Totalitarianism at work...

There is a tendency to give new threats different names, partly to distinguish them from the old, partly to feel as if the defeat of the Nazis and Fascists in 1945 and the collapse of the Soviet Communists in 1989-91 permanently vanquished distinct brands of evil. The older I get, however, the distinctions between Fascists, Communists, Jihadis, etc. appear more and more semantic. The distinctions are articulated by current factions wanting to distance themselves from evil and tie their opponents to something despised. But totalitarianism is secular tyranny in which the state replaces free choices of anything, no matter what the label.

In Iran, "the mullahs" of the Islamic Republic have ceased to be simply the dominant social, ethical, and judicial group in the country. They have built a party bent on keeping power from anyone who might threaten it, and party thugs dominant the military, police, and national security forces. Iran has become the Shiite version of Baathism, which is the Arab version of Fascism, which Benito Mussolini copied from the revolutionary-party model of Vladimir Lenin. All involve a perverted state backed by an inverted religion in which the state promises secular salvation in this life if millions of young people will love death and give themselves to the good of historic destiny. The labels change, but the methods and the false promises vary only slightly.

Michael Totten reports.