanks for that one Jim Carter!), no WMDs in Iraq, blah blah blah!

It's all the same and stems from a visceral hate of the U.S. fueled by the left's inability to say that we stand on a moral high ground vs. terrorism and islamic fundamentalism. The left can never bring themselves to say that the U.S. is absolutely correct and the terrorists are wrong. Liberalism, through its fallacy of trying to be all inclusive and understanding, fails to recognize that there are people around the world that hate you simply for being you. Together, U.S. citizens are the infidels, the enemy of Islam. Their is no negotiation, no understanding, no dialog that is going to change a fundamental law of Islam. That would be like asking Christians to alter the concept of Jesus being the son of God. No negotiation will allow people to arrive to some type of middle ground. It simply will never happen.

Now there are those that will say with respect to Syria and Iran that "we should reach out to them diplomatically and elicit their help in creating a stable Iraq." It is this kind of stupidity which is all the evidence one needs to recognize that a liberal should never be put in charge of foreign diplomacy. I would sooner "reach out" my hand into a lion's cage. At least one can expect the same result when they reach out to Syria and Iran; you would be missing a hand sooner or later.

But lets circle back to panic button that the left is now pushing with respect to new preemptive targets. Is the U.S. headed for an inevitable war with Syria and Iran? We are not headed for one, we are already in one and have been for a long time. Those of you that were not aware of this must have been asleep for the last 2 decades. I hate to give you an uncomfortable awakening but I must write it as I see it.