Who Is Justice Markandey Katju and What Is His Argument?
Justice Markandey Katju, former judge of the Supreme Court of India and ex-Chairman of the Press Council of India, argues that despite America’s overwhelming military and technological superiority, Iran is likely to emerge victorious in the ongoing US-Iran war.
Lesson from the Vietnam War: How Stalemate Becomes Victory
- National Unity After the Killing of Ali Khamenei
- The Karbala Paradigm: Martyrdom and Shia Political Culture
- International Protests and the Risk of American Fatigue
- Self-Determination and the UN Charter
- The Mahabharata Analogy: Power vs. Justice
Former Supreme Court judge Justice Markandey Katju explains why he believes Iran will prevail in the US-Iran war, citing Vietnam, Karbala, nationalism and international law.
Why Iran will win the war
Justice Markandey Katju
The US-Iran war has been going on for 3 days now. Who will win ?
I agree, but would like to give my own reasons.
Iran is a relatively poor, underdeveloped country as compared to the USA, which has over thrice the population of Iran, and is the most technologically advanced and militarily powerful country in the world. Then how can it be said that Iran will win ?
Here are my reasons :
1. Vietnam was a much smaller and poorer country than the United States. Yet it won in the war against the latter. Why ?
Firstly because it achieved victory by not being defeated, by simply refusing to surrender. In other words, it won by creating a stalemate, as the American journalist Walter Cronkite said in his famous telecast on 27.2. 1968 which led to President Lyndon Johnson's refusal to stand for a second term, and the ultimate withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.
Similarly, it is becoming clear now that this war will not end in a quick US-Israeli victory and a regime change and installation of a pro-US regime in Iran, as President Trump and his advisers had expected, but will drag on in a stalemate for a long time. And a stalemate means an Iranian victory.
The killing of Ayatollah Khameini has, far from breaking the Iranian will, only united the Iranian people, and hardened their resolve never to surrender, but fight on indefinitely and irrespective of the US-Israeli attacks and Iranian casualties, just as the Vietnamese people became united in their fight against the Americans, and were determined to fight on, despite their heavy casualties. And just as the Vietnamese received military and other aid from the Russians and Chinese, so are the Iranians getting their aid.
2. Iran is predominantly a Shia country, and Shias regard martyrdom as the supreme crowning achievement for a man. The battle of Karbala in which Imam Husayn ( the grandson of the Prophet ) was martyred along with 72 of his followers, is commemorated every year by Muslims, particularly Shias, all over the world on the day of Ashura
The Message of Imam Hussain is that it is better to be dead than to surrender, and this is what Shias are taught since childhood.
So how does one fight a people who are not afraid of death? The Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh told the Americans '' You may kill 10 of our men, while we kill only 1 of yours, yet we will win ''. The Americans are fighting people who are not afraid of death. The only way they can win is by killing all 93 million Iranians. Is that possible? Even many Americans are protesting against this carnage and bloodbath ( 165 Iranian girls were killed by American bombs on an elementary school ), and these protests will become bigger and bigger as the war drags on ( as it happened during the Vietnam War).
The entire Muslim world is rallying in support of Iran, whose government has always supported the Palestinians. Their governments may be pro-American, but their peoples are anti-American, and the people of Middle Eastern countries will soon devise methods of supporting Iran.
3. Finally, the Iranians will win because they are fighting for a just cause. And that cause is the right of all nations, however poor, of self-determination, which is indeed embodied in the UN Charter. The days of colonialism, when powerful countries could conquer, trample over, and enslave and loot poor countries, have gone, and now the latter, inspired by the spirit of nationalism and patriotism, will put up fierce resistance against these attempts.
In the Mahabharat war, the Kauravas had a more powerful army, yet they were defeated by the Pandavas, as the latter had Lord Krishna on their side. Lord Krishna represents justice and righteousness, and the Iranians have justice and righteousness on their side.
In the Bhagawad Gita ( chapter 18 shloka 78 ) it is said :
यत्र योगेश्वर: कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धर:
तत्र श्रीर्विजयो à¤ूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मितर्मम्
i.e.
Wherever there is Lord Krishna and Arjuna, there is victory, great power, and righteousness.
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman of the Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own.)
