Normon Podhoretzwrote an article that defends his quote supporting the notion that fanatics in Tehran might consider Iran itself a disposable tool to destroy Israel for the benefit of all Moslems. Podhoretz quotes the Ayatollah Khomeini:
We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.
This never seemed such a leap of logic to me since I came kind of close to selling a book on the Iran-Iraq War (see my summary here). This is an excerpt from the full manuscript not included in the summary:
Since the Iraqi withdrawal to the border, Iran had deployed eight divisions to positions northeast of Basra, increasing her troop strength there to 100,000. And in their flush of success, many Iranians had their sights set on bigger targets. The Iraqis tried to gain wider Arab support by claiming that Iran was diverting attention from the true enemy, Israel (an especially stinging charge against the leadership in Tehran given Iran's open hostility towards Israel and in light of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon which argued for a united Arab and Moslem response), by refusing to end the war as Iraq offered. The Ayatollah Khomeini refuted Iraq's claim that Iran was undermining a united response to Israel's invasion by expressing his faith in victory in his statement: "We shall get to Lebanon, and to Jerusalem, through Iraq."
In general, I always got the impression that the Iranians fought for more than just defeating Saddam. And certainly for more than just defending their country after 1982.
Why it should be considered controversial to suggest that fanatics hold fanatical views is beyond me.
