Confronting Evil (Oliver North)

WASHINGTON -- This week, while the masters of America's mainstream media were probing the carnage perpetrated by a deranged, lone gunman in Blacksburg, Va., Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Israel, discounting the threat posed by an irrational government intent on acquiring nuclear weapons. Neither act makes any sense.

In the aftermath of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, schoolmates, faculty members and law enforcement officials pointed to the gunman's pattern of unbalanced behavior, menacing anger and self-destructive writings. Numerous reports cited rules and privacy laws that barred authorities from acting to thwart the massacre of 32 innocents. Like the killings at Columbine eight years ago this week, and with the same clarity of 20/20 hindsight, "experts" concur that the killing could have been prevented had action been taken months or even years ago. It's a lesson that should be applied to our dealings with the irrational, threatening, self-destructive regime in Tehran.

On April 18, as the potentates of the press were discovering stories of courage and compassion at Virginia Tech, Gates, standing beside his Israeli counterpart, Amir Peretz, declared that they had decided to "deal with the Iranian nuclear problem through diplomacy, which appears to be working." He went on to note that the international community is "united" in this approach. This sounds eerily like urging deeply disturbed, homicidal students to seek counseling and talk about their problems in lieu of more stringent measures that might deter them from committing mass murder.

Unfortunately, the homicidal Islamic radicals running Iran are arming themselves with weapons far more lethal than handguns, and the mass murder they plan to perpetrate will kill millions. And yet, if the advice being proffered by Messrs. Gates and Peretz is followed, we will continue to ignore all the warning signs and "talk" with Iran until it is too late.

The killers at Columbine and Virginia Tech repeatedly denied that they were potentially destructive to themselves or others -- until they acted. They hid their weapons and their intentions while plotting mayhem. That's the same pattern of behavior that the Ayatollahs in Tehran have followed.

The clandestine Iranian nuclear program was underway for nearly 18 years before being discovered. When International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors finally investigated, the Iranians lied and destroyed evidence. Confronted by their European bankers and trading partners two years ago, the theocrats responded with denials, deceit and defiance. When the United Nations passed a "soft sanctions" resolution last December, the Iranian regime expedited the installation of gas centrifuges at their Nantaz uranium enrichment complex. And last month, after the United Nations passed a second sanctions resolution, Tehran announced new limits on "cooperation" with the IAEA and blocked access to their Arak heavy water reactor -- a facility believed capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons when completed. And that's not all.

In January, U.S. Special Operations units captured five senior operatives of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force in Irbil, Iraq. In Baghdad, weapons and explosives provided by Iran to Iraqi terror cells were put on display. On March 23, the Iranians responded by taking 15 British military personnel hostage, and threatening the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. And there's more.

This week, while the world grieved at the bloodshed in Blacksburg, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced, "We have intercepted weapons in Afghanistan headed for the Taliban that were made in Iran." Hours later, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defiantly stated that Iran's military would "cut off the hands off any aggressors." This is the same head of state who has promised that "the United States and the Zionist regime of Israel will soon come to the end of their lives."

Despite Gates' confidence in diplomacy, it should be clear that talking with deranged despots is more dangerous than encouraging deeply disturbed gunmen to seek counseling. While there is still time, the United States should take the following five initiatives to deter Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons:

-- Reaffirm that the United States is no longer bound by the abysmal Algiers Accord -- negotiated by Jimmy Carter -- proscribing U.S. intervention in "Iran's internal affairs."

-- Strengthen connections with opposition groups, including the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and other organizations devoted to regime change in Tehran.

-- Ignore "diplomatic" complaints about economic sanctions and inform foreign banks and businesses trading with Iran that they cannot do business in the United States.

-- Publicize Tehran's human rights abuses, as we once did with the Soviet Union.

-- Use Voice of America, Radio Farda and Internet broadcasts to inform the people of Iran of our affection for them, and the dangers posed by their radical, unstable leaders.

Taking these actions now against the irrational regime in Tehran could well prevent the mournful refrain we heard after the carnage in Columbine and Virginia Tech: Why didn't we do something to prevent this terrible toll?

Oliver North is the founder and honorary chairman of Freedom Alliance and author of The Assassins .

So you tell me...What’s the common thread - other than the fact that that these people completely lost their minds?

What other common thread would you like? Both the school shooters and the jihadis have the same mindset. It is psychopathic fanatic elitism.

The only real difference is that Cho had no alliances. No confederates. The jihadis accept each other as equals in their self-view that they are superior to everyone else. Both the lone psychopath and the jihadi see all outsiders as inferior and worthy of destruction. Both refuse to hear anything an outsider has to say.

When given a platform both display their fantasies of destruction with some relish and pride. Cho in his lit classes, Ahmadinejad in his speeches to "friendly" audiences. When critically pressed about their excesses both try to hide behind a calm and reassuring appearance. Both refuse to admit to any excess. Both hide their real plans from outsiders and both indulge in extensive documentation and bragging to share with their confederates, though Cho had none but himself, and use it to taunt their victims after the deed is done. (Consider the palestinian suicide bombers videos.)

It's the same mindset to a T.

Perhaps this will clarify what mindset is for you.

The cause of fanaticism and why it's dangerous.

The fanatic has an elitist view of himself. He holds a firm belief that he is in some way special and has something that others, not like him, do not. Because of this basic self-view any disagreement with the elitist or any resistance to their actions causes anger. This "supreme" view of himself is an excuse for justifying his anger and thus justifying any act from deception to murder against those who disagree with or refuse to comply with him. He is comfortable with hatred, revenge, lying or any gross deception in defense of his special "superior" position acted out against those (the "others") who do resist him or refuse to validate his view(s).
It is impossible to reason or negotiate with someone who believes that they are morally and/or ethically superior to everyone else. Anything and everything you do to accommodate their "concerns" (demands), short of complete capitulation, will be discounted due to your "obvious" inherent inferiority. Any resistance to this, anything other than complete submission, actually becomes self-evident proof of their superiority and your inferiority. The elitist's mindset presupposes the rationale of rightness and righteousness as inherent only to themselves by virtue only of this self-superior self-image and not at all as a measure of the quality of their actions or their resulting consequences.
That mindset becomes the entire basis of their world-view. They may rest it on an ideology or philosophy that they choose to use as support or camoflage for it but the doctrine itself may or may not, loosely or strictly, support their view. It doesn't really need to as that is of secondary or even tertiary importance. The doctrine has relevance only as a tool. An indoctrinated fanatic may be completely unaware of this yet still be very skilled in its method. "I'm right you're wrong and this is where it says so" goes his thinking. The founders and leaders of fanatic movements know full well that the doctrine is nothing but a smokescreen. They're still right and you're still wrong but it "says so" in their minds only. When it gets down to brass tacks they "don't need no steenking doctrine" to support or hide their superior self-view.
Of course the opposite is true for the non-elites in the fanatic's mindset. You can never be right if you're not one of the "righteous." That is why a fanatic is so dangerous. Any and all evil acts can be justified on the basis of any disassociation whatsoever with the personal views and goals of the fanatic. With his identity. The intent and motivations of an outsider are irrelevant no matter how positive they are. Even the results of an outsider's actions are irrelevant no matter how accommodating or constructive or beneficial they are to the fanatic elitist. The outsider is always wrong because he won't submit to the fanatic's view.
The world is full of fanatics of many varieties and they can base their superior self-view on any pretext that works for them. Some belong to large groups of like-minded fanatics, some belong to a group that is not in itself fanatical but lends itself to the their needs and some are individuals under the delusion that they alone are special.
In today's world the United States in particular and western civilization in general are under a concerted assault from two separate groups of fanatic elitists. Fundamentalist Muslims and leftists. The Islamo-nazis and the Marxists. Both leftists and Islamo-fascists hold a firm belief that they are special and have something that "rednecks" and "infidels" don't have. For the leftists it is supposedly "superior intellect" and "social sophistication" that they possess and for the Islamo-nazis it's a "call from Allah," a "holy annointing."
Both groups are manifestations of a mass psychological disorder of fanatic elitism. Both are extremely unstable and are neither founded upon nor affected by sound logic or reason. Convinced of their own inherent superiority both groups will press their respective agendas as far as they can without regard for the consequences to themselves or to others. As with any fanatic the blame for all of their actions will logically fall on the shoulders of the "others," the outsiders. Negative consequences of their actions simply become another tool for self-vindication in the form of propaganda turned back on the outsider as "proof" of his inferiority.
The mindset of the fanatic elitist is the same as that of a rabid dog. The mindset of "us-and-them" on an inviolable scale. Nothing else has a valid existence for them if it doesn't submit completely to their view. Anyone and anything that doesn't submit is "total enemy." The outlook of neither the rabid dog nor the fanatic elitist can be affected by outside influence. The dog's mind is controlled by the fevered ravages of a virus; the fanatic's mind is controlled by a self-chosen paradigm that holds anything contrary to its own superiority in all matters as automatically self-negated and both the dog and the fanatic view anything that is other as a threat that must be destroyed.
For the fanatic elitist change can only occur from within and that means a change in their most basic self-view, the view that they are special and unique in a superior and dominating way. A view that all reasonable people must either fully reject or completely submit to. Those are the only choices the fanatic leaves to the others.

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