"As long as there is a God to be God and a world to be the world, foolish people will remain foolish."
This is not a quote from a famous figure. Rather, it was something a friend’s father said to us during the Iran-Iraq war, while on leave behind the front lines, in a discussion about Saddam. We, the sons of his friends, found it so striking that for a long time, we used to jokingly write it in beautiful Persian calligraphy and mount it on a wooden plaque in our bunkers before returning to the front.
Years after the war, when I had written an open letter to Trump warning him against going to war with Iran, Noam Chomsky gave me a fascinating response. He essentially said that while my letter was excellent, the problem was that Trump was too foolish to understand such advice. I later realized that Professor Chomsky’s brief observation was, in essence, a different translation of what my friend’s father had said during the war:
As long as there is a God to be God and a world to be the world, foolish people will remain foolish."
"The response I received from Chomsky eight years ago regarding my open letter is now echoed in today’s reality: the two characters from Pinocchio—the cunning Fox (Netanyahu) and the irrational Donkey (Trump)—are once again attempting to provoke an attack on Iran.
Richard Nixon once wrote in his book, War and Peace and Beyond [Note: referring to his concept of ‘Victory without War’], that one should always present the enemy with a dilemma where both choices lead to defeat. The current global narrative regarding this illegal aggression by these two narcissists against Iran follows this pattern. One of those paths, the results of which are already visible on the horizon, is the total collapse of American military prestige—a result I hold no concern for.
Instead, I wish to address a question that might sound strange coming from an Iranian: What will be the definitive and catastrophic consequences of the fall of the Islamic Republic for the world and the West?
Because the list is extensive, I will outline only the primary points:
1-The Emotional Domestic Opposition: Most domestic opponents of the Islamic Republic lack a true understanding of their country’s lack of independence following a collapse. They will soon realize how Trump has seized control of the nation’s wealth; all national revenues will, much like in occupied Iraq, be diverted to American banks. Their cries for ‘freedom’ will be nothing more than a deception, and within a year, they will likely join the supporters of the old regime.
2-The Myth of the Absolute Victim: A new confirmation of the long-standing narrative will emerge—the idea of Iranians as the ‘absolute victim’ against an ‘absolute tyrant’ West (paralleling the stories of Imam Hussein and Yazid, or the 1953 coup against Mossadegh). New revolutionary leaders, far more violent than the current establishment, will seek vengeance across the globe. Even the taboo of seeking nuclear weapons will be cast aside, as the West has effectively proven to them that tolerance toward Western predators leads only to ruin. In short: be as narcissistic as they are.
3-Guerrilla Warfare: In the first year following a collapse, Iranian guerrilla operations involving 35 million volunteers will begin. They will create scenes for the occupiers that will make the Iraqi insurgencies look like the mere lighting of a candle on a five-year-old’s birthday cake.
4-The Drowning Man’s Desperation: There is an Arabic proverb that says a drowning man will grasp at anything to save himself. To ensure the destruction of all infrastructure, Iran has prepared multi-hour plans targeting the aid-providing nations of the US and Israel.
The West, already struggling with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Houthi missile strikes, will face a multi-y
Ahmadzadeh Haj Habib: ear crisis. How will they survive the aftermath of the destruction of Aramco, the desalination plants of Israel, and the subsea internet cables in the region?
5- The Strength of Solidarity: Every year, the Arbaeen pilgrimage in Iraq hosts nearly ten million Iranians and millions of Shia and Sunni from other nations—numbers far exceeding the non-political Hajj. The memory of the occupation of both Iran and Iraq will serve as a catalyst for unprecedented solidarity, driving these peoples to join forces and set this unjust world ablaze in response to the injustice dealt to them.
6- The Migrant Tide: A flood of millions of migrants from Iran, Iraq, and other Persian Gulf nations will pour into Western countries, whether intended or not, to trample upon their ‘green gardens.’"
7. Years ago, the Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili privately told Catherine Ashton, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, that if US and Western sanctions against Iran were to continue, Iran would only need to raise the price of gasoline in your countries by two dollars. Unlike our people, who have grown accustomed to sanctions and inflation, your people would rise in revolt—a phenomenon that has already begun to manifest in European nations. In the coming days of a new third conflict in the Persian Gulf region, the resulting chaos in the West will be so self-evident that any rational person would recognize its catastrophic security and economic consequences without further explanation.
8- The occupation of Iranian soil will sever any path of compassion or restraint for these foreign aggressors. Poor American and Western soldiers, along with their families, will pay the price for the enrichment of Western military cartels and the corrupt Trump family. It will be a war between men fighting for a land occupied under false pretenses, and American soldiers whose own people hate this conflict even more than they hated the Vietnam War.
And there are many other reasons.
In The Art of War, Sun Tzu says: ‘Never completely surround an enemy; always leave them a golden bridge to a retreat. If you do not, they will fight to the death.’
However, there is a point regarding the Shia people—unnoticed for thousands of years before Sun Tzu and entirely different from the rest of humanity—that is often overlooked: these Shia defenders, in the pursuit of saving their fortress or their country, do not even consider saving their own lives, nor do they hesitate to surrender them.
Eight years ago, when I wrote my advisory letter to Trump, I abstained from competing with the great inventors and grandmasters of world chess. Today, I have no hope that he will grasp the essence of that message: that whether he chooses attack or appeasement toward Iran, defeat is already a foregone conclusion. The only difference lies in the cost. He lacks the wisdom to create a ‘golden bridge’ for himself, because he fails to realize that he is currently the one under siege—and so is Iran.
The reason is quite simple. It is the very same sentiment shared by my friend’s father during the war and Professor Noam Chomsky, despite being thousands of miles apart:
As long as there is a God to be God and a world to be the world, foolish people will remain foolish."207:32
MNA
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