I Want to Pull the Blanket over My Head

Yeah, pull the blanket over my head and whine and whimper. Why? I get this feeling occasionally after sampling the news and the assorted newsletters that arrive in my inbox.

Specifically this morning is an article in The New Republic related to the Basij movement in Iran and a report from Iraq that insurgents decided to enter a primary school in Baghdad and decapitate two teachers in front of their classes.

The New Republic article describes how Iranian children, 14 to 16 years old, were used as human mine sweepers during the Iran – Iraq War in the 1980’s. What got to me was the description of the cheap plastic keys, imported from Taiwan, that were hung around each youngster’s neck which were to open the gates of paradise for them.

That’s just sick. Just another triumph for religion in general and Islam in particular I suppose. If there is a hell then Khomeini and his Imams deserve it. What’s really nauseating is that even today, almost 20 years later, this episode is viewed with pride rather than disgust and the Basij movement is where the current Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appears to have crawled out of. He reportedly served as a Basij instructor during the war. An instructor that clearly didn’t teach by example but who likes to revel in his relationship to the Basij. He regularly appears in public wearing a black-and-white Basij scarf, and, in his speeches, he routinely praises "Basij culture" and "Basij power."

What culture? A culture that hangs plastic keys to paradise around kid’s necks and sends them off to die doesn’t strike me as much of a culture. This doesn’t mean I’m ready to start dropping bombs. The only way you can beat this kind of fanaticism is through a war of annihilation so let’s not start something we’re going to be afraid to finish.

Of course decapitating two teachers in front of their students is almost as bad. Let’s face it, people that would do something like this are beyond any form of redemption. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, it’s time to bring the guys home and let those nutcases fight it out among themselves.