Last night on my way home, I was listening to John Rothman on KGO. His topic was the recent U.N. speech by the President Ahmandinejad of Iran, which prompted 33 delegations to walk out. In case you hadn’t heard, he asserted that the 9/11 attacks were actually orchestrated by the U.S. in order to bolster its economy and ensure the survival of the Zionist state, a.k.a. Israel. Clearly the economic agenda didn’t work, and I’m not really sure how destroying the twin towers could really help Israel out, but this guy thinks the Holocaust didn’t happen, so maybe this really works out in his head.
Anyway, John Rothman’s big thing was, reports indicate that Iran has the ability and materials to produce three nuclear weapons, and this guy is a nut job, so what are we going to do about it. Here’s what we should do about it: nothing. And here’s why.
Admittedly, I have not done serious research on this guy and really just know what I know based on snippets from news radio and occasional online news tidbits and newspaper headlines. It appears to me, though, that this guy has quite an ego on him, and he just wants to play with the big boys. I think he’s being inflammatory to get attention because when it comes down to it, he’s really a big nobody and no one of consequence would pay any attention to him otherwise. When we get all up in arms about his offensive comments, he gets exactly what he wants: news coverage. So let’s just stop. Let’s just say to ourselves, “Selves, this guy is just trying to get a rise out of us, so let’s not fall for it. If he wants to join us back in the real world, maybe we can talk, but until then, he’s not worth our time and effort.” End of story. When people stop paying attention and he’s not in the news, I think he shapes up pretty quick. Kind of a like a toddler having a tantrum over a toy. When he realizes no amount of screaming and crying is going to make mommy buy him the toy, the kid will stop. Yes, I just compared the President of Iran to a screaming toddler.
Rothman would no doubt reject this course of action out of hand because he’s afraid Iran is going to nuke somebody. I’m really not. See, a few decades back, there was this thing called the Cold War. There were two giant superpowers that each had thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at each other, and they were poised to plunge the entire planet into a nuclear winter. But they never did because of this concept called mutual assured destruction; the second one of them fired, the other would retaliate and both countries would be wiped out. Similarly here, the second Iran fires a nuke at Israel, or anybody else for that matter, it’s going to get wiped off the map. The only difference here is, Iran will have so few nuclear weapons that it wouldn’t be mutual assured destruction, it would really just be Iran’s assured destruction.
Now, one might argue that Ahmandinejad and the other people in charge of Iran might be the type of Islamic fundamentalists that would be okay with getting wiped out because they would become martyrs and go to heaven and get their 72 virgins and all that jazz. I don’t think so, particularly with respect to Ahmandinejad. Like I said, the guy’s got an ego, and I think he sees himself as too important here in this life to be moving on just yet. I mean, he had photos of his White House visit doctored so it appeared he was leading President Obama around the premises. (I know that when I have an important guest visit my home or office, I always have them give me the tour.) I just don’t see him giving up this fantasy he’s living for any amount of virgins. Even if he personally survived any retaliatory attack, he would be presiding over a destroyed country, and that’s the best case scenario. I think he’d more likely have to go into hiding, and then he really wouldn’t be making the news.
Finally, I’m sure some people have concern for any innocent lives that might be lost in a nuclear attack and counter attack. Of course, any such loss would be tragic, but like I said, I don’t think it will happen. I think we also have to consider this a situation where the U.S. policy of not negotiating with terrorists has to come into play. It has been a long-standing policy that the U.S. does not negotiate with terrorists, even if innocent lives are at stake. By threatening to develop and use nuclear weapons, Iran is, in essence, holding the world hostage. It’s really a terrorist act. We can’t bend to it because, if Iran is successful, they will likely raise the same threats again and other countries will be encouraged to adopt the same bad behavior. While lives may be at risk if we don’t play Iran’s game, I think even more may be at risk if we do.
And with that, I will stop talking about Ahmandinejad, because I’ve already afforded him more time, effort, and space on this blog than he really deserves.
© 2010 The Beehive All Rights Reserved