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Omar, Bravo!
A very bad week for Iran.
June 14, 2006
By Michael Ledeen
The mullahs have had a lot of bad news in recent days — news with a
particularly sinister aura, in fact. So sinister that they must be asking
themselves what they have done to incur the Divine wrath.
I kid you not.
First is the loss of one of their terrorist stars, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the
deus ex machina of the terror war against us in Iraq. Not only does that
deprive the mullahs of a prime instrument for generating civil war — his
constant incitement to the Sunnis to rise up against the Shiites was the
cutting edge of their three-year program to turn major Iraqi ethnic and
religious groups against one another — but it is a serious blow to
recruitment throughout the terror network. It is as bad for them as the
beheading videos were good. Potential jihadis want to do the beheading, not
suffer the consequences of 500-pound bombs. The quick Iranian deception,
pretending they were pleased at the death of Zarqawi, shouldn’t fool
anybody. They have lost a basic building block of the terror structure.
Second is the worldwide campaign against terror cells, many of which were
linked to Zarqawi, or to Iran itself. Some of the Canadians now in jail in
Ontario had been in contact with Zarqawi, and the cell in Sarajevo had
longstanding ties to Tehran.
Third is this ominous line from al-Reuters on the occasion of President
Bush’s jaunt to Baghdad:
BAGHDAD, June 13 - U.S. President George W. Bush told Iraqi Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad on Tuesday Iran’s “interference” in Iraq must end,
said Iraqi government sources who attended the talks.
Can it be that, at long last, we are going to take steps against the mullahs
to save the lives of our fighters and the Iraqi civilians who have been
targeted by the terrorists who are armed and manipulated by the Iranians and
the Syrians? Faster, please.
But that is nothing compared to the clear message from On High on the soccer
fields of Germany. No, I’m not talking about the demonstrations against
President Ahmadinejad, I’m talking about the Mexican victory over Iran in
the first round of the World Cup.
With the game tied 1-1, a Mexican player named Omar Bravo scored for Mexico,
which went on to win 3-1. That name, Omar Bravo, sends chills down the
spines of the mullahs. “Bravo” is a universal plaudit, enthusiastic praise
for the person to whom the “bravo” is directed. And Omar? Well...Omar is the
most hated name in the Shiite lexicon, the symbol of the forces of evil, the
incarnation of satanic influence on earth.
And why? Because after the death of the Prophet, Mohammed’s son in law, Ali
(the husband of Mohammed’s daughter Fatima) was fighting to become the
leader of all Muslims. Ali lost out to Omar Bakr and to Omar, his close
adviser and successor as Caliph. To this day, the Shiites believe that Abu
Bakr and Omar usurped Ali’s rightful inheritance as ruler of Islam. Not only
that, but during the succession struggle Omar burst into Ali’s house,
crushing the pregnant Fatima behind the door, leading to the stillbirth of
her son. And although Ali formally accepted the elevation of Abu Bakr, and
then Omar, the Shiites still speak of Omar with intense hatred. In Iran
today, one of the harshest things you can say about another person is Iaanat
be’Omar, cursed by Omar.
To a devout Shiite of the sort that governs Iran today, the defeat of the
Iranian national team by somebody named Omar Bravo cannot be easily
dismissed as a random event. It cannot possibly be a coincidence (it is hard
for Iranians to believe that anything is a coincidence), and it is most
certainly a terrible augury. Many Iranians will interpret it as a message to
the mullahs: just as Ali was defeated by Omar, so your doom has been
signaled by a modern Omar. And that “bravo,” can it be an accident? No way.
As I said, tough times for the mullahs. Very tough.
— Michael Ledeen, an NRO contributing editor, is most recently the author of
The War Against the Terror Masters. He is resident scholar in the Freedom
Chair at the American Enterprise Institute.
Source:
NationalReviewOnline
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