Too Many Progressive Democrats On The Wrong Side Of Iran War
Iran is an Oppressive Police State, Sponsor of Terrorism, and Imperialist Nation
If only the failed vice-presidential nominee, Tim Kaine, would have fought as hard for Hillary Clinton as he now is for Ayatollah Khamenei, perhaps she would have won. Now, the invisible senator, who no one has thought of since 2015, slithers out of the woodwork to help Iran get a nuclear bomb and to save one of the planet’s biggest abusers of human rights.
Thanks, Tim! Now, will you please vanish for another decade?
In a perfectly timed LGBTQ Pride Month gift, Israel reportedly demolished the Basij headquarters in Tehran with airstrikes. This is the very HQ of hanging gay people, beating unveiled women to death, aiming for protesters’ eyes, and shooting protestors point blank with shotguns.
If you are jeering instead of cheering this magnificent development, maybe you’re not as progressive as you think you are?
Sure you might be opposed to outside forces bombing Basij, but it’s been nearly 50 years since the Iranian revolution, and obviously progressive forces inside Iran were unable to overcome the regime’s efforts to crush dissent. As an LGBTQ activist, I applaud Israel for getting the job done.
Sadly, too many progressives and some leading Democrats are on the wrong side of the conflict between Iran and Israel. The organization LGBTQI Rights Australia, for example, posted a since-removed message on Facebook that bizarrely declared, “Iran has a right to defend themselves.”
It seems that this terribly misguided organization is more interested in protecting an evil, barbaric Iranian regime that murders LGBTQ people, than defending the people they purport to represent. At no point in the past 5 decades did the puritanical ayatollah regime allow gay people to defend themselves. In countless cases, being discovered as gay meant being pressured into a sex change operation, so Iran could absurdly claim that gay people don’t exist in revolutionary Iran.
While Arya chose to pursue a sex change in Iran due to his gender identity, others, who do not feel as if they are transgender often apply for the surgery so that they don't have to live in fear of being hanged, imprisoned or lashed for homosexuality.
"The sex change process is also a way of cleansing homosexuality in Iran," says Amin. "You have to change your sex or you have to change your sexual orientation."
Yet, despite such overwhelming evidence on the harm Iran causes gay and trans people, this cheap facsimile of an “LGBTQI” group in Australia inexplicably seeks to perpetuate a regime that wants all its members dead. One can only attribute this to low self-esteem and a lack of self-respect.
Meanwhile, Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator of Virginia, introduced a war powers resolution that would stop US armed forces from taking direct action against Iran without explicit authorization from Congress or a declaration of war.
If only the failed vice-presidential nominee would have fought as hard for Hillary Clinton as he now is for Ayatollah Khamenei, perhaps she would have won. Now, the invisible senator, who no one has thought of since 2015, slithers out of the woodwork to help Iran get a nuclear bomb and to save one of the planet’s biggest abusers of human rights.
Thanks, Tim! Now, will you please vanish for another decade?
It’s boneheaded maneuvers, such as this, that allowed the hideous madman, Donald Trump, to win in the first place. Kaine’s action is probably the dumbest political move to restore faith in Democrats, as the Party’s approval rating craters to all-time lows, even as Trump wrecks the nation.
(Of course, it’s not only the left. The white nationalist, Russia-worshipping Tucker Carlson attacked Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz for supporting Israel. “You’re a senator who’s calling for an overthrow of the government and you don’t know anything about the country!” Carlson scolded Cruz. Perhaps, Carlson was suggesting Cruz go to a fancy Tehran grocery store, as he did in Moscow, to get to know the warm and fuzzy fanatics that lead Iran.)
Carlson producing Putin-propaganda in an upscale Moscow grocery chain
Many of my progressive democratic friends (my people, so i say it with love) are blind to their unwise actions. They must realize that they aren’t helping the cause of peace, because the quickest way to catastrophic war and destruction is to get played by the odious, violent Iranian regime, that is habitually truth challenged. Yes, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is also a disreputable snake, but like a stopped clock, even he is right twice a day.
Sadly, too many hypocritical “progressives”, willfully ignore Iran’s sprint to nuclear weapons, as documented last week by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). My fellow progressives love to quote international agencies, so what don’t they understand about the IAEA’s message:
The IAEA says Iran's "many failures" to provide the IAEA with full answers about its undeclared nuclear material and activities constitutes non-compliance. It also expresses concern about Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium, which can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons.
It follows a report from the IAEA last week which criticized Iran's "general lack of co-operation" and said it had enough uranium enriched to 60% purity, near weapons grade, to potentially make nine nuclear bombs.
Furthermore, under the false banner of peace, they conveniently dismiss Iran’s financing and training of multiple terrorist networks, as well as a history of international terrorism. They oddly omit that Iran is an imperial, colonial power (which I thought they opposed) that leveraged its military to essentially control Lebanon, Iraq Yemen, Gaza and until recently Syria. Thus, Iran is a uniquely destabilizing force in the Middle East that routinely uses armed coercion to control the politics of Arab nations.
These “progressives” bloviate on avoiding “endless wars” yet have amnesia about North Korea’s nuclear arsenal leading to an endless conflict in Asia. Nukes in Iran is basically North Korea with a heaping tablespoon of religious extremism.
They endlessly cry about Gaza, (and, yes, it is tragic) but can’t seem to recall that smuggled Iranian weapons, advanced training and deadly rockets played a key role on October 7, which initiated the crisis in Gaza. The Washington Institute reported:
As details emerge of potential direct links to the attack on Israel, one thing is clear: Hamas would not have been able to plan and conduct such an operation without years of Iranian training, Iranian weapons, and hundreds of millions of dollars in Iranian funding.
The Washington Post wrote:
The Palestinian militants behind the surprise weekend attack on Israel began planning the assault at least a year ago, with key support from Iranian allies who provided military training and logistical help as well as tens of millions of dollars for weapons, current and former Western and Middle Eastern intelligence officials said.
So, if you claim to support the Palestinians and are upset about the destruction of Gaza, the least you could do, if you’re an honest person, is to admit that without Iran, 50,000 Palestinians might still be alive today. But I get it—it’s easier to be an ideologue, bury your head in the sand and achieve orgasmic emotional release by angrily wailing: “ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL!”
Some of my progressive friends seem blissfully ignorant that a nuclear Iran could hold the entire world’s energy supply hostage. Imagine gas prices regularly spiking, each time Iran had tantrum, with the newly empowered Islamist nation halting oil tankers in The Strait of Hormuz. Those enormous, snaking gas lines sure will be fun!
To justify passivity, western apologists claim Iran is not a U.S. problem, when Iran has repeatedly killed Americans and regularly calls us the “The Great Satan”. If your neighbor called you Satan, would you hand him a loaded gun?
What many progressives are truly asking for is to take Iran’s untrustworthy word that they aren’t racing to build a bomb, when it’s obvious they are. The cognitive dissonance is astounding.
So, their “solution” is really an Iran with nukes—leading to endless conflict, continuing a terrorist regime on its deathbed, enabling horrific human rights abuses, and increasing the likelihood for an arms race and nuclear war.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is correct when he said this week that Israel is doing the “dirty work” for others. “I can only say I have the greatest respect for the fact that the Israeli army and the Israeli government had the courage to do this.”
By advocating that Iran gets the bomb, obviously the most unlikely long-term path to peace and stability, self-styled progressives ironically reduce themselves to the most pro-war of anyone. They seem to be terribly confused and somehow believe the lie that “peace” comes in the perverse form of creating an intractable forever conflict, with a terrified planet constantly living on the brink of destruction.
Sorry, but no thanks for your imprudent, failed vision for world security. We need a peace that is durable. That means Iran’s nuclear program ceases to exist and the mullah regime of madness is finally abolished, so Iranians can finally be free from fundamentalist religious tyranny.