In advocating a partnership with Iran against the Islamic State (IS,
formerly known as the ISIS or ISIL), US Sen. Graham posed the question “Why did
we deal with Stalin?”, and then answered it himself: “Because he was not as bad
as Hitler.” One might reasonably expect somebody
to give a correct answer to his own question, but the Senator is quite mistaken.
The right reply is that, after Germany
declared war upon both the USA and Stalin’s USSR, these two countries had a common enemy in Hitler; indeed, circumstances
practically forced them into a military alliance.
Moreover, the reason
for Sen. Graham’s WWII reference, which evidently is to argue that Iran is preferable
to the IS, is even more wrong than his assertion that Stalin was “not as bad as
Hitler”. The nascent Islamic State lacks
an air force and is estimated by the CIA to comprise between 20,000 and 30,000
fighting men, most of whom have no real military training; Iran has a total
population of 77 million, 550,000 of whom are members of the standing armed
forces and another two million of whom serve in its reserves, and, of course,
it is bent on acquiring nuclear weapons.
Which one do you consider the
greater threat to the rest of the world? (Using the Senator’s logic, we perhaps
ought to ally ourselves with the IS
against Iran!)
