THE TROUBLE WITH IRAN

Is the President of Iran crazy? One might think so following a drumbeat of inflammatory remarks regarding Israel. President Ahmadinejad has, over the last few weeks, called for the destruction of Israel, said that the Holocaust is a myth, and has suggested that the Israelis be moved to Europe or North America. Each statement has been followed by international denunciations, which is all well and good. But the problem will not go away. If his statements are to be taken at face value, Ahmadinejad clearly believes that the Jews need to be driven out of Palestine, or be destroyed, a view that is shared by quite a few of his co-religionists throughout the region. Like Adolph Hitler in the 1920s and 30s, the civilized world appears poised to ignore his ravings, a mistake that could repeat the awful consequences that were endured in the 1940s.

Overstating the case, you say? Consider this for a moment. When Hitler wrote Mein Kampf in Landsburg Prison in the early 20s, he was already being written off by expert political opinion in Germany and throughout Europe. While his trial and conviction following a failed Putsch attempt in Munich had made him a celebrity, most sober, conservative folks believed sincerely that reasonable people would not succumb to the ravings of someone who was so clearly unhinged. How wrong they were. After his release he slowly built the Nazi Party into a player on the German political scene, merely needing some confluence of events to provide him the energy to bring his message to the masses. The ravages of the Great Depression provided him with the fertile political ground to build his party into a truly mass movement. If, at that moment, conservative officers of the German Army had read his book and paid close attention to his speeches, they might have realized that Hitler REALLY MEANT WHAT HE SAID and, perhaps, they would have bumped him off. If the conservative business community had realized that Hitler REALLY MEANT WHAT HE SAID, perhaps they would have refused to provide him with financial backing. As we know, neither of those two powerful communities inside Germany really believed Hitler's words, assuming he was merely playing to the crowd, or that they could control him when he became Chancellor. When he became Chancellor, the governments of the other nations of Europe, especially France and Britain, likewise failed to believe he REALLY MEANT WHAT HE SAID about Lebensraum in Europe. By failing to take his written and spoken words at face value, both the German Army and the business community were destroyed, France was conquered and occupied for four years, Austria was assimilated, Czechoslovakia dismembered, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Holland, and Belgium conquered and occupied, Britain battered to the brink of defeat, the Soviet Union invaded and ravaged, and millions of Jews and other nationalities were massacred. Only the steadfast nature of the British people(and the barrier of the Channel, guarded by the Royal Navy and the RAF), the heroic sacrifices of the Russians, and the intervention of the United States, prevented Europe from being plunged into a new Dark Age.

Obviously, the historical and political circumstances are different today. President Ahmadinejad is not the spiritual leader of a political movement, as Hitler was (Nazism as a potent political force in Germany in the 20s and 30s is simply unimaginable without Hitler). Ahmadinejad is the hand-picked operative of the Mullahs who really rule Iran. But is it not prudent to assume that his beliefs mirror those of the men who made him President? Is there not copious evidence indicating that Iran's government funds terrorist groups whose stated purpose is the destruction of Israel? Is there not copious evidence that Iran's government is pursuing an offensive nuclear capability? Is there not copious evidence indicating that Iran's government is trying to exert influence in Iraq, and helping those who are today killing American soldiers? Doesn't all of this paint a rather ominous picture?

If Ahmadinejad REALLY MEANS WHAT HE SAYS, then that is not simply Israel's problem, or ours, it is the world's problem. Imagine what will happen if Iran does produce nuclear weapons. Can Israel simply stand by and allow that to happen? Can they risk the existence of their nation by simply assuming that Ahmadinejad is just playing to the crowd? I doubt very much that the survivors and descendants of survivors of the Holocaust are going to repeat the mistakes of the 1930s.

This looming scenario deserves the full attention of the world through the only body (like it or not) that has sufficient international legitimacy to take action, the United Nations. The founders of the U.N. created that body for this very scenario. They imagined a new Hitler, threatening the world, and the international community coming together to prevent his rise and the enormous destruction that would inevitably follow. Clearly, the first step should be a U.N. resolution condemning the statements of Ahmadinejad. Second, the body should declare that Iran will not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, therefore, unless Iran fully reveals its entire nuclear program to inspection, it will face immediate economic sanctions, followed by internationally sanctioned military action to strip Iran of its nuclear potential.

Of course, even as I write this, I realize it will never happen. The men who sit in positions of power in the various governments of the world and in the U.N. are just as blind as the men who watched Hitler rise to power in the 1930s. They are like the man who fell from the roof of a ten story building. Upon passing the windows of each floor on his way down he was heard to say, "so far, so good...so far, so good".