Defeat Evil
The Iranian people are waiting, sacrificing and dying, hoping the world will heed their call. The time to fight the evil dictatorship is now.
As the Iranian people bravely protest their oppressive government, the people who possibly need to hear their cries most, the American people, seem practically unaware of the protests in Iran. Sure, Americans are aware that protests are occurring, but do most Americans know the extent of the murder and imprisonment the Iranian regime casually employs to stifle the protests? Do Americans know about the murdered children of Iran? Do they know about Iranian rights activist Masih Alinejad — a crucially important personality in the protests — who was stalked by an Iranian agent armed with an AK-47 in Brooklyn? Do we care that the regime publicly hanged, from cranes, Majidreza Rahnavard and Mohsen Shekari, following sham trials for simply protesting against the regime? Would Americans want to be involved if they learned about the at least 506 killed since protests began just three months ago? Might it influence public opinion if Americans heard about the thousands of people hanged by Iran’s current president? Will we care when dozens of other protesters waiting on death row face their unjust fate? Will the United States stand for good and against evil? Why don’t Americans care and whose responsibility is it to change that?
If the Biden administration would harness its relationship with the media to encourage coverage of the Iranian people’s struggle, the American people would have to realize the depth of the struggle and our ability to help. Amongst the great accomplishments of President Reagan and Prime Minister Churchill before him, was that their strong and morally unambiguous speeches allowed their people to realize the depth of the evil they were up against and their role in defeating that evil. Having their people resolutely encouraging them onward kept those great leaders unambiguously on track to victory. President Biden does not have the gift of speaking powerfully or with the moral clarity of Reagan and Churchill, but he does have the media to do his bidding. They should do his bidding for good. Even those who don’t subscribe to the idea that the media is doing Biden’s bidding should at least agree that the media is providing very little coverage of potentially the greatest political event of this generation, and the president is doing nothing to assuage that failing. Let’s always remember that Neville Chamberlain was still Prime Minister when WWII was thrust on an unsuspecting Great Britain. If the leader doesn’t see and announce the gathering storm, neither will the people. Societies are reactionary, but resolute visionaries can direct and encourage their people. President Biden must shake off his foolish complacency and shortsightedness by publicly and explicitly calling out the evil regime and confronting it head-on. Americans already view the Iranian regime more negatively than any other in the world. Our leaders and our media must direct and channel the strong moral conscience of the American people toward good. American ambivalence towards fighting the Iranian regime, if it continues, will result in the continued massacre and imprisonment of many courageous people who just want some of the basic freedoms we take for granted.
Although President Biden is not currently taking a strong stand, it’s an unfortunate reality that the Iranian regime continues to pursue unabated murder and evil to stifle the protests. It is perhaps likely given their evil tactics that the regime will make an egregious and violent error that causes President Biden a moment of moral clarity and courage. Biden would seemingly have already rejoined the catastrophic nuclear deal if not for the wicked regime murdering Mahsa Amini — the egregious and violent error which kicked off the protests. Such is the nature of terrorists — they almost always wind up getting themselves killed. Knowing though that they are likely to commit more and more heinous acts of violence against their people, maybe President Biden will show great moral courage and confront the regime in advance of further destruction. That is perhaps foolishly optimistic, but perhaps it isn’t; anyone opposed to evil must hope America confronts this scourge sooner rather than later.
If Biden is to finally show some courage, it would be wise to take note of America’s past failures and successes in dealing with evil regimes. Starting with our past failures, President Biden must take note of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. At the time, President Kennedy infamously did not provide the air support needed by the rebels, which allowed Fidel Castro’s soldiers to handily defeat the righteous rebels. President Biden and his advisors must internalize the terrible consequences of weakness and half measures in confronting evil regimes. Less than two years after the Bay of Pigs, the Soviet Union nearly attacked America with nuclear weapons from Cuban territory. Half-hearted invasions and weakness will not cut it against Iran. America needs to put Iran under severe, consistent and widespread attack until its people can overthrow the wicked, oppressive and genocidal Ayatollah.
The people of Iran, especially the younger generation, are far more secular and opposed to the regime than the world likely perceives. Given the demographics, if the regime is overthrown now, it will more than likely never rise again in such an evil form. More than that though, Iran, like Cuba before it, has its share of rebels amongst high-ranking officers in the Artesh, the less powerful sister military branch of the IRGC. There are enormous numbers of opponents of the regime within Iran who would seemingly relish the opportunity to defend themselves and their freedoms, with weapons in hand, “for it is better … to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of [their] nation.” Even without weapons in the hands of protesters though, the pressure they put on the regime and the resources they divert provide the United States and its many willing allies an unparalleled opportunity to topple the evil regime. If America provides the sustained firepower, a new stage in this great democratic revolution will commence.
The second crucial lesson to be gleaned from our history is the importance of powerful rhetoric alongside principled moral clarity. President Biden must be ready to fight if pushed to that point, but the likelihood of accomplishing our goals and those of the protesters without fighting increases manyfold by being clear and unequivocal about our stance towards this evil regime. Ronald Reagan famously, proudly and importantly declared in 1983 that the United States was locked in a battle of good and evil against the Soviet Union. Reagan did not qualify or hedge, instead he explicitly referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” that must be defeated for good to reign in the world. Reagan went further, insisting to the Evangelical religious leaders in attendance that, “if history teaches anything it teaches that simple-minded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom. So I urge you to speak out against those who would place the United States in a position of military and moral inferiority.” Reagan was in essence reversing years of appeasement and containment of the Soviet Union which defined American foreign policy and turning America’s eyes towards victory.
Reagan then backed up his words by fighting the Soviet Union in every corner of the world, through proxies and other means, pushing the overly spread evil empire to the point of collapse. The exact same formula, the Reagan Doctrine as it became known thanks to the great Charles Krauthammer, could work against the evil regime in Iran. The vulnerabilities of the Red Army are precisely the same vulnerabilities the Iranian regime and the IRGC currently show, because like the former Soviet Union, the theocratic Iranian regime constantly seeks to export its evil beyond its own borders. If we fight them and their proxies everywhere, the regime’s days will be numbered. President Biden should also go further by attacking Iran on its soil before they develop nuclear weapons. That would collapse the regime. Then good will reign over evil. Unfortunately, President Biden is currently doing the opposite by refusing to fight anywhere and alienating Saudi Arabia and other allies in the Middle East who are confronting the Iranian regime and its proxies. It might be uncomfortable for President Biden to align with Saudi Arabia, but if he was seemingly willing to do so for lower energy prices, he ought to be willing to align with them to free the Iranian people. History tells us that the way to defeat this evil regime is to fight it everywhere, with everything and everyone we have. Only when the regime is strongly confronted will the nations of the Middle East unite for good, giving rise to a more modern and peaceful Middle East, with greatly expanded human rights for people all over the region.
As a bonus, fighting for good would actually reinvigorate American pride, unity and idealism. The American people could certainly unite for good — with pride — against the evil regime in Iran, but they must know the extent of the evil and realize the extent of our ability to help. It is worth remembering that, for many reasons, admittedly not just related to foreign policy, President Reagan carried 49 out of 50 states in his reelection bid in 1984, after alerting Americans to their ability to defeat the evil empire. The American people could unite behind the Iranian people, but to do so requires visionary leadership pointing us in that direction.
Sadly, Winston Churchill is not our president and the courage and steadfastness of Ronald Reagan are yet to be remotely exemplified by President Biden. Appeasement rules once more and there is no reason to suppose President Biden will change course. There is, if anything, reason to believe President Biden wants to double down on his policy of appeasement towards Iran, as he has repeatedly attempted to do. Moments before the publication of this editorial, a recording of President Biden claiming the Iran Deal “is dead” was leaked online. In the video, President Biden is begged by apparent Iranian expats to announce that the deal is dead, to which Biden replies, “No … It is dead, but we’re not gonna announce it.” If the death of the deal is announced, “they’ll have nuclear weapons,” President Biden appeared to surmise. That is the height of weakness. It is a weakness that, in President Reagan’s words, “means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom,” and it “places the United States in a position of military and moral inferiority.” It is the very opposite of President Reagan’s approach. President Biden absolutely must announce, unequivocally and strongly, that the deal is dead and that we are ready to fight. Anything less is a denial of the best lessons our history has to offer. It is good the deal is dead, but to kill it so softly misses the point. Evil should be acknowledged, confronted and defeated. President Biden must redirect our foreign policy toward the pursuit of victory over evil.
The main reason though to call out the evil regime, as Reagan called out the evil empire of his day, is for the Iranian people to know that we stand beside them. There are those who argue against overt U.S. involvement because it will actually stifle the protests. That is utter nonsense. Are we dumb enough to believe that the brave women, men and children of Iran can overthrow the regime without U.S. involvement? The evil regime knows no bounds when confronting dissent. Without the United States’ involvement, the people will continue to protest and be massacred for opposing the regime. The people of Iran need America to be involved in their struggle. Natan Sharansky famously said that hearing President Reagan’s hostility, clarity and determination towards the Soviet Union in the “evil empire” speech gave the Soviet prisoners hope. It was on that day the prisoners realized that a great revolution was at hand. The words of the American President have the ability to change the world and give the Iranian people encouragement in their struggle. Let’s give the Iranian people hope in their open-air prison. Let’s show them that we are their teammates and that their hopes are ours too. President Biden must let the world know — especially the heroines and heroes on the ground — that we are completely behind and beside the Iranian people. The desire within Iran — and within the United States — to overthrow the regime will prove itself more widespread than Americans realize, but only once we show that we are ready to fight until victory is achieved. It is time we fight beside the Iranian people. For good. Against evil. Before it is too late.
Zan. Zendegi. Azadi.
زن. زندگی. آزادی.
Long live the democratic revolution!
