Are We A Rock At Rest?

Former PM Netanyahu, made a speech in California recently and told his audience he does not believe the West, has gotten the message, ie. Iran must be stopped from becoming a nuclear power. I believe Netanyahu is correct but I also do not believe we will get it until we get it in the neck.

Democracy's just don't respond until the hour is past. GW has talked till he is blue in the face and I am sure he gets it but he has not been able to convince anyone else because they blame him for fighting the wrong war and doing it poorly. Though that may be true, their argument, I believe, is a cover behind which they can hide from the truth, the reality which they refuse to get and won't until it is too late. That is the general history of the world's response to serious and credible threats. That's the story of The Titanic,WW 2 and other avoidable disasters!

First don't believe, then even if you believe then believe it will go away. Then deny what you heard because no one in his right mind would say or do such a thing and finally respond to the event which you never thought would happen. That is the sequence of history, the evolution of man when confronted by dire threats. That is the story of why preventative care comes after the heart attack.

This is what I truly believe we are facing today and all the haranguing, I and others do, will fall mostly on deaf ears and this I believe as well. Why? Because the threat is so ominous it is unthinkable and the unthinkable is more likely to paralyze than motivate. Furthermore, stopping the unthinkable means overcoming inertia. Inertia is so difficult to move. It is as if we are a rock at rest!

Therefore, we plead and delude ourselves and buy time by stating we have no "rock certain" proof when Iran will actually have a bomb and thus take comfort in resting on the mistaken belief something will happen to deter them. Why? Because they don't want to start something that would result in their country being destroyed. Yes, that would be a reasonable response if we were dealing with sane and rational leaders but we are not. That too is something hard for us to grasp - that radical Islamists are driven by a demoniacal belief in their cause and are willing to die for it. Nevertheless, we see it happening every day Yet, I find many of my Democrat friends believing that about Christian Evangelicals without batting an eye. In fact, I truly believe liberals, certainly Jewish liberals, are more frightened by the Christian Right than Radical Islamists seeking nuclear bombs.

I recently had a discussion with a Democrat friend of mine who believes GW's going to war in Iraq was a mistake, was falsely premised and that we will never bring "democracy" to the region. He says economic prosperity is what the Middle East needs and then points to Viet Nam and China and says: "They do not have democracy and they are doing well economically." He argues the Middle East needs capitalism and the work it will bring to the people and forget the idea of democratization.

My response: it is hard to bring capitalism to peoples living under the heel of totalitarianism unless the leaders permit it as they have, for whatever reason, in China and Viet Nam. Furthermore, it is hard to bring capitalism where terrorism exists and stands in opposition with weapons and a willingness to kill their own. One day, should the leadership of China and Viet Nam feel threatened enough, by all the freedom and prosperity capitalism brings their people, they may well feel compelled to clamp down in order to retain control. They may fail but they will try as did the former leader in China, Mao, when, in the process, he set back his nation literally decades. I was there in China. I heard the stories and was at the Square where it happened. I was in Viet Nam and heard the people talk of the Communist yolk under which they still live and the fact they cannot vote though they are slowly being allowed to embrace religion.

To compare China and Viet Nam to Iran and N Korea, however, is either a blind mistake or simply a purposeful ruse my friend plays on himself in order to live in denial, as I believe, he is so he can continue to blame GW for matters that, in many instances, are justified.

Netanyahu is correct, in my opinion, to warn about Iran and to make the analogy "it is 1938 all over again but this time with a nation seeking nuclear weapons before they go to war whereas with Hitler, he sought them after he began the war."

The problem is Netanyahu and GW, for that matter, will not be heard because believing what they have to say is too painful and disturbing and it is so easy to be a rock at rest while the TV is on, the couch is comfortable and the football season is in full gear, soon to be followed by basketball and then the boys of summer with baseball and in between there are vacations and hunting season and all that beer yet to be drunk.

Goldwater tried to arouse with a mushroom cloud ad and he was years before his time. If that ad were used today it probably might not evoke the same public reaction but it would still not play well in Peoria - the press and media would see to that. No one likes the undertaker and black crepe at a cocktail party. Eat drink and be happy and let the Iran nuclear rock rest, for it is sure to go away. After all, we had a season without another Katrina type hurricane that everyone was so worried about and predicted.

In the final analysis, when push comes to shove ,we can always lay the blame for the world's ills on Israel as the UN, Kofi Annan, all of Europe and Georgia's Jimmy Carter have been doing for years.



Dick