The Chamberlain Syndrome

So the US military finally sent a raid into Iran and killed its top terrorist general, Suleimani.  Israel is ecstatic, Iran is huffing and puffing and staging enormous demonstrations (in which its own people were trampled and killed) and promising retaliation. 

In fact, the Iranian military -- just to prove that it wasn't paralyzed by the loss of its mastermind -- shot a dozen missiles into Iraq today, aimed roughly at two US military bases there.  The US military is playing its cards close to its vest, but so far there are no reports of any US casualties, or any real damage done.  There was one brief report that the Iranian missiles killed one Iraqi civilian, but that hasn't been confirmed.  We do know that the US military was expecting something like this, and had its personnel well bunkered down before the missiles arrived.  There's no mention as to just where the missiles did land, or if they did any harm there, or if they were shot down in the air by the American version of Israel's Iron Dome defensive system.  We'll have to wait for more news. 

What we do know is that Democrat/Progressive politicians, media and academics have been howling about how Trump is "starting a war" -- either to distract people from the (somewhat stalled) impeachment proceedings or to somehow make himself look good in the next election.  I find that complaint intriguing because it hints that the Dems know that Trump is very likely to win the next election, unless they can use the impeachment to throw him out of office before then.  ...But of course, in that case, they'll get Pence for POTUS.  I don't think the Dems have really thought about that.

In any case, their wailings about war are more than a little hypocritical after all the complaints they've made about Trump being weak on foreign affairs, Putin's lapdog, cozying up to tyrants, etc.  They've conveniently forgotten that there's already a war between Iran and the US -- and has been for more than 40 years.  In case anyone has forgotten, back in the 1970s the Islamic priesthood in Iran raised up a revolution to throw out the Shah -- supposedly for being America's puppet, but in fact for being too secular at a time when Islamic fanatics were plotting to conquer the world.  As part of their muscle-flexing, the theocratic revolutionaries stormed the American embassy, took all its staff hostage, publicly declared war on the US, and kept the staffers locked up for over a year -- until Ronald Reagan was elected and promised that he'd use the military to quash Iran and get our people back.  The day after his election, the theocrats returned the prisoners in a hurry.  As a result, Reagan did not invade and conquer Iran.  Nonetheless, the war that Iran had declared was never officially ended, nor unofficially either.  Suleimani, in particular, has been quietly waging war on the US and its allies for decades, and quietly getting away with it.  Obama actually paid Iran a "Dane-Geld" of over a billion bucks to slow down its attempt to develop nukes.  Does anyone think that Iran actually respected that deal?  In fact, it was the Israelis -- with a clever cyber-attack called Stuxnet -- that really slowed Iran's nuclear program.

What Suleimani has been doing in all these years is planting Iranian terrorist cells -- if not covert military units -- everywhere he could reach.  There are a serious number of them in Iraq, which is why the Iraqi government, which wouldn't exist but for American troops, passed that resolution two days ago ordering the US to withdraw its troops from Iraq, hoping to avoid being hit by Iran's response to the US's killing of Suleimani.  That did no good, since the troops are still there and Iran threw the missiles into Iraq anyway.  We'll have to wait and see how the US military responds to that, but I expect it will do some serious bombing of its own. 

What I hope is that the US troops will use more drone strikes, with pin-point precision, to take out more of the Iranian army while hitting as few civilians as possible.  Iran's populace, despite that showy funeral the state gave Suleimani, does not like its government.  It's been decades since the US showed what it could do with "smart missiles", and the technology has not been standing still since then.  The best thing that could happen to Iran would be to have smart missiles and drones shoot down the ayatollahs and officials, and leave the protesters alive, unharmed, and marveling. 

In any case, the US retaliation is inevitable.  War with Iran is not just inevitable, it's already here -- and has been for years.  Now the US, and Israel, have to fight it out to the finish.

The Dems' insistence that we don't have to fight this war is not just incredibly naive, but wonderfully ignorant of history.  As I've said elsewhere, for centuries there have been three major powers in the Arab/Muslim world: Turkey, Arabia, and Persia -- now called Iran.  They all cordially hate each other, and compete to conquer the world for Allah.  For a few centuries Turkey -- via the Ottoman Empire -- looked to be in the lead, but then it chose the wrong side in World War One and got smacked down to its modern size.  Arabia had the advantage of owning Mecca, therefore the Kaaba, and having a reliable source of revenue from pilgrims, not to mention the clout of being the world headquarters of Islam.  Iran managed to parlay its oil into a modern economy, largely due to the Shah whom the ayatollahs later kicked out, and a fairly modern military.  Until recently, the only thing they agree on was hatred of the Jews, Israel, and the western countries, especially the US.  Also until recently, the rest of the world has kept the three of them balanced so that no one of them could get the upper hand and go establish the Caliphate by itself.  Lately though, Iran has been building up its military, sponsoring -- through Suleimani -- "refugee" invasions and terrorist cells throughout the world.  The signs are clear;  Iran is definitely making a run for the Caliphate sweepstakes.  It has got to be smacked down before it brings on the real World War Three.  Again, as I've said elsewhere, it's obvious by now that WW3 will be fought not between any combination of Russia, China, and the USA;  it will be fought between the Jihadists, seeking to establish their adored Caliphate, and everybody else in the world. 

Now note that World War Two could have been prevented if the western allies had smacked down Germany the first time it broke the Treaty of Versailles, when Hitler started re-arming Germany, or even the second time, when Hitler's troops took over Czechoslovakia.  Instead, the fear of another war -- any war -- prompted the allies to dicker for peace at the price of Czechoslavakia, another "Dane-Geld".  An otherwise forgettable diplomat named Chamberlain made his mark on history by coming home with Hitler's promise of "Peace in our time."  Never mind that Hitler then used the time he'd gained to build up his military further, and finally attacked Poland, which was too big a breach to ignore.  World War Two followed. 

One would think that the Democrats, no matter how badly they want to Get Trump, would remember that.

--Leslie <;)))><