The difference between us and them: We praise as heroes people who save lives. Iran praises the ones who destroy it. This is a sick, sick, sick culture.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised his country’s ability to recruit “hundreds of suicide bombers a day,” saying “suicide is an invincible weapon.”
Ahmadinejad made the comments during a visit to a site south Iran used to prepare suicide bombers during the Iraq-Iran war, Iranian state television reported.
He praised Hizbullah fighters for their suicidal spirit during last summer’s confrontation with Israel.
Iran recruited thousands of suicide bombers, many of whom were children, and sent them to the frontline to face Saddam Hussein’s army.
“Suicide bombers in this land showed us the way, and they enlighten our future,” he said.
The Iranian president said the will to commit suicide was “one of the best ways of life.”
Here’s what he was talking about. This was the beginning of the Basiji, Ahmadinejad’s base of support:
During the Iran-Iraq War, the Ayatollah Khomeini imported 500,000 small plastic keys from Taiwan. The trinkets were meant to be inspirational. After Iraq invaded in September 1980, it had quickly become clear that Iran’s forces were no match for Saddam Hussein’s professional, well-armed military. To compensate for their disadvantage, Khomeini sent Iranian children, some as young as twelve years old, to the front lines. There, they marched in formation across minefields toward the enemy, clearing a path with their bodies. Before every mission, one of the Taiwanese keys would be hung around each child’s neck. It was supposed to open the gates to paradise for them.
At one point, however, the earthly gore became a matter of concern. “In the past,” wrote the semi-official Iranian daily Ettelaat as the war raged on, “we had child-volunteers: 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds. They went into the minefields. Their eyes saw nothing. Their ears heard nothing. And then, a few moments later, one saw clouds of dust. When the dust had settled again, there was nothing more to be seen of them. Somewhere, widely scattered in the landscape, there lay scraps of burnt flesh and pieces of bone.” Such scenes would henceforth be avoided, Ettelaat assured its readers. “Before entering the minefields, the children [now] wrap themselves in blankets and they roll on the ground, so that their body parts stay together after the explosion of the mines and one can carry them to the graves.”
Iran sinks to the depths of depravity, and uses Islam as its justification for every step of the way. There is nothing similar, nor has there ever been, in Judaism. Life is sacred. Children are the future. Suicide is forbidden.
And yet, Jews are the ones who are vilified. Israel is the nation that the world thinks is more dangerous than Iran. I think we may, to our everlasting regret, find otherwise before too much more time has passed.