If you've been following the news over the weekend you'll be aware that Iran has just passed a new dress code. Doesn't sound harmful, except that the dress code requires all Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians and Bahais to wear distinctive arm bands in public.
In a move that's reminiscent of Nazi Germany, all Jews will have to wear yellow arm bands, Christians red. As a contrast all Iranian's will wear "standard Islamic garments to remove ethnic and class distinctions".
Officially, the new law has been put in place is so that Muslim Iranians can identify non Muslims so they can stop becoming unclean by accidentally touching them in public.
There are 8 stages of genocide:
1.Classification
2.Symbolization
3.Dehumanization
4.Organization
5.Polarization
6.Identification
7.Extermination
8.Denial
Once any government singles out people based on race or religion, the next 5 or so steps are not that far away.
The scary thing is that there is no one that can /is willing to step in and do something about it. So far a lot of "western" nations have public condemned the new law but what will they do? Lets just hope the world grows some balls before we go through another holocaust.
Comments
The problem is how to deal with the Iranian situation. History has shown that we probably should step in now before it gets too out of hand. Like in the 1930s when instead of handing Czechoslovakia over to the Nazis we should have stopped Hitler by invading. His economy was still reviving and he was in no position to go to war. Given the opportunity the world would love to go back and change their policy of appeasement. But hindsight is 20/20.
With Iran we should get in there now and rid Iran of their crazy fundamentalist government. But we are over-stretched already with Iraq and the Middle East probably would hate us even more. But Iran with nuclear weapons makes the world make more dangerous. More dangerous than when we had the Cold War. At least with the Russians we knew that they wouldn't attack unless they knew they could survive (Mutually Assured Destruction). The Iranian president has already come out and said that Earth is a temporary stop over that is at the bottom of existence and we should hasten the arrival of the 12th Imam (akin to the end of days in Christian religion) (ref: Newsmax.com, 24/01/2006 ).
Some of have said that it's good that the Iranian's are scaring the United States. But if the US is scared then we should be petrified. We are not dealing with a sane and rationale government. It's not about growing balls it's about working out what the hell we are going to do.
I agree, the problem is what to do now. America doesn't have the resources to do anything, neither does Australia (we're in Iraq, Afghanistan, Solomon Islands, East Timor .... and we wouldn't do anything without the US anyway) but what about the rest of the world?
It just seems like everyone's waiting for big brother to step in and take control via military action, but they may not be an option this time.
Realistically this comes down to how do we deal with an enemy we don't understand? While we know that they are willing to die for their cause, we don't really understand it, it just seems crazy. And without understanding why no one is going to be able to take effective action
It is one thing to condemn a country for its actions. It is another thing to invade that country's sovereignty because you disagree with their actions.
What right does the US, Australia, or indeed, any "western" nation have to invade Iran because we disagree with their motivations behind enriching uranium?
Invading Iran and overthrowing its president because you perceive it as a threat is no different to his policy to "wipe Israel from the map".
The right I have is that they are threatening to destroy an ally of ours (Israel) and also to destroy us. This is not disagreeing with their actions this is concern for the well-being of the world. Iran has lied on several occasions to the UN and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about it's nuclear programme and it's intentions. This has been documented.
They have come on record as wanting to destroy another country. Are we supposed to sit there until they launch the first attack? It's not as if we don't know they are going to do it. It's just a matter of time.
They are NOT a perceived threat, they are a threat. We are concerned about their enrichment programme because we know it's for nefarious purposes. We have already offered to provide them with uranium enrichment from Russia, we offered them a light water nuclear reactor (which is not capable of producing weapons-grade material). They have denied all of our offerings (likening them to giving a child candy in return for gold). So it's obvious that they want nuclear weapons and they plan on using them.
Back to the Nazi's. Nemesis, we used your policy back in the 30's and look what happened - 62 million people died. Why? Because people (is pansies to harsh a word?) like you wanted to respect the sovereignty of the Nazi's despite obvious evidence at their intentions.
A nuclear war with Iran would likely have a much larger death toll. Let's see - 6.2 million dead Israelis, 68 million Iranians, the Syrians would probably help so let's presume they would only lose their army of 4.3 million, then we have the American loses of 57 million army soldiers. These numbers are probably smaller since I can't estimate civilian casualties (except among Iranians as they will probably be blown to kingdom come, but that's what they want anyway)
The US tells the world that Iran is making nuclear weapons, and the world believes it... This is sounding awfully familiar (can anyone say 'Saddam'?).
Of course the UN is going to retaliate to a claim such as that. Iran have one very compelling reason not to let the UN inspectors have a poke around: The UN is simply a front for the US. The UN has demonstrated that it, more often than not, simply does what the US wants. Creating Israel, letting the US have nukes, the list goes on.
Invading Iran will likely provoke its president to "pull the trigger" and wipe Israel from the map anyhow. By invading Iran, you gain one, and only one thing: Oil.
The UN is a front for the US? So that's why the UN didn't support the US-led attack on Iraq? The UN and the US hate each other! Are you high?
The IAEA have said that Iran is not co-operating enough to determine their true intentions. The IAEA has no problems with Iran gaining a civilian nuclear programme. In fact that is what the IAEA has been helping with over the last few years. Unfortunately Iran is no longer cooperating.
So we have an enemy who have already said that they want to destroy us and Israel. Their irrational hatred of the Jews and their illfounded belief in the Protocols of Zion (a document the rest of the world now knows is a fake) makes them a very dangerous enemy.
And then we have people like you that wish to respect a country that wants us dead and wants a group of people eliminated from this earth purely because of their race. A war in Iran would be more costly than the money made from oil from Iran. I am not advocating war unless that is the only option. But we need to stop being pansies and deal with this situation before it's too late and we have another Holocaust and World War.