Dean's World

They just aren't shooting back. For those that still doubt this is the case:

LONDON (AFP) - Iran will supply Hezbollah with surface-to-air missile systems in the coming months, boosting the guerrillas' defences against Israeli aircraft, according to a report by specialist magazine Jane's Defence Weekly, citing unnamed Western diplomatic sources.
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"Iranian authorities conveyed a message to the Hezbollah leadership that their forces would continue to receive a steady supply of weapons systems,"it added.
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"The details coming from the meeting reveal that they are about ensuring a constant supply of weapons to support Islamic Resistance operations against Israel," said Robin Hughes, the magazine's Middle East Editor.

Sigh. Looks like I was overly optimistic in thinking Iran couldn't re-arm Hizbollah till hostilities ended, which just reinforces what I've been saying: people need to accept the realities of the situation and deal with them.

Just for fun, let me posit a little hypothetical here. Let's say Israel was supplying some anti-Iranian forces based in Iraq with tens of thousands of rockets. They kidnap some Iranians and that sparks a military response from Iran. There's some debate over whether the group is winning or losing the ensuing conflict, but they've managed to launch thousands of the Israeli projectiles into Iran (deliberately killing Iranian civilians), and now Israel is going to supply them with SAMs. Oh, and the PM of Israel keeps saying Iran should be destroyed. Under those circumstances, don't you think Iran would have declared war on Israel some time ago, with little international condemnation given the provocation?

If there's one lesson we can take from history, it's that a noble tendency toward pacifism manifested practically as pre-emptive surrender is not a viable strategy against implacable enemies bent on your destruction, regardless of what international opinion says on the matter. In other words, if someone's shooting at you, you damn well better shoot back before he kills you, and never mind about the good citizenship awards you're foregoing having pinned to your corpse afterward.

And do you hear that ticking in the background? Nukes, nukes, nukes, nukes...

Angie just posted this question:

Hi Professor Rummel. I've read your stuff in the past and was just wondering if you had thought about posting something that counters the recent media criticism that I've seen where someone mentioned that Israel and Lebanon are both democratic. I forgot the reporter, but it seems like someone was questioning the validity of the proposition by yourself and President Bush (I have read that he has read Natan Sharansky's book on democracy) that greater democracy is a solution to global violence.

Will you counter that question at all?

I have. My post on this is here. As to both Israel and Lebanon being democratic, see this post also.