Hardliners Everywhere Decrease Security

It’s strange how political hardliners get away with making their peoples more insecure while claiming that by taking a hard line they are increasing security.

Netanyahu in Israel is a prime example of a hardliner on Iran. But the harder his line gets and the greater the chance that it succeeds in causing a war of the U.S. against Iran, the less secure that his country becomes. I mean, how secure can Israelis be at the epicenter of a major war in which all hell breaks loose?

The U.S. Congress is another body taking a hard line on Iran. On July 31, 2013, the House passed a new Iran sanctions bill by a vote of 400 ayes to 20 nays. This was 6 weeks after Rouhani had been elected president. But does this bill make Americans more secure or less? Some will say it increases the chances that Iran will negotiate, but it has the opposite effect. It increases the pressures brought against Rouhani and negotiations by the hardliners in Iran. It rewards Iran’s seeking of an agreement with a slap in the face. More sanctions are a form of greater warfare against Iran by people who effectively want an unconditional surrender or for Iran to give up rights that every other nation has and claims. This increases the odds of outright warfare and decreases American security.

And the third group of obstructionists are hardliners in Iran. They too are placing obstacles in the path leading to an agreement that reduces the chances of an outright shooting war.

It is all around strange that hardliners can preach their basically evil nonsense, thinking or at least claiming that it somehow increases the security of their peoples when it does the opposite. And it is equally strange that they can find supporters in their respective countries. Do these groups actually fear peace and somehow believe that peace is going to make suckers out of them? Are they making the mistake of thinking that they will be appeasing the other side? Are they so imbued with chauvinistic hatreds and distrust of foreigners that they forget that everyone involved is a human being? Do they not appreciate or care that it’s the little people, the silent majorities, who are the ones most likely to suffer from a new and greater war? Are they so imbued with twisted and one-sided religious views that they cannot tolerate views other than their own? Do pride and arrogance blind them?

I have been amazed that with substantial progress having been made in talks with Iran that the negative forces would react with such evidently furious hatred and seek to scuttle the process. They come across as downright evil, extraordinarily inflexible and paranoid. They are surely working directly against the peace and security of their peoples.

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9:06 am on November 14, 2013