Roger Cohen continues his bizarre quest to prove that modern Iran isn't as bad as Nazi Germany. I'm not aware that any serious observer was making that case, but in his effort to contrast the two, Cohen offers this ridiculous assertion:
Iran has not waged an expansionary war in more than two centuries.
Iran has absolutely waged expansionary wars in the last two centuries. It has waged expansionary wars in just the last two years -- sometimes using proxies, sometimes using elite Iranian military units -- in both Iraq and Afghanistan. American troops have been killed by Iranian operatives and by Iranian weapons. In Iraq, the Iranians have been defeated on the battlefield -- the crushing blow delivered to Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi militia last spring was a major setback for the regime in Tehran. In Afghanistan, the Iranians have collaborated with the Taliban, providing them with arms and ammunition and perhaps training.
And of course, there is Lebanon, where the Iranian revolution was first exported with such terrible consequences for the entire Middle East. Iran has laid waste to Lebanon for the last three decades as it seeks to radicalize the Shiia community there with money, arms, and training.
Iran is not Nazi Germany, but it is a fanatical, revolutionary regime not unlike the Soviet Union -- albeit on a smaller scale. The Soviet Union exported its ideology around the world, and it backed that ideology with money, arms, and expertise. Cohen has essentially absolved Iran of any responsibility for outfits like Hezbollah and the Special Groups, both of which have U.S. blood on their hands. American soldiers are dead because of Iran's use of violence to expand its influence in the Middle East. This is an incontrovertible fact.
