Is the Iranian Regime Rational?

Absolutely!... In its own rational Iranian context -- but not ours. For Iran's rulers, provoking a conflagration is eminently rational. But it is hard to believe that this is what General Dempsey had in mind.

Recently, the American Chairman of the Joint Chief Chiefs of Staff, General Dempsey, said that the Iranian Regime is rational. It is rational….Absolutely! -- but within its own Iranian context of rational -- not ours.

The current leaders of Iran, according to the late Ayatollah Khomeini, are dangerous. When he ruled Iran, he did his best to keep them out of government: he knew Iran's current rulers believe that by provoking a conflagration, they would try to make their Mahdi -- their messiah - return.

Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), which worked against the Soviets, will not work here. Iran's current rulers --- most prominently the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Iran's fake "Grand Ayatollah" leader, Khamane'i, who has the formal rank of Hojat al-Islam -- a rank far below that of Grand Ayatollah, but he "crowned himself" Grand Ayatollah, like an African dictator, after he took over his country -- also adopted the title General, and believes that when their messiah arrives, this messiah will make clear that their form of Islam -- not Sunnism, or for that matter, any non-Muslim religion -- are all perversions of the one and only true faith -- theirs -- which itself is a perversion of mainline Shi'ism.

Destruction, for Iran's rulers, is an inducement, not a deterrent. From the point of view of Iran's rulers, provoking a conflagration is eminently rational. But it is somehow hard to believe that this is what General Dempsey had in mind when he said the Iranian regime is rational.

Related Topics:  Iran  |  Harold Rhode receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free gatestone institute mailing list