Iran's Declaration of War

In December 1941, Adolf Hitler declared war on America. There was little need to debate; our parents knew what had to be done. Indeed, we started fighting the war on the European front even though it wasn’t Hitler who attacked us at Pearl Harbor. In preceding years we re-armed and although we had hoped to avoid entering the conflict it was becoming clear that it would be necessary.

Now we have Ahmadinejad’s declaration of war. An editorial in the New York Sun explains that contrary to the obfuscation in some quarters Ahmadinejad’s letter “is in fact a declaration of war.” After a list of grievances the letter ends with the ominous statement: “Peace only unto those who follow the true path.” This follows the example of Mohammad who “sent letters to the Byzantine emperor and the Sassanid emperor telling them to convert to the true faith of Islam or be conquered.”

For an extensive commentary see the previous post by Atlas, below. For further reading see my article here and here. Obviously, as in 1940, we hope to avoid war and, as then, it is becoming clear that we must face the painful truth that war is becoming inevitable. We ignored bin Laden’s declaration of war in 1998. We ignore Ahmadinejad’s only at our peril as he positions his attackers and procures his armaments.