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Would a nuclear-armed Iran use its weapons?</font size>
<font size="4">Dealing with a death culture</font size></center>
By LAWRENCE J. HAAS
Special to the Star-Telegram
Posted on Mon, Feb. 26, 2007
WASHINGTON - Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was meeting in late 2005 with three European foreign ministers who were seeking to persuade Iran to negotiate an end to its nuclear program. After much pointless blather, the Iranian leader suddenly changed direction and made clear why he was in no mood for a deal.
"Do you know why we wish to have chaos at any price?" he asked. "Because, after the chaos, we can see the greatness of Allah."
The anecdote, as relayed in the new memoirs of French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, points up the theological grounding of Iran's quest for nuclear weapons and the deadly serious likelihood that the Islamic Republic would use them against Israel and the West.
Ahmadinejad's threats to "wipe" Israel "off the map" are well known in the West; his prediction that a "world without America" is "attainable" is broadly recognized among Iran watchers.
Far less known is the radical strain of Islam that drives this president and his regime to pursue nuclear weaponry and that makes Iran's possession of such weapons so frightening to contemplate.
Ahmadinejad welcomes chaos because, under the theology to which he subscribes, chaos is a precursor to paradise. Paradise will come with the return of the "12th Imam," or "Mahdi," a messianic figure from the ninth century whose arrival supposedly will bring Islamic justice to the world.
Ahmadinejad believes that even though the Mahdi surely will come soon, the Iranian leader can speed the Mahdi's arrival by creating chaos. Chaos will result from a violent confrontation of the kind that Ahmadinejad seeks to promote with the West. Nuclear weapons give him the means to ignite that confrontation.
A theology-based foreign policy of this kind may seem unfathomable to those in the West who believe in rational decision-making. But for Iran, it's not surprising at all. It reflects a broader "culture of death" that pervades the radical regime and its relations with the outside world.
"Is there art that is more beautiful, more divine, and more eternal than the art of martyrdom?" Ahmadinejad asked in a speech on Iranian TV in mid-2005. "A nation with martyrdom knows no captivity."
Later that year, Iranian TV sought to recruit children to be suicide bombers by enticing them through an animated movie. To date, Iran claims to have as many as 40,000 bombers awaiting instruction in case the United States takes military action to destroy Iran's nuclear program. The terrorist groups that Iran funds, trains and sponsors share a self-proclaimed love of death.
"The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them," Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has said. "We are going to win because they love life and we love death."
Though Israel and the U.S. are most in the public crosshairs of Iranian threats, they are not alone in fearing Iran's use of nuclear weapons. Fear pervades the Middle East.
There, the issue is not that a nation is developing nuclear weapons. Arab regimes assume that Israel has such weapons, but none has feared an Israeli nuclear strike in response to war or terrorism. The issue, instead, is that the radical regime in Tehran is developing them.
In response, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and more than a half-dozen other regional nations have announced, or indicated, plans to pursue nuclear programs that could lead to nuclear weapons.
For well over half a century, the world has viewed the use of nuclear weapons as too awful to contemplate, leading to an uneasy peace among nuclear rivals during the Cold War and beyond.
With Iran's development of such weapons, the global consensus against their use is about to end. Welcome to the new world.
-------------------------
Lawrence J. Haas is a visiting senior fellow at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute and a commentator on the business radio show "MarketPlace." This essay was distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Georgetown University, GPPI, 3520 Prospect St. N.W., Fourth Floor, Washington, D.C. 20007 Larry@larryhaasonline.com
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/16775818.htm
Would a nuclear-armed Iran use its weapons?</font size>
<font size="4">Dealing with a death culture</font size></center>
By LAWRENCE J. HAAS
Special to the Star-Telegram
Posted on Mon, Feb. 26, 2007
WASHINGTON - Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was meeting in late 2005 with three European foreign ministers who were seeking to persuade Iran to negotiate an end to its nuclear program. After much pointless blather, the Iranian leader suddenly changed direction and made clear why he was in no mood for a deal.
"Do you know why we wish to have chaos at any price?" he asked. "Because, after the chaos, we can see the greatness of Allah."
The anecdote, as relayed in the new memoirs of French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, points up the theological grounding of Iran's quest for nuclear weapons and the deadly serious likelihood that the Islamic Republic would use them against Israel and the West.
Ahmadinejad's threats to "wipe" Israel "off the map" are well known in the West; his prediction that a "world without America" is "attainable" is broadly recognized among Iran watchers.
Far less known is the radical strain of Islam that drives this president and his regime to pursue nuclear weaponry and that makes Iran's possession of such weapons so frightening to contemplate.
Ahmadinejad welcomes chaos because, under the theology to which he subscribes, chaos is a precursor to paradise. Paradise will come with the return of the "12th Imam," or "Mahdi," a messianic figure from the ninth century whose arrival supposedly will bring Islamic justice to the world.
Ahmadinejad believes that even though the Mahdi surely will come soon, the Iranian leader can speed the Mahdi's arrival by creating chaos. Chaos will result from a violent confrontation of the kind that Ahmadinejad seeks to promote with the West. Nuclear weapons give him the means to ignite that confrontation.
A theology-based foreign policy of this kind may seem unfathomable to those in the West who believe in rational decision-making. But for Iran, it's not surprising at all. It reflects a broader "culture of death" that pervades the radical regime and its relations with the outside world.
"Is there art that is more beautiful, more divine, and more eternal than the art of martyrdom?" Ahmadinejad asked in a speech on Iranian TV in mid-2005. "A nation with martyrdom knows no captivity."
Later that year, Iranian TV sought to recruit children to be suicide bombers by enticing them through an animated movie. To date, Iran claims to have as many as 40,000 bombers awaiting instruction in case the United States takes military action to destroy Iran's nuclear program. The terrorist groups that Iran funds, trains and sponsors share a self-proclaimed love of death.
"The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them," Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has said. "We are going to win because they love life and we love death."
Though Israel and the U.S. are most in the public crosshairs of Iranian threats, they are not alone in fearing Iran's use of nuclear weapons. Fear pervades the Middle East.
There, the issue is not that a nation is developing nuclear weapons. Arab regimes assume that Israel has such weapons, but none has feared an Israeli nuclear strike in response to war or terrorism. The issue, instead, is that the radical regime in Tehran is developing them.
In response, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and more than a half-dozen other regional nations have announced, or indicated, plans to pursue nuclear programs that could lead to nuclear weapons.
For well over half a century, the world has viewed the use of nuclear weapons as too awful to contemplate, leading to an uneasy peace among nuclear rivals during the Cold War and beyond.
With Iran's development of such weapons, the global consensus against their use is about to end. Welcome to the new world.
-------------------------
Lawrence J. Haas is a visiting senior fellow at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute and a commentator on the business radio show "MarketPlace." This essay was distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Georgetown University, GPPI, 3520 Prospect St. N.W., Fourth Floor, Washington, D.C. 20007 Larry@larryhaasonline.com
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/16775818.htm
