Iran's Hour of Test, Once Again

In danger, what does a Muslim say: La hawla wala quwwata illa billah! No power or strength except with Allah.

This is to transcend any threat, any source of worry. It builds courage, reduces nervousness. This acknowledges the fact that nothing happens without God's permission, bad or good. Until disaster strikes, therefore, there is little need to fritter away precious energy and emotional equanimity.

So, Hemingway's "For whom the bells tolls, it tolls for thee" really has a mixed message. There is the eternal truth that all of us must one day pass. However, it should be no reason for angst, for nobody, other than God, knows when that fateful moment will transpire.

If Israel or the USA is to attack Iran, they will do so when they will. Until that happens pray, eat, be kind, plan, work, produce, enjoy, sleep; in other words, live.

However, one must not give the antagonists any excuse to initiate an attack. All the justifications so far arrayed by them are patently false and artificially constructed. The entire program berating and bedeviling Iran in place now is wildly illegitimate.

So, spoiling to attack they want Iran to take the first swipe; make the first mistake. This is how bullies work. Iran must pause and not give an iota of legitimacy to the devilish errand our nation and the crying wolf nation are together on. While Iran must remain prepared and vigilant, it must make sure no one has his finger on the trigger and that there is no saboteur among them who will do this job for their antagonists.

I remember 1967 Six Day September War as a young boy in England. This is exactly how Israel orchestrated its devastating attack on her four neighboring countries. Dehumanize them to a willing media In London and Washington, DC. Draw empathy by showing Israel's vulnerability. Remind others of its vaunted Democracy. Then, strike at the opportune moment. Be eulogized as the Triumphant David, The Diminutive Brave heart. It's all profoundly Hollywood melodrama! People buy into ceaseless audio-visual stuff. Read a good book on Advertisement Theory to confirm this point. Even better, watch how the White House is bought and sold on national TV in this election cycle for a mere $2.5b!

Our audacious Nobel Peace Prize Laureate President has proven to be long on the rhetoric of hope and short on substance. Whether he has been co-opted or cowed on the matter of keeping silent on Soviet type torture by our civilized, liberating forces, Guantanamo Bay, Palestine and Iran, and now during Burma's Muslim carnage, it does not matter. The damage he is willing to indulge in or the damaging capacity he has facilitated in Israel surely proves without a doubt that he is a true Black Belt inheritor of the previous resident of the White House. The day Iran is attacked by Israel or its surrogate, it will be a black day of the first Black president. But nobody ever said that being elected POTUS was sweet ending fairy tale. On that day, the passing of Obama Care or the Supreme Court upholding it will be eclipsed in the memory of 1.3 billion Muslim people worldwide. It may not mean much in our nation's memory because we will not die in huge numbers and we are used to doing these strangely bizarre and awful things since the days of Agent Orange, or Hiroshima-Nagasaki. The Japanese bombed the US Navy. We bombed the Japanese people. But we are always remorseful and quick to reform our ways. That should mean something. Really! 

Face it in the really difficult and novel matters we are unprincipled. Despite the Harvards and the Stanfords, we rely on our baser instincts with people we cannot relate to. We did it with slaves. The Republican Right has been relentlessly employing this ploy against the Obama Administration so much so that the wheels of Congress has literally ground to a halt much like in a Third World country. Wasn't that how the Jews were hounded before being exterminated in Europe during the WWII? That is how the anti-Muslim campaign has been orchestrated in Europe and the US. That is how Iran now and Iraq before was hunted down. 

We flaunt our and Israel's Democracy, but we use no democratic principles of fair play when we deal with others. It is as if knowledge and experience are not fungible across borders and among issues. We have not really become a better people, at least not our Government. How can it be better? There is no real spiritualism anywhere in or near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Everything is materially calculated and a Machiavellian tactics is constantly at play. We believe too much in the concept of Game Theory and bluff. Is it possible that that is a partial reflection of our style of governance and business? That is why we cannot believe, despite all evidence suggesting it, Iran's claim that nuclear bombs violate Islamic principle of lesser struggle or jihad. We blame Iran for its Theocracy. Then when it uses its Theology, we disbelieve it. How convenient!

If you disagree, then you should go watch the movie, The Untouchables. In a scene, in the balcony of an opera show, at the moment of high pathos, the thug Al Capone, portrayed by the incomparable Robert De Niro, smiles through his tears as he receives the welcome news of a successful assassination of one of his enemies. Being nice does not mean one cannot be schizophrenic.

Now, long ago we decided, as a strategic matter, never to give Iran any quarter. Never find any goodness in Iran. Never acknowledge any of their legitimate grievances; simply use a Caterpillar type steam roller to flatten any and all Iranian positions. So, Iran may have chosen to die with dignity, rather than live the life of a field mouse.
Already via Israel's secret capacity and the 300 tons of spent highly radioactive fuel rods disposed in the Middle East arena over the last 20 years through bombs and shells, the area has been nuclearized. What we could not, as a nation, agree to put in a deep hole of Nevada's mountains we left them as a gift in Muslim Middle East to cook the environment with deadly radiation for the next 10,000 years. Now, we blame Iran for having legitimately purified uranium to 20%! That it will lead all Hell to break lose is our premonition. Shame on us! We are worse than Nostradamus. Our hypocrisy and prevarication has extended up to the skies.

So, there is nothing to be gained by Iran through a first strike. Then, other than keeping its finger off the trigger, what can Iran do? 

Just like Wikileaks, Iran should release for World consumption the salient elements of its recent nuclear talks with the 5 superpowers and Germany. It is being bamboozled. It will be battered soon. As if it has not been battered and bamboozled before by the same parties. So, why keep the substance of the negotiation secret? Bring it to the common folks. Let us see that PowerPoint presentation. People ought to know why it failed and who is behind the failure. It is better said now then later on.

Lastly, secretly and openly, it should beg for mercy and ask for help from all Muslim countries from east to west and north to south. If there are adjustments to be made in relations, do it. In good work proper pacing is a well founded principle. For discerning Muslims, Hudaibiya has always proven the point. Less is more. However, in this it must not be hysterical nor should it resort to histrionic. Afterall, both Hollywood and Madison Avenue are tucked far away in the persona of the US of A!

Finally, in this precious month of Ramadan, I remind the good people of Iran of some things they know all too well.

Allahu m'as sobireen. God is with those who patiently persevere. Also, wa yamkuruna wa yamkurullah. Wallahu khairul makireen. And they plot and plan; and God, too, plans. God is the Best of planners. 

Fi amanillah! Tawakkaltu 'alallahi!

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Dr. Shafi A. Khaled is a freelance writer. He teaches and does research in Business & Economics.