The Iranian government has finally reacted to the killing of Neda Soltan by a basiji thug in their summer of discontent – by defaming her:
Iranian state television has made a documentary about the death of Neda Agha Soltan, a young Iranian woman who was shot dead during the June postelection protests in Tehran, suggesting she was an agent of the United States and Britain who staged her own death.
Neda’s last moments were filmed on a cell phone and watched by millions of people around the world, becoming a symbol of democratic resistance to the regime.
The state-television documentary suggests the video of Neda’s dying moments merely depicted her pouring blood on her own face from a special bottle she was carrying. Later, the documentary alleges that 27-year-old Neda was shot dead in the car that was taking her to a hospital.
Words fail.
I wonder if it’s time to give wider discussion to a very disturbing possibility, the Islamic world, and especially takfiri terrorists (sunni-salafi and shia-khomeinist) are not entirely rational. More specific, they are engaging in a fantasy for themselves, and other countries are just actors with their roles already assigned. Lee Harris makes the argument for this in his “Civilization and its Enemies.” He asks why was there no follow-up to 9/11, a powerful strike many associated with Pearl Harbor. But while the Japanese immediately implemented invasions of the Philippines and the Solomon Islands for strategic gain the terrorists did very little. If Al-Qaeda truly wanted to reverse the conditions of UBL’s late ’90′s fatwa against us (American withdrawal from Saudi Arabia and the end of sanctions on Iraq, which Charles Krauthammer has noted are already done but the war continues) why weren’t there even smaller scale follow-up strikes to continue to sow confusion and terror, individual suicide bombers in a mall in Preoria or a few guys with assault rifles opening up on a public square.
Lee Harris’ answer is that 9/11 wasn’t meant to have strategic effect and wasn’t part of a planned campaign the way Clausewitz would imagine a war, “politics by other means.” It was just part of Al-Qaeda’s fantasy to be the pious and pure David against the great Satan Goliath of the US. America’s role was Great Satan because that’s what they wanted in their fantasy. We didn’t do anything (other than be big and successful and thus the fattest target on the block) to become their enemy nor can we treat them nicer anymore than Russia could have staved off Hitler or Ethiopia had invited Mussolini’s Italian invasion. Both Hitler and Mussolini saw their nations as ones that would be continually re-born, purified, and forged in the fires of war for their own fantasy pleasure. Stalin could have given Hitler half of the USSR as Lebensraum and he still would have attacked. The war wasn’t a means to an end, it was an end. Is the same true with Al-Qaeda and us?
Where this connects to Iran and Neda Agha Soltan is that the same dynamic may be at work with Ahmadinejad. He might just actually BELIEVE he’s the 12th Imam. He might just actually BELIEVE that Soltan is a western shill, and this isn’t purely an example of the Western mindset’s maxim about power corrupting. In his Don Quixote-esque fantasy of himself bravely defending Islamic purity by tilting at windmills the West is the bad guy because someone has to be. Since he is the savior protests against him can only be an underhanded tactic of his enemy, and not a true popular upwelling. Nukes for Iran strikes me as another purely irrational motive taken from western eyes, but IF he believes he’s the 12th Imam it starts making twisted sense in a dark and perverted way. If this is the case, it has very bad omens for what our foreign and military policies have to be . . .
If only those Poles had welcomed the Germans and Soviets, then WW2 would not have started. It was so unneighborly of the Poles.
Frankly, Hitler had believed planted intelligence he had gotten from the Brits that Stalin was preparing to attack west. There is a great deal of evidence that he was, but he would not have been ready for at least another year. Dictators are generally also paranoids, as both Hitler and Stalin were, and Hitler jumped for the bait. It was not one of the most foresighted things that Churchill did, as we paid for it until 1989.
Prowler, I think you just hit the nail on the head.
The irony, as I see it, is that our embassy was stormed in retaliation for our interference with their elections in the ’50s. Now the Ayatollah interferes with the elections. The same actions that brought him to power may very well be his undoing. Is this hubris, or is there a better word for this?
Eric
I think Nemesis is what defeats Hubris in Greek mythology or something. If only the Iranian protestors could be successful! I would be giving them every possible ounce of encouragement I could, and covert help, if I were in office right now. They seem like our best shot at something short of another major shooting war. Some people think the Iranian government is teetering on the brink of collapse and dear God do I hope they’re right.
Prowler, one of THE major take-aways from WWII was that we should have taken what Hitler wrote in Mien Kamph and his public utterances seriously indeed. Yet the left casually tosses off the pronouncements of Iran’s leadership as mere political rethoric for internal consumption. How very convenient when wants to avoid making the hard decisions…..Convenient for the psyche of the leftists, that is , not for the country…
Virg
Yeah. And there are still WWII vets alive, yet we’ve already forgotten.
Yikes
Airdrop 22 cal pistols with 10 rounds of ammo? Do we still have some 1911′s in a warehouse somewhere?
Don’t even bother to deny they’re from the US. If we’re the Great Satan we should have some fun. Tell Iran to talk to us nicer next time, and we may respect their government a tad more.
I know — it will never happen in this administration. Sigh.
Could go with a remake of the classic FP-45.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator
wouldn’t need to change the instructions at all
http://www.mouseguns.com/blast/libinst.jpg
Don’t forget C-4 and detonators! Nothing like a little plastic to liven a party up and topple the odd dictator or two!
Recordings from Iran and translated by MEMRI.org (great site, by-the-by) show that Ahmidenejad believes that he is in contact with the 12th Imam and that he has been chosen to bring about the conditions that will result in the Imam’s return. In early December or late November 2009 he also stated that the United States is somehow blocking the 12th Imam’s return.
Well, fortunately most Iranians already know it’s a sham. Unfortunately, about a fifth of our population is retarded and they’ll be the ones to eat it up just as they eat up all other anti-American propaganda. Case in point “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” Venezuela “documentary”.
Liz, only a fifth?
I’m feeling charitable.
Extremely so, I would say. After all 53 million voted for the Onewhowun.
VERRRY charitable, Liz… Have to sign you up for the Salvation Army….
VX, we’ll have tot take up a collection for warm clothes for her. It’s cold out there ringing bells and playing horns.
Did someone say something about a fifth? Gotta have one stashed here somewhere…
While I agree that these statement from Iran are shameful, while I really like the idea of the Great Satan stepping out for a bit of fun, and while the mental stability of some global tough talkers is indeed questionable, what is seems is that they do have a better handle on Info Ops and the concept of Influence than we do, or certainly than we are willing to employ…a great read here on the UK’s epiphany re Influence (http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/arag/document-listings/monographs/091216%20FINAL.pdf) For reasons I can not fathom, it seems to be out choice to leave these and all the other unfounded allegations and attacks unchallenged…
[...] the moral outrage front, Neptunus Lex has an article on Iran’s response to the killing of Neda Soltan. It’s disgusting but a great example of taking the truth i.e. what really happened, and [...]