Iran to Force Jews to Wear Identifying Badges

[Rodion Romanovich]

Never Again. Finally a reason I'd join up and go to war.

Concentration camps are apparently already in China, so it's a bit late for "never again". But at least there's time to stop this thing. The problem is from a political point of view Iran is at the same time forcing all others to show religion etc. by clothing, so it's not direct oppression of any distinct minority, just a form of totalitarian oppression about clothing - and an oppression which the locals may even like too much for us to be able to step in as saviors if/when removing it. The thread title is a very incorrect way of describing this law. The law is disgusting, but it's not anti-semitism. It's islamo-fascism - it's rather a form of strenghtening the "we" feeling than the "they" feeling. But such things can easily turn into a "they" way of thinking, directed at one or more minorities.

If Iran has an evil agenda they'll sooner or later do something that'll be a clear step over the line that forces us to defend ourselves. In passing the law, they've not made a distinct step over the line. But if they punish someone harshly for not following it, then we can speak of real oppression, and a good justification for a war. However if they don't harshly punish people who break this disgusting law, they'll unfortunately remain in the grey-zone between clearly evil and clearly neutral (however, if you pass a law, you're likely to use it, so we're likely to get a justification for war pretty quickly). The problem is, in the light of the passing of a law like this, the Iranian nuclear program comes into a whole new perspective. Obviously in the ideal case nobody should be attacked unless evil, but nobody can know for sure whether someone is evil or not, so the decision of attack can only be based on the attacker's perception after he's taken his responsibility of trying to make his judgement of the opponent fairly, always questioning the evilness of said opponent as far as possible, until no doubt remains. While the nuclear program shows they're trying to become a dangerous opponent in war, this recent law shows it's likely they've also got the desire to use the capabilities that that strength could give. With this law, even if it wouldn't be used to persecute any breaker of it, it's a difficult situation for people who support peace, as they get a more and more difficult time argumenting for peace. Laws such as this are really testing the abilitity of other countries to trust Iran's intentions. We should make an ultimatum now - if any non-muslim American or European citizen is persecuted for not wearing a badge, then Iran could be subject to war. If any non-muslim American or European becomes target of street violence by a mob because he/she wore a badge and it was what made him/her a target to the mob, Iran could be subject to war. And with "subject to war" I mean that Iran could be attacked at any time American or European armies would consider appropriate.

This is the best chance for American and European forces to get a strong justification for war, a justification which would make the situation during (better support from home for the troops) and after the war better (unlike than the situation after the Iraq war, for example, where the approach to ultimatum was careless), which are both of great importance. So far an Iran war has been in the grey-zone between justified and not justified, because they've been provoking and looking like they've bad intentions, while never completely stepping over the line, and we've responded too early, making us both look equally bad. But if we make an ultimatum now, and they step over that line, they'll have passed their line so clearly that we've got a justification for a war against Iran. Then we'll get out of this grey-zone of fear for both parts, and find out whether they desire a fight, or desire peace.