Iranian Elections

It looks like Ahmedinejad has won.

This election reminded me of a book I read recently -"The Future of Freedom", by Fareed Zakaria, which talks about how liberalism (the rule of law, free markets, free speech, etc) leads to democracy, but how democratic elections in countries without those institutions often leads to dictatorship and the complete abrogation of rights.

Ever since the Iranian election and the rise of Islamic theology, this has been the case in Iran. In times gone by, I've posted pictures here of Iranians accused of being homosexuals being hanged, not an uncommon practise in Iran. The West needs to learn that the rise of Islamic ideology in Iran has led to this, and the continuing descent into absolute dictatorship in that nation.

Zakaria talks about how liberal institutions can act as a deterrant to the rise of extreme Islamism. Although in the short term this can be true, the introduction -by some miracle, no doubt- of liberal institutions in Iran would simply be showing a practical side to Persia. But at the end of the day, Islamic extremism will rise again -no country can be based on a contradiction for too long, and as political institutions merely express an underlying philosophy, they will be the ones to lose out.

This is what I fear is happening in the West, and Western intellectuals need to take note: with the philosophy of altruism still present in every part of Western society (art, politics, and religion being just a few examples), the West is also based on a contradiction, which has nearly spelt its end, in World War II, for instance. Although we are lucky to have survived for so long, we need to be very cautious, especially with economic crisis on our hands, where we tread.

A Foolish Mistake Repeats

On his big tour of Europe Barack Obama has landed in Prague, touting much the same message as the anti-nuclear protests in the 1980s did. You know, the refusal to allow a nuclear submarine into port that got us kicked out of ANZUS.

Now, I'm all for disarmament -when Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea also disarm! The fact of the matter is that America (and the European nations with a-bombs) has the right to defend itself against foreign aggressors, and that does mean the possession of nuclear bombs, if necessary (which it is). The sorry state of Western powers means that defense of non-aggressive and non-totalitarian nations rests almost entirely on US action.

I'm sick of the claim that America is an Empire -if that were so, immediately after the fall of Iraq in 2005 the nation would've been annexed by the US, and any form of self-governance banned. Instead, we saw that the Americans had no strategy after the fall of Saddam, and left Iraq in a state of anarchy for two years before peace could be restored by the troop surge. Similarly, when countries like Lebanon, Syria and Iran display an interest in the complete annihilation of Israel -the Middle East's only western democracy- they are only victims, somehow, of Western Civilisation.

That is absurd. Obama, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into.

Israel

Israel has decided to remove its troops from Gaza. Wimps -there will be no peace in Gaza until Hamas is completely gone. All we can do is guess how long it takes for the conflict to fire up again.

In the meantime, here is an illustration that sums up the situation -what the world's media doesn't want you to see:


Instead, we keep getting stories of how civilians are dying, yet no one on the world stage raises a finger to point out that Hamas hides among its civilians, and then uses their deaths as propaganda!

The Gaza Conflict

Predictably, thousands of people around the world have, in recent weeks, been out marching against Israel, condemning every aspect of Israel's existence whilst ignoring the role of Hamas; TV news has been abound with stories about the "destruction" of Gaza, taking for granted statistics given to them by Hamas (such as the death toll); and once again the conflict is presented as an "us vs. them" battle, with Israel having to defend every action and supporters being shouted down.

Yet, all the while nothing is heard of the constant threat that Israelis have lived under for the last several years. In response, the Israelis have built fortifications in their urban areas to protect against rockets fired from Gaza, and are constantly on the move to bomb shelters, and living in fear of the rockets. 15 people have died from these rocket attacks in southern Israel. That may not seem like many, but what it shows is that the Israelis do not want citizens of Israel to be harmed by these rockets.

Hamas, however, does not care -in fact, Gazans dying is good for their publicity. They are more than willing to hide among civilians, which makes them harder to target. Israel targets Hamas bases and vehicles with, usually, immaculate precision -yet people get killed when there's a ton of civilians around, which Hamas uses to their advantage. Not only does it make fighting the war so much harder, it draws sympathy from the Western media.

Which leads us to another fact about Gaza: the median age there is 15. The media makes it look as if Israel is unfairly targeting children. Instead, the toll on the children is a result of the young breeding of the Muslim population.
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The World's leaders are calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. They're forgetting who first broke the last ceasefire, with Israel doing nothing about it until now. No one raised a finger then. Israel should've starting fighting Hamas from the first rocket.

But a ceasefire is never a real option for this conflict -it only allows for Hamas, and the other organisations that won't stop until Israel is wiped off the map, to regroup and re-arm. Instead, Israel should make it its mission to properly subvert Hamas, once and for all, and neutralise Gaza. In fact, if the experience of Arabs living in Israel shows us anything, it's that the people there will be significantly better off under Israeli rule!

*America Alone, Mark Steyn, page XVI