As for leftists who are aware of what happened in Iran in 1979 and who don’t care, are you thinking of anyone in particular, especially someone who writes a blog or column? The leftists I know or know of either don’t know about it or else do and agree with me that the Iranian regime should never be given any support. Nick Cohen is an example of the latter group, and just about any other leftist I can think of are examples of the former group.

You might want to take a look at this post on leftists and the Iranian revolution.

I will add that I don’t think that current leftists (especially the older ones) are unaware of what happened to leftists in Iran. They simply don’t care. They support Iran for different reasons, and don’t think that particular crocodile will ever eat them.

The second big event came ten years later, the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. I believed then and still believe that this was a big announcement to the West by fundamentalist Muslims: “WE INTEND TO RULE YOU.” Since the fatwa came from Khomeini, I was under no illusions about what their rule would mean, namely something completely reactionary and the opposite of what any leftist wanted. Plus, we could expect lots of leftists to be murdered. I was surprised and somewhat concerned when the reactions on the part of my fellow leftists were so muted. Why were there no protest marches against the fatwa? Instead, there were protest marches by Muslims against Rushdie.

During the next twelve years, I occasionally would read quotes from Muslims to the effect that they expected to be in control of the West a century hence, and I would think that this was wildly unlikely, but I would also uneasily recall the lack of any protests against the fatwa.

Then came 9/11. My first question was, Who were the terrorists, secular leftists or fundamentalist Muslims? It didn’t take much investigation to determine they were the latter. And at that point, I knew that this was part of a campaign to impose their disgusting Islamic law on us. So, at first I thought that the silver lining to the dreadful attack was that the left would finally be forced to come to grips with the Muslims living among us; they would finally be forced to tell them that no, Muslims weren’t going to be in control a century hence.

But instead, the left went off in its own perverse direction. After a few days of confusion, they rallied around the theory that this was done in response to grievances that Muslims had against the West, America in particular. This was solidified by their question: “Why do you think they hate us?” Never mind that the slaughter of leftists in Iran had nothing to do with the West and America. That was what was so shocking about it, but it was clear that the left in the West had forgotten or never knew about what happened in Iran. Accordingly, no one who had access to the Megaphone brought up Iran. And over a decade later when Obama wanted to do his awful deal with Iran, once again no one who had access to the Megaphone brought up Iran. I kept hoping that someone on the right would ask him, “Why are you being so chummy with a regime that has murdered so many leftists?” But no one did.

My question since 9/11 of liberals and leftists has been, “How could you support your own worst enemies?” I haven’t gotten any kind of answer except that they never knew or had totally forgotten about what happened in Iran in 1979. Everyone would just gape at me in bewilderment when I claimed that Muslims were dangerous to leftists. Various books have come out supporting my view, but either they are not read or those in denial stay in denial.

I now agree with those Muslims who insist they will be in control of the West by the end of this century (though it’s also possible that it will be the Chinese who will be in control). There is no resistance at the top, and those at the top attempt to destroy every bit of resistance that emerges elsewhere. I don’t have much hope that the West will survive. The left just never has told Muslims that no, they aren’t going to be in control at the end of this century. They have practically given them a green light to take over.

Sorry to go on for so long. By the way, I am on the right these days, but I think of myself as neither a conservative nor a libertarian, but as a right-wing egalitarian. I claim that right-wing egalitarians are more sensible than left-wing egalitarians, but that is another topic entirely.

I don’t understand your point.

Tsongas was an extremely moderate Democrat. Today, he’d be a Republican.

I was a very moderate Democrat back when moderate Democrats had a place in the Democratic Party.

Ah, but I thank you for helping me correct a typo, even if it is an 8-year-old one. Good eye!

Fixed.

but in your section “The Nineties”, Paragraph 4 (Although the details)

“Many people move from crisis to crisis in their lives—survival, whether it be financial, emotional, of physical, then takes the lead and shuts out other considerations to a great degree.”

of physical should be ‘or’ physical..

please feel free to delete this comment.

But I am enjoying reading your blog, I just stumbled upon it today.

Regarding prognostications about the fall of the Soviet Union. I recall articles in US News and World Report in the early 80’s suggesting severe calamity in the Soviet Union due to economic collapse, but dismissed them.

When I was at Columbia University near the end of the decade studying national security topics the Soviet specialists like Legvold were all in thrall of the charm of Gorbachev and perestroika. I don’t recall any of the discussions taking place at that time hinting at the complete dissolution of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact.

I would say that Reagan was like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz in only one sense. He DID throw the bucket of water. But unlike Dorothy, Reagan knew that his policy of throwing cold water on the cold war was the only way to bring about a more positive outcome.