Iranian Ripples of Hope
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
—–Robert Kennedy
What motivates the thousands of young students and dissidents to take to the streets of Iran and defy the oppressive rule of the mullahs, knowing full well that government-backed Basij militia members, wielding chains, truncheons and stun guns have bashed in heads and that fellow dissidents have mysteriously disappeared from the streets never to be seen again? Why is it that, despite the fact that the government ordered foreign news outlets to stay away and dozens of students leaders have been incarcerated, news of the protests has gotten out?
The very same passion inspired Natan Sharansky and countless other Soviet Jewish dissidents to risk torture and years of solitary incarceration. At a point, one realizes that one’s own personal security is just not worth the price of allowing the status quo to continue.
These courageous, young Iranian dissidents are taking to the streets at a point in time when the international community is running out of ideas and seemingly scratching its collective head about what to do about the looming threat of a nuclear Iran. The mullahs of Tehran have thumbed their noses at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), announcing last Sunday that they will build ten more nuclear facilities, beyond those already known to exist at Natanz and Qom.
These young freedom fighters and the rest of the world know that they are dealing with an irrational apocalyptic regime. On December 6, Iranian President Ahmadinejad claimed that the United States is “attempting to thwart the coming of the Mahdi”, the Muslim Shiite savior, according to a report by Dubai-based Al Arabiya television. “They (the United States) have devised all these plans to prevent the coming of the Hidden Imam because they know that the Iranian nation is the one that will prepare the ground for his coming and will be the supporters of his rule,” said Ahmadinejad. On the Iranian web site Tabak, Ahmadinejad is quoted as saying, “They have planned to annihilate Iran. That is why all the policy-makers and analysts believe Iran is the true winner in the Middle East.”
President Obama and his administration had offered to have direct talks with Tehran and a package of economic incentives but, again, Ahmadinejad and his mullahs snubbed their noses at his outstretched hand. Obama has set as a deadline the end of December and threatened tougher sanctions.
However, Iran can always seek and find other trading partners. President Obama concluded a meeting in the White House on December 8 with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Edrogen, who he failed to persuade of the need for sanctions. The Chinese and Russians cannot be trusted to comply with a sanctions program if they find good prices from Tehran. Would you trust either of these governments to baby-sit your children?
President Obama fails to appreciate that evil exists in the world. He sees the world as a Lockean world, where “man is naturally moral” when, in certain places, it is a Hobbesian world, where “life is simple, brutish and short.” Ahmadinejad and the reigning mullahs, Kim Jong-il, Bashar Assad, the Saudi princes, all of these people will suppress human rights and freedoms just to perpetuate their corrupt regimes and hold onto power, indefinitely.
We are at or near break-out time. Iran threatens to destabilize the entire world order, putting at risk not just Israel, which Ahmadinejad repeatedly says he will annihilate, but all of the West and the Sunni Arab nations.
We successfully stared down the Soviet threat and worked for years with the Soviet dissident community. What is preventing us from working with the Iranian dissidents? These brave, freedom-seeking dissidents are crying out for our support. As the clock ticks, has anybody come up with a better plan?