Santorum said Islamic fascists, led by Iran, intend to conquer the world. ~The Patriot News

Here, in all its absurdity, is one perfect example of why I cannot stand the name “Islamic fascist”: in this case it is the view that actually requires you to believe that there are legions of “Islamic fascists” marching more or less in unison with the goals and policies of the government of Iran (paying no attention to any of the mutual hatred different kinds of jihadis have for each other, their contradictory visions of Islam and their different political interests), which is leading them on to a conquest of the world.  Now, in theory, all Muslims seek to reduce the entire world to submission to Islam, and jihadis would certainly ultimately like to see this realised someday.  They would also like to recapture Cordoba and reestablish the Caliphate.  And I would like the Byzantine Empire to be someday reconstituted throughout the Near East.  Their hope and mine are about as equally realistic, even though they are working at realising theirs quite a lot.  Like every utopian political goal, it is unrealistic, unachievable and, what is more, not something that the actual government of Iran has any real means of pursuing.  Beyond Ahmadinejad’s rhetorical bombast, it is difficult to believe that the Iranian government has any interest in doing anything like this.  Their acquisition of nuclear weapons will not make them able to conquer the world.  They may be able to dominate the region (of which they are the dominant local power), which some of us find objectionable not so much because it represents the end of the world (remember August 22!) but because some of us think that we should be dominating the region.  To what end we are doing this, though, only the wise and mad can tell. 

The last attempt at anything like world-conquering launched by Iranians of any kind was in the seventh century before they were Muslims; since they became Muslims they have been on the whole surprisingly uninterested in conquering the world.  But then knowing something, anything, about Iranian history would have already stopped him from using stupid phrases like “Islamic fascist,” which manage to demonstrate a lack of understanding of the religious motivations of jihadis and the character of actual fascism all at the same time.  I don’t know who is supposed to be convinced by this over-the-top apocalyptic nonsense, but I, for one, am getting mighty tired of hearing it.  Very soon, after Nov. 7, we will have one less politician spewing it at us.

But, wait, there’s more:

“From everything I can see, Mr. Casey is unready and unqualified for high office at a time when our survival as a free people is at stake,” he said.

Casey’s qualifications are debatable.  He is certainly a wretched campaigner.  But then people who tend to have a knack for campaigning also seem to have a knack for either dishonesty or rather bizarre views of the world, so this may be a mark in Casey’s favour.  But this idea that “our survival as a free people is at stake” is also something I am increasingly having a hard time crediting.  Near as I can tell, the main culprits in endangering our survival as a free people are the clowns in Washington.  If you think Iran is leading the Islamic fascist axis to conquer the world, you might think our existence as a free people was in danger because of the mythical world-conquering axis, but in the real world a more serious problem would seem to be Santorum’s enthusiasm to have our government topple (not militarily, but by subversion) the governments of countries that have done little or nothing to the United States. 

Even some Iraq war supporters and even people inclined to view Iran and Syria very harshly must be able to see the madness of toppling two governments on either side of Iraq, thus magnifying the regional instability, chaos and uncertainty and making any prospect of stabilising Iraq–which those who want us to stay in Iraq still believe is possible–virtually impossible.  Anyone who wants to topple those regimes will directly endanger our soldiers currently in Iraq, and a more competent opponent would have nailed Santorum to the wall on this.  Unfortunately, Casey’s campaign couldn’t manage more than, “Fear is bad!”  Not exactly inspiring, but at least Casey doesn’t believe that he and his are the thin Red (Republican) line between us and annihilation.  

For toppling the existing regimes in Damascus and Tehran to make any sense, you would have to believe that successor governments would arise quickly and establish their authority swiftly and firmly throughout both countries, and you would have to assume that the successor governments were not worse, more belligerent and more hostile to American interests than the present regimes.  There is no way to know this for sure, but it seems all but certain that the chaos of a collapsing regime in both countries works to the advantage of the more militant and better-armed groups in each country; the army and the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria and the Revolutionary Guards in Iran both stand to gain greatly if the current power structures came crashing down.  What a toppled government in Syria would mean for later Syrian involvement in Lebanon is less clear, but it can only complicate an already very difficult situation and would probably make Israel’s life more difficult.  Toppling the government in Tehran could very well encourage all kinds of Kurdish fishing in troubled waters as the Iranian Kurdish rebels could use this opportunity to try to carve out their own place in the west or join it to Iraqi Kurdistan.  The Turkish government and people, already fed up with our adventures in their backyard, would become even more intensely critical and hostile to our projects in the Near East and given the intense anti-American feelings in Turkey we could see the rise of a ministry in Ankara that is openly opposed to us (which would then precipitate a coup against the government).  The uncertainty created by political chaos in Iran would send the price of oil into triple digits. 

It would obviously be the height of irresponsibility to pursue such a course of action.  Only the reckless, the foolish and the ideological want to pursue this course of action.  But this is what Rick Santorum wants to identify himself with and this is what he thinks America needs to do in the world.  Naturally, the usual suspects are swooning over the great man, while the rest of us are thanking the people of Pennsylvania that they will make sure that we will soon be free of his caterwauling.