“Not only is there no reason for us to be enemies, Iran and the United States, but there are many reasons, and some of them are critical and important for us?” Col. Lawrence Wilkerson said Thursday. | Mary Dahdouh/The Daily Cougar
Chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, explained to a group of UH students Thursday that, in regards to the United States and Iranian relationship, “we need not be enemies.”
Many college students were in elementary or middle school when 9/11 ignited the War on Terror. As this generation has grown older, the situation in the Middle East has grown worse and it’s a world issue that has been inherited.
“We have a significant and immediate problem confronting us,” Col. Lawrence Wilkerson said. “I really feel like my generation has bequeathed on your generation, the young people, a real mess, and I don’t see you being able to get it in hand and fix it unless you really know what you’re doing.”
In his lecture, Wilkerson showed how American relations with Iran have changed considerably in the last few decades.
“How do we get from the point where I, as the captain, am sitting in a helicopter with an Iranian teaching him how to fly that helicopter to the point today where we don’t even talk?” Wilkerson said.
“Where, for example in Washington, the secretary of state tells her diplomats, ‘I’m sorry, but you are absolutely forbidden to talk to your counterpart in Iran upon penalty of being guilty of material support of terrorism.’ How do we do that? How do we make such a transition? Well painfully, and over time and delusion marks it all.”
For 26 years, Iran was an ally but now the situation in the Middle East has become a power-play and a battle for security, Wilkerson said.
“Iran is another traditional power, especially in that region,” said Cyrus Contractor, political science professor.
“I think if you remove a lot of those characteristics — it being a Muslim country and particularly a Shiite Muslim country — you can remove all that rhetoric and, in the end, what are they trying to do? They’re trying to secure their borders and have safety and also to win, when necessary and beneficial, an extension of power just like any other country would do if they have the means to do it.”
According to Wilkerson, war is not the answer. He suggested compromise and building trust.
“Wars cause instability in the regions, humanitarian crisis and harm the U.S. reputation worldwide,” said Amir Shiva, a second-year law student.
“As an American, I expect my government to look at war as the last resort, when every solution fails. As an Iranian, wars only encourage radicalism and justify the government’s anti-democratic actions under the label of national security concerns. War brings no good.”
Compromise and diplomacy are the keys to reconciling with Iran. Even though compromise means some kind of sacrifice, lives must not be sacrificed.
“When you’ve negotiated peace, you’ve won. It doesn’t matter the way you got that peace,” Wilkerson said. “It’s an exquisite part of diplomacy. Then you go home, you have your Jack Daniels at 5 o’clock in the evening and you say, ‘Won that one,’ and you haven’t killed anybody, you haven’t murdered any people lately and peace and stability are restored. That’s what negotiation — that’s what diplomacy — is about.”
Through his lecture, Wilkerson explained that, not only must peace be negotiated with Iran for a potential ally, but the U.S. must also bring an end to, and avoid, war.
“We have no existential (terrorist) threat today and yet we’re spending more money than we did in the Cold War. It does not make sense,” Wilkerson said.
“Thirteen years now we’ve been at war, and frankly there’s no end in sight for the global War on Terrorism. Look at what we’re doing to ourselves, all created in the fear of 9/11 and fewer Americans have been killed in our history — colonial and national — by terrorism than are killed in a single year by automobile accidents and we spent $2 trillion in Iraq, $1 trillion in Afghanistan and killed probably over 500,000 people. That doesn’t work out.”
The only way we can change this insane Islamic dynamic is by educating all people about Islam.
Sadly our academicians, political leaders, main-stream-media, and the leftists all feed us lies and half-truths about Islam because it is not PC to speak the truth.
And the truth is (and this comes from Muslim holy books, not from me) is that Mohammed was a sexual predator. He pillaged his way to great wealth. He murdered, or had his followers murder for him, he enslaved, his thirst for power was never satiated.
If we quit pretending he is a prophet like Buddha, the Hindu Gods, Moses or Jesus then we are moving in the right direction. If we inform instead of misinform then we are moving in the right direction. AND if we insist Muslims also hear the truth AND create an environment where they can feel safe, instead of threatened, by leaving their supremacist religion then we are making progress.
It is long past time we quit pretending Islam is like atheism, Christianity or any other ism other than Stalinism, Nazism and the like. As awful as it sounds – in today’s PC world – to write this it is nevertheless true. Islam has spread through brute force and it is doing the same thing today. Sudan’s been devastated, Mali is being devastated, Somalia is a violent anarchist state, Nigeria is succumbing to Islamic terrorism.
For all our good – Muslims too – it is long past time we started being honest about Islam, learn about its prophet, and then we can begin to have an intelligent discussion about what to do.
Sexual predator? Pillaged his way….? Wow, I must be reading the wrong book. Could you please show me where you got this information from. Marrying single women and taking responsibility for them and their children in the time of famine should not be considered predatory behavior. And did this man die rich? Did he have a castle and inheritance to pass on to his children? You are simply wrong and perhaps you should use the great resources this University has to offer to educate yourself before writing such hatred.
The Qur’an:
Allah managed to hand down quite a few “revelations” that sanctioned Muhammad’s personal pursuit of sex to the doubters around him. Interestingly they have become part of the the eternal, infallible word of the Qur’an, to be memorized by generations of Muslims for whom they have no possible relevance.
Qur’an (33:37) – “But when Zaid had accomplished his want of her, We gave her to you as a wife, so that there should be no difficulty for the believers in respect of the wives of their adopted sons, when they have accomplished their want of them; and Allah’s command shall be performed.” No doubt millions of young Muslims, trying to outdo one another at memorizing the Qur’an, have wondered about what this verse means and why it is there. In fact, this is a “revelation” of convenience that Allah just happened to hand down at a time when Muhammad lusted after his daughter-in-law, Zaynab, – a state of affairs that disturbed local customs. The verse “commands” Muhammad to marry the woman (following her husband’s gracious divorce). As for why this should be part of the eternal word of God…?
Qur’an (33:50) – “O Prophet! surely We have made lawful to you your wives whom you have given their dowries, and those whom your right hand possesses out of those whom Allah has given to you as prisoners of war, and the daughters of your paternal uncles and the daughters of your paternal aunts, and the daughters of your maternal uncles and the daughters of your maternal aunts who fled with you; and a believing woman if she gave herself to the Prophet, if the Prophet desired to marry her– specially for you, not for the (rest of) believers; We know what We have ordained for them concerning their wives and those whom their right hands possess in order that no blame may attach to you; ” This is another special command that Muhammad handed down to himself that allows virtually unlimited sex, divinely sanctioned by Allah. One assumes that this “revelation” was meant to assuage some sort of disgruntlement in the community over Muhammad’s hedonism.
Qur’an (33:51) – “You may put off whom you please of them, and you may take to you whom you please, and whom you desire of those whom you had separated provisionally; no blame attaches to you; this is most proper, so that their eyes may be cool and they may not grieve, and that they should be pleased” This is in reference to a situation in which Muhammad’s wives were grumbling about his preference for sleeping with a slave girl (Mary the Copt) instead of them. Accordingly, Muhammad may sleep with whichever wife (or slave) he wishes without having to hear the others complain… as revealed in Allah’s literal and perfect words to more than a billion Muslims.
Qur’an (66:1-5) – “O Prophet! Why ban thou that which Allah hath made lawful for thee, seeking to please thy wives?…” Another remarkable verse of sexual convenience concerns an episode in which Muhammad’s wives were jealous of the attention that he was giving to a Christian slave girl. But, as he pointed out to them, to neglect the sexual availability of his slaves was against Allah’s will for him!
Qur’an (4:24) – “And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess.” Allah even permitted Muhammad and his men to have sex with married slaves, such as those captured in battle.
The Qur’an:
Allah managed to hand down quite a few “revelations” that sanctioned Muhammad’s personal pursuit of sex to the doubters around him. Interestingly they have become part of the the eternal, infallible word of the Qur’an, to be memorized by generations of Muslims for whom they have no possible relevance.
Qur’an (33:37) – “But when Zaid had accomplished his want of her, We gave her to you as a wife, so that there should be no difficulty for the believers in respect of the wives of their adopted sons, when they have accomplished their want of them; and Allah’s command shall be performed.” No doubt millions of young Muslims, trying to outdo one another at memorizing the Qur’an, have wondered about what this verse means and why it is there. In fact, this is a “revelation” of convenience that Allah just happened to hand down at a time when Muhammad lusted after his daughter-in-law, Zaynab, – a state of affairs that disturbed local customs. The verse “commands” Muhammad to marry the woman (following her husband’s gracious divorce). As for why this should be part of the eternal word of God…?
Qur’an (33:50) – “O Prophet! surely We have made lawful to you your wives whom you have given their dowries, and those whom your right hand possesses out of those whom Allah has given to you as prisoners of war, and the daughters of your paternal uncles and the daughters of your paternal aunts, and the daughters of your maternal uncles and the daughters of your maternal aunts who fled with you; and a believing woman if she gave herself to the Prophet, if the Prophet desired to marry her– specially for you, not for the (rest of) believers; We know what We have ordained for them concerning their wives and those whom their right hands possess in order that no blame may attach to you; ” This is another special command that Muhammad handed down to himself that allows virtually unlimited sex, divinely sanctioned by Allah. One assumes that this “revelation” was meant to assuage some sort of disgruntlement in the community over Muhammad’s hedonism.
Qur’an (33:51) – “You may put off whom you please of them, and you may take to you whom you please, and whom you desire of those whom you had separated provisionally; no blame attaches to you; this is most proper, so that their eyes may be cool and they may not grieve, and that they should be pleased” This is in reference to a situation in which Muhammad’s wives were grumbling about his preference for sleeping with a slave girl (Mary the Copt) instead of them. Accordingly, Muhammad may sleep with whichever wife (or slave) he wishes without having to hear the others complain… as revealed in Allah’s literal and perfect words to more than a billion Muslims.
Qur’an (66:1-5) – “O Prophet! Why ban thou that which Allah hath made lawful for thee, seeking to please thy wives?…” Another remarkable verse of sexual convenience concerns an episode in which Muhammad’s wives were jealous of the attention that he was giving to a Christian slave girl. But, as he pointed out to them, to neglect the sexual availability of his slaves was against Allah’s will for him!
Qur’an (4:24) – “And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess.” Allah even permitted Muhammad and his men to have sex with married slaves, such as those captured in battle.