Historian Will Durant on the ancient Persian empire:
“[It is not] natural that nations diverse in language, religion, morals, and traditions should long remain united; there is nothing organic in such a union, and compulsion must repeatedly be applied to maintain the artificial bond. In its two hundred years of empire, Persia did nothing to lessen this heterogeneity, these centrifugal forces; she was content to rule a mob of nations, and never thought of making them into a state” (Our Oriental Heritage, 382).
I have no objection to trying to prevent dangerous governments, run by questionably civilized radicals, from having nuclear weapons. Actually, I'd prefer to see nuclear weapons completely eradicated from this planet. But unfortunately, humans have this overwhelming lust to kill each other, and some, like communists and other barbarians, like to do it in massive numbers, when possible. So, civilized people must be protected against such. The Chinese Communist Party, for example, would like to kill everybody else on earth (they seemed to have tried it with the Wuhan virus), or, at best, to enslave everyone (including their own people), but if they attempted to do that with nuclear weapons, they know that America, and perhaps one or two other nations that have nukes, would retaliate. Thus, mankind prefers to stand at MAD—“Mutually Assured Destruction”—and call it peace.
I'm also not opposed to a “regime change” in Iran; getting a government in Persia that is at least tolerable to us, doesn’t want to blow us to kingdom come, and might be at least half-way nice to its own people, would probably be a blessing to the world. The question is, is such a government in Iran even possible? That is extremely problematic, given the history of that region of the globe.
A regime change in Iran is fine, no doubt needed, but it must be done the correct way. I would have a problem with America forcing that change on Iran, or any other country. First, a regime change in Iran, if established by America, is not exactly in harmony with our great principle of government by the consent of the governed. We are supposed to believe in democracy, which means letting people select their own government. Or, as James Madison said, “democracy [is] the right of the people to choose their own tyrant(s).” Like we do.
However, it is probable that if the “consent of the governed” principle is followed in Iran and the people elect a government they consented to, it would be one that would hate us as much as the current one does. America hasn’t exactly made an overabundance of friends in the Middle East (pardon my understatement). We could hope the Iranian people chose well, but that’s all it would be—hope. And probably a vain one.
The Islamic, Middle Eastern mind is something that Americans have never seemed to fully grasp. Muslims don't want democracy, at least not like ours. Folks, these are, for good or ill, mostly very religious people, with beliefs that many of them are willing to die for. They look at democracy, they look at America, and what do they see? They see feminism, abortion, homosexuality, pornography, child mutilation, rampant crime. They see alcoholism and drugs. They see promiscuity and licentiousness gone to seed. They see just about everything that is opposite their religious beliefs, or at least what the Koran and their religious leaders tell them they should believe. That, to them, is democracy, and democracy, to them, means godless licentiousness. And they don’t want it.
And there is no sense exploding and throwing their barbarisms back in their faces; that is wholly irrelevant to what they want and believe. Yes, we find as much of what they believe and practice as abhorrent to us…as what we believe and practice is to them. We don’t want a tyrannical theocracy. They don’t want a godless democracy. We’ll make a HUGE mistake if we try to ram “democracy” down their throats.
Middle Eastern, Islamic peoples appear to prefer a tyrant who makes them believe in the Koran to a democracy as decadent as America. At least, that’s what the Iranian people have always had, and it’s a little hard to believe they would do an abrupt about-face and accept and cherish a decadent democracy. If they did change to a democratic government, it would almost surely end up like what they have had for thousands of years. And mimic what they believe. How could it not?
Theocratic tyranny, however, is not necessarily absolute for all ME Muslims. It appears now that there are many Arab/Islamic peoples who prefer Western tyranny to the socialist, elitist, theocratic tyranny they have had for so long in the ME. And that brings me to the question of the title of this essay—who is really winning that war in Persia? The guys with the biggest bombs and bullets? Or the guys who are, by the millions, infiltrating the other country and slowly, methodically changing it (by voting Democratic) into a government tyranny akin to the one they left behind?
To be a “self-governing” people means knowing what “self-government” is. The Arabs who have left the Middle East for Texas, Michigan, Washington, etc., might think they want “democracy.” But if they have no clue what it is, they will simply revert back to what they have always known. Read the Durant quote again at the beginning of this article. The Democratic Party, like ancient Persia, is doing “nothing to lessen this heterogeneity, these centrifugal forces”; indeed, the Democrats are only encouraging it. Again, I ask: Who is really winning the war?
Immigration is acceptable, unless it produces what Durant described in ancient Persia. And like the Democrats are trying to produce in America.
If we don’t defeat the Democrats, then the war in Iran will have been useless.
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