NYP: EUROPE'S IRAN ILLUSIONS, by Amir Taheri

In his recent visit to Washington, Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told his American interlocutors that the European Union's initiative on Iran was heading for an impasse....

The Europeans have never been able to see any of the real decision-makers (known as tasmimgiran) in Tehran let alone engage them in negotiation. Rouhani and other facade officials, who talk to the Europeans, may honestly believe that Iran is not up to mischief if only because they do not know what is going on. Only those in the camarilla around "The Supreme Guide" have the full picture. The doors of that camarilla, however, remain shut to the Europeans.

The Europeans also ignore the messianic nature of the ideology that sustains the Islamic Republic. That ideology sees itself in a global competition with Western liberalism of which the European Union is one manifestation. Khomeinism's ambition is to win that competition one day, and remold the global system on the basis of its vision. That ambition may seem laughable to outsiders who know that the Islamic Republic counts for little in the global balance of power. Some in the Tehran establishment also regard such ambitions as absurd. The truth, however, is that the system cannot act against its own nature.

Put in terms of practical power politics, the problem is simple: The present global system is almost exclusively a Western creation. The Khomeinist regime sees itself as the successor of the late Soviet Union as the principal challenger of the West's global domination....

Almost half a century of Cold War with the Soviet Union teaches at least one lesson: Your adversary will stop doing whatever it is that you don't like only if you stop him. If you cannot, he won't stop. Why should he?....

The Iranian terrorist regime knows very well that the EU does not have the military means or the money to strike them militarily if they will not stop their nuclear weapons development program, and therefore they do not give a damn about what the impotent EU thinks or does.

They only fear the USA because they know that we are the only country in the world that can destroy them militarily and annihilate all their weapons of mass destruction programs. So what they are doing now is playing game with the EU to gain more time and be able to build the nuclear bomb where in their mind once they have it the US will not attack them. Of course they are fatally mistaken, because the US will not allow them to have the atomic bomb no matter what.

Hey Bush -- wake up, 9/11 was just a wake up call to the USA that islam hates the world

What in the he!! are you babbling about?
PRESIDENT Bush is the first person or administration to do ANYTHING about this at all. Where have you been for the past 3 1/2 years???
PRESIDENT Bush has been castigated severely, repeatedly and continuously for his actions since 9-11. Many, not mentioning names, felt he should be touchy/feely with the UN and our "friends" in old Europe, using "diplomacy" instead of action. Some MORON actually believed the President should fight a "more sensitive" war, treat this terrorism threat as a nuisance.

The only thing I fault the President for, on this issue, is that he has succumbed to the idiot whores of the lamestream old media, the commies in our government and tax payer funded communist front groups, and the conniving, sniveling wretched excuses for European "elitists."

"W" - Having said that, ALL options are on the table.

My reading of the U.S. constitution leads me to believe that the only people who deserve America's scorn are intolerant individuals, groups and states. Recent legislation has slightly extended this concept by adding states that support intolerant individuals, groups and states.

President Bush has made great strides just by identifying and harassing these four targets. Bush is doing this by isolating Middle Eastern values that have been corrupted and are being used today to consolidate power by preaching intolerance.

Your vague commentaries sound like intolerance but I hope they are just an inarticulate manifestation of your frustration with intolerance.

This is a great post because American values are on a collision course with the values of the Iranian government. We believe in liberty and they believe in dictatorship. They call their system “velayat-e faqih” which is translated to “supreme religious leadership” or “theocratic dictatorship”. Americans can’t tolerate this because a threat to freedom anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere.

Americans are very religious people but tend to acknowledge that separation of "church and state" or a "secular government" protects their diverse beliefs from intolerance.

But this isn't always the case... Turkey for example has a very intolerant secular democracy. My impression is some Iranian activists who are anti-Islam are looking to attain power by advocating secularism not to enhance liberty but to replace the current “theocratic dictatorship”. It may be temporarily advantageous for the U.S. government to support them however their objectives are outside of the scope of what American values should permit.

I say this not to disparage any Iranian activist. At present, opponents to the Iranian government should be demonstrating super human tolerance toward one another until the regime in Tehran is gone. I say it because, if I'm correct, it's a recipe for more tyranny in Iran, benevolent maybe, but still tyranny.

President Bush will win his generation's war on terror if he subscribes to the values that won our founding father's war against tyranny. Jefferson said it best when he articulated the core of our American values.

"I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

This is the heart of the issue. Islam is no more susceptible to tyrannical interpretation than Christianity or Judaism. Therefore, Islam is not the enemy but velayat-e faqih is.

Your vague commentaries sound like intolerance but I hope they are just an inarticulate manifestation of your frustration with intolerance.

According to you, I am unable to articulate my thoughts properly, so I will not attempt to comment on your post, except to say I was commenting on another post.

Hey Bush -- wake up, 9/11 was just a wake up call to the USA that islam hates the world 3 posted on 06/06/2005 6:01:20 AM PDT by GaryMontana

In retrospect, I can see you may have believed I was attacking Islam. I was not. I was attacking someone that attacked my President for inaction, which is absurd. As an infidel, I may one day have to examine my tolerance.

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