Good morning! Today is Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. We’re going to dive into solutions to Iran, but first:
Today in History:
1690: The clarinet was invented in Nuremberg, Germany
1699: Massachusetts holds a day of fasting for wrongly persecuted “witches.”
1784: The U.S. Congress of the Confederation ratifies the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ending the American Revolutionary War, and forwards it to the British government.
1943 World War II: Casablanca Conference begins between Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and other Allied representatives
1956 American rocker Little Richard released the single “Tutti Frutti,” leaving everyone wondering who Rudy was.
1967 Sonny & Cher release single “The Beat Goes On.”
Birthdays today include: Mark Antony, Benedict Arnold, Don Garlits, Drummer Grady Tate, Clarence Carter, Billie Jo Spears, Allen Toussaint, Faye Dunaway, Carl Weathers, and Dave Grohl.
I want to take a moment to note the passing of Scott Adams and pass condolences on to his family. I’ll point you to Catherine’s piece from yesterday. I wouldn’t worry, Catherine. Their legacy will not be forgotten.
***
Interesting article at The Bugscuffle Gazette yesterday.
Boy, nothing will give you an absolute case of the morbs regarding average American educational standards quite like posting a couple of mildly controversial essays, and then catching emails, comments, and drive-by social media’ing.
Good lord.
“Ian! Why should American give a toss about what happens in a foreign country!”
Seriously?
The mullahs in Tehran have directly — albeit through proxies — been killing Americans since 1980. Lest anyone think that their slogan, “Death to America!” is hyperbole, they have influenced — if not outright funded — terror attacks on U.S. soil.
They intentionally and knowingly attempt to goad the world into a state of war, because their religion tells them that if they can get the whole world in flames, their god will appear and take them all to Paradise.
An unstable world, with governments at each other’s throats is precisely their plan and goal. It’s also lousy for trade, and — like it or not — America needs international trade.
“But, Ian! If the mullahs fall, whatever replaces them could be just as bad!”
“Could be” is not “certain”. You know what is certain? As long as the mullahs remain in power they’re going to keep killing Americans, influencing others to kill Americans, and literally trying to set the world on fire.
I quoted as much as I did here because I need to focus on this last paragraph, which doesn’t make much sense without the setup. It is worth remembering why the mullahs are in power over there in the first place. As I said in my own comments section back on the tenth of this month.
Let’s remember that the reaction of the Peanut farmer to reports of cruelty by the Shah back in 79, caused us to allow that government to fall. And let’s also remember that the currently in power thugs are a direct result . That’s a direct result, I believe, of applying our sense of rights to a culture in which it does not apply. In doing we made things worse by both our standards and theirs.
The moment we allowed the Shah to fall back in ‘79, the mullahs moved in. Nature, after all, abhors a vacuum.
But now, what are the Iranian people chanting in their street protests of today? They’re calling for a return of the Shah. They’re literally dying for speaking their minds on the matter. Clearly, the Iranian people see the Shah as the better of the two deals. They’re probably right. That is a revealing thing, a clarifying moment. What WE think doesn’t matter, It’s what THEY think; They are living in it, not we. They are applying their standards, not ours. It’s NOT OUR CALL.
The imposition on Iranian culture by the mullahs and the radical Islam they represent was clearly an attempt to impose cultural change. Note the stress on the word impose. As I said in that same comment thread: “Cultural changes, when they come, are best done as an organic process, not an imposed one.”
I don’t disagree that the Shah, at least by our standards, was problematic. But again, note the phrase I stressed. I pointed out that on 1/10/18, “The self-declared Republic of Somaliland passes its first-ever law against rape.”
The implication of the parallel is obvious; that recently established law was a reflection of a cultural value that the Somalis adopted by themselves and in their own time. It’s a cultural value that was achieved at their own pace, organically, and not by government force. The government cannot force changes in cultural values; it simply doesn’t have that ability in anything but the short term. History has shown this time and again that rights are not universal. It has also shown us that when a totalitarian government is removed, the original culture springs back to life almost immediately. I believe the fall of the former Soviet Union is a prime example of this.
We have such brutalities in our own history. Consider what happened on this day in 1699: Massachusetts held a day of fasting for wrongly persecuted “witches.“
We learned the lesson and advanced at our own pace. Imagine what would have gone down if there had been intervention from some other country. You get the idea.
Carter’s foreign policy as regards Iran suffered from a misconception that is common among our more liberal brethren. Namely, that we can apply OUR cultural values to the Iranian people and all will be both hunky and dory.
I point out that when Jefferson wrote that “WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT,” he was not speaking a universal truth at all. The operative word in that phrase is “WE”. Rather than talking about a universal point of view, a universal truth, if you will, he was instead talking about the point of view of WE, the new American culture. The Iranian people are dying in the streets today because we tried to apply our cultural values to Iran, where it certainly does not work.
Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, the son of immigrants who adopted American culture, spoke to this point at the AEI a few years back:
When President Obama rejects American exceptionalism, what he is really doing is embracing the idea, long-held by progressives stretching back a century, that we are simply members of a global village, all of us sharing principles and cultures of equal merit.
Clearly, that assumption, which by the way is the basis of multiculturalism, is the cause of more problems in the world than we are able to admit to ourselves. And we’re living in a world full of the results of that misguided notion.
Our cultural values drive us to seek a perfect solution. It speaks well of our intent, but it’s not workable. First, we are judging perfection using our own cultural values as a measure. The thing here is that Iranian culture is not American culture. Which leads us to the second problem: The Iranians have to come to their own solution, which they will do over time, but only absent our meddling.
Helping the Iranians in their current situation is certainly a laudable goal. The effort speaks well of our instincts and our values. However, we need to remember that Islam is at the cultural center. Islam is, by its very nature, more brutal, in our view. Unless that philosophical center changes (which is something I simply don’t see in the short term), any solution they come to is not going to please the remainder of the world, even the more secular versions of Islamic culture that the Prince represents. Sorry, but that’s the simple fact. The Shah’s tactics were brutal by our standards, but perhaps what we’ve observed since then suggests that such tactics were required, given the baseline culture there.
Carter’s polices back then only succeeded in diverting the Iranian people away from finding their own solution. Their development was stalled for some 47 years as a result. In the end, neither we nor they gained anything by our judging these matters according to OUR standards. Any improvement in Iran needs to be considered in smaller steps and at its own pace.
As such, I view removing the Mullahs as the first step on that path and helping to undo the damage we did back in ‘79. Once that’s done, we need to step out of the way and let them find their path. Yes, that may result in the short term in some of their crazies killing more people, including Americans, to make their political points. I point out, however, that’s happening anyway, and nothing we’ve done since the Carter years has solved that issue.
Remove the Islamic Republic, certainly. But then, step back and let the Iranian people find their path, or we will be stuck with the same problem all over again.
Let me take a moment to urge you to become a VIP Member. Not only do you support the reporters and writers who support YOU, you also get 60% off the regular price by going to this link and using the promo code FIGHT. Get 2026 off to the right start. Do it today.
And as always, your comments are welcome.
