Salim Mansur is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He is a former columnist for the London Free Press and the Toronto Sun , and has contributed to various publications including National Review, the Middle East Forum and Frontpagemag.
In the above video, Prof. Mansur discusses geopolitics in light of the recent Zio-American aggression against Iran.
Below is a comment Prof. Mansur left on Larry Johnson’s blog relating to the reasons why Iran didn’t “finish Israel off” in the recent war, as Johnson and others wished. -Ed.
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Look, my friends, I mostly agree with comments expressing (for lack of a better word) frustration with Iran’s decision to not fatally wound Israel when it was down for the knockout. But the premise of these comments is based on rational grounds of a radical secular culture / society that has morphed into godlessness. From such a premise the thinking of people and their leadership based on their religious belief is then viewed as non-rational, if not absurd.
Most of you would not know that today, July 5th, in Iran according to the Islamic calendar is the Day of Ashura, the tenth day of the month of Muharram. This is a day of mourning, of prayers, of fasting especially among Shi’a Muslims and Iran is a Shi’a majority country. This is a day and, indeed, the entire month when Shi’a Muslims devote themselves through prayers and devotional gatherings to recall the sacrifice of Imam Hussein ibn Ali (son of Ali and the grandson of the Prophet), the 3rd Imam (leader) of Shi’a tradition, who was martyred in Karbala near the River Euphrates in modern day Iraq in 680 AD. Hussein was killed along with all of the male companions in his entourage except for one male child by the army of the Sunni ruler, Yazid ibn Muawiyah as the successor to his father as caliph in Damascus. Hussein was headed for Kufa with a small company of relatives and friends where those loyal to the family of the Prophet and Ali, Hussein’s father, had sworn allegiance to him. The martyrdom of Hussein was the final nail in the coffin of Muslim political unity and the sectarian schism between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims became hardened and continues.
One of the means used by Yazid’s army that trapped Hussein and his people was deprivation of water. They died as much by thirst as by fighting to the last man who happened to be Hussein. In the story of martyrdom retold every year by Shi’a Muslims the dying by thirst is immensely sad and moving. What was done by the enemies of Hussein and his family by Yazid’s army is, therefore, haram (prohibited) in the Shi’a tradition to be done to others, or even think about doing the same to others be they enemy or not. Now consider, Iran possessed the capability to destroy the water desalination plants in Israel as much as the main power grids and reduce Israel into what Israelis have done to the people in Gaza. But Iran did not target the source of drinking water in Israel, nor the power grids. Would Iran have done so if the ceasefire was not agreed upon? I don’t think so. The red lines for Iran in a war imposed on Iranians are self-imposed based on their religious tradition, their understanding of the Quran and the sunna (tradition) of the Prophet, and the history of martyrdom. As I noted in a previous comment a few days ago, Iran has not engaged in any war of aggression for nearly 300 years, that is longer than the United States has been around.
Iran is not driven by the politics of anti-Jew — (whether they be Khazarian non-Semites or Sephardic Semites) — and consequently the destruction of Israel regardless of how it was established by fair or foul means. As Muslims, Iranians on religious grounds do not believe nor accept that sins of fathers are borne by their sons and therefore punishing sons in the absence of responsible fathers is justified. Iran and Shi’a Muslims in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere in West Asia (leaving aside those who reside in the wider Muslim world as in South Asia) support Palestinians as oppressed people, again recalling Hussein and his family, and will provide aid so that justice is done according to their capacity selflessly, not foolishly that invites self-destruction. This they have done and will continue doing regardless of what Israel and the Anglo-American power do.
Iran has been drawn into a war against Israel and now America unlawfully according to the UN Charter. Iran has not violated international law and is not inclined to do so. Iran has not waged a war of aggression. Iran is, was, and will remain, a leading member of the Axis of Resistance against the occupation forces of Israel in Palestine and West Asia, and if this resistance over time lead to the unravelling of Israel it will be no different than the unravelling of the Third Reich, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, etc., by the law of unintended consequences and not due to the stated objective of Iran by waging a war of annihilation against a Zionist expansionist and genocidal state planted in West Asia by Britain and nurtured by America.
It is likely hard to acknowledge, understand, and empathize with the thinking of Iranian people and their leaders due to the vast differences that have come about in the thinking and worldview between the people of the collective West and the Muslim world, especially those Muslims who are Shi’a. This is not a matter of right and wrong, it is about how different cultures prioritize their ethics and politics. Those in the West whose worldview has not been completely denuded of their Christian worldview and ethics will relate to that of the believing Muslims to distinguish from those Muslims who have laid aside their traditions in the desire to fully embrace western modernity and radical secularism.
