Charlie Laderman

I'm thoroughly re-read of R. G. Collingwood's 1942 masterpiece of political theory, The New Leviathan. It is a bold and straight-shooting defence of intelligent, responsible civilization against popular madness and barbarism. Follow to get the highlights. Please🔁 for others.

Former NYT Tehran correspondent says the killing of top Iranian official Ali Larijani is going to backfire on Israel and the U.S. “Larijani was the kind of person that had the internal ties… to become the person the United States could negotiate with when the dust settles, and without him there are not a lot of Iranians left…”

What I’m baffled by is the UK’s inability to recognise the Iranian Regime as a mortal and longstanding enemy with the intent to acquire and use nuclear weapons to destroy others. It’s Stockholm syndrome on a massive, national scale; the product of decades of infiltration and subversion, compounded by institutional anti-semitism across Whitehall and an allergic, hysterical reaction to Trump’s unique style. Well-known journalists and members of British civil society will actually promote the Putin-like architects of Iranian mass murder as reasonable guys “that you can do business with”, whilst branding those in Washington as ‘war criminals’. It’s a national manipulation of a scale that would have defied even Goebbels’ warped imagination. Is the judgement of our desperate, insecure, post-Christian, post-industrial society so corrupted that it sees barbarians as friends and allies as enemies? Have the ‘clever cowards’, and value-free, ‘conflict resolution gurus’ that we elect as our leaders declared nationalism illegal, our history shameful, principles worthless and made everything negotiable? Is nothing worth fighting for?

Watch this video carefully. It reveals the fundamentally erroneous assumption of Trump's approach to Iran: That Tehran was weak and did not dare to face the US in a war, and would choose surrender instead as a result. This is central Tehran, Enghelab Street, supporters of the Islamic Republic are marching on Jerusalem Street, chanting "Allah-o Akbar" AS AMERICAN AND ISRAELI BOMBS EXPLODE straight ahead of them. There is no visible panic in the video, not even an attempt to pause or change direction. No one is trying to take cover. Instead, they keep marching straight toward the explosions. I told administration officials before the war that they are underestimating Iran's remaining strength and that surrender simply is not in the cards. Yet, Trump premised the entire war planning on that false notion.