Who is the Enemy?

Every day our political alarm clock rings, but our leaders seem to always hit the snooze button!

Earlier this week, the butcher of Iran, Ibrahim Raisi, was killed in a helicopter crash.

As one would expect, condolences poured in from the leaders of Russia, China, the Gulf States, Egypt, and other Muslim and autocratic states.

Surprisingly, however, the American government, the NATO Secretary General, and the governments of many Western countries joined this chorus, sending their condolences to the government and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran. To the millions of people who suffered oppression, incarceration, torture, and death directly at the hands of this criminal.

To mourn his death is the apex of diplomatic hypocrisy and political correctness and symbolic of all that is wrong in the world today.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has supported and fomented terrorism around the world while killing its own people.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC), the armed fanatical militia loyal only to the Ayatollahs, have tortured, raped, and murdered thousands of women who were demonstrating for the right to go out without having to cover their hair. This past week, a number of Iranian artists were again routinely hung simply for supporting the right of women to be themselves.

This is on Raisi and the entire Islamic Republic leadership.

And this is what Western leaders are mourning.

What an insult to his victims.

What an insult to the victims of Iranian terrorism – from the Middle East to Europe to Argentina.

Netherlands leader Gert Wilders, someone I never dreamed of quoting, replied to the message of condolence from Charles Michel, the President of the European Union, by tweeting “Not in my name”. I wonder how many millions of Europeans share Mr. Wilder’s sentiments and abhor sending condolences for a mass murderer.

I wonder how many citizens of the West cringe at the sight of their representatives at the U.N. Security Council standing in homage of Raisi and at the messages of condolence that their leaders have sent “in their name”. This without mentioning the UN lowering its flag to half-staff to honor Raisi.

Another person I never dreamed of quoting – U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said “I too would like to express my condolences to the Iranian people for their long suffering under the brutal and theocratic regime of the Islamic Republic,” he said. “I suspect that many Iranians would prefer that Western admirers stop praising a man known as the ‘Butcher of Tehran’ for executing political prisoners. Perhaps they would prefer that foreign leaders not further legitimize the regime that actively represses them all”.

Is the Islamic regime in any way a government to be coddled?

I believe it is time that the West stops pressing the snooze button and imposes real and effective sanctions on the regime, including blocking family members of those in charge from studying and visiting abroad. Properties and bank accounts belonging to members of the regime should be confiscated. All governments must target the IRGC as a terrorist organization.

I also believe that it is time that Western leaders stop fearing Islamism in all its forms and begins calling things as they are. These extremist violators of international law and human rights are the enemy – an enemy that is striving to attack our way of life, institutions, and values.

I spent two years in pre-revolutionary Iran as a Canadian diplomat. I recall watching thousands of Iranian Muslims flagellating themselves in the streets of the country on Ashura, the holiest day in the Shiite calendar. So, I will agree that the Ayatollahs have their following in Iran, and that some Iranians believe that the Ayatollahs and their regime are heaven sent.

However, the vast majority of Iranians, especially the well-educated youth of Iran, want freedom. Freedom to be themselves. Freedom to choose. Freedom to enjoy an economy that grows and creates prosperity for all rather than fear and oppression.

It is these Iranians, as well as the millions of Iranians who have fled the viciousness and live in exile, who deserve the West’s condolences and support. Western condolences for Raisi are a slap in the face to these Iranians and an insult to the memory of those who have suffered and died at the hands of the Butcher of Teheran and his cohorts.

To mourn his death is to feed the legitimacy of a regime that has no legitimacy.

It is time for the West to stop pressing the snooze button and call the enemy by its name. It is time for the West to realize who the enemy is, admit it publicly, and fight its evil.

Absent this, millions will continue to suffer while democratic governments mourn the passing of the Butcher of Teheran.

As Mr. Wilders said, “not in my name”.