Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman’s recent piece “Misreading Iranian threat” does just that.
The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, isn’t a descendent of the stereotypical wild-eye dictator.
The threat from Islamic radicals, what some call Islamofascists, isn’t ordinary.
And the threat posed from even a handful of such zealots is significantly greater than the threats posed from Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin or Mao Tse-tung.
Sound incredible?
It’s not!
Today’s terrorists aren’t bound by the strictures of rationality.
One can’t assume that Iran will act according to the laws of good sense.
Chapman writes, “In the first place, it’s not clear exactly what Iran wants or is willing to settle for.”
Well that seems an odd comment, especially in light of the expressed intent of the president of Iran.
What Iran wants, Ahmadinejad has said, is to oversee the annihilation of Israel.
What Iran has done, to speed that along, is to recruit, train, harbor and fund thousands of Hezbollah warriors, whose only mission, according to Hezbollah’s original charter, is to destroy Israel.
We’re not guessing at that, and we’re not confused by Ahmadinejad’s message.
We miss the point of the radical Islamic movement if we assume that evil men can be swayed by negotiation or pacifism.
Neither will work.
Our one hope, today, is that we are able to comprehend the menace we face and that having faced it, we will not turn from our peril.
