Double-standards for breakfast

Canada has decided that the IRGC is a terrorist organisation. It may feel a bit strong handed but all in all it’s a fair categorisation.

Terrorist organisations work to instil fear into whoever they fight against, largely fear of the sake of fear or fear for the sake of control. After all, it’s right there in the name — they terrorise people in order to get them to do what they want.

The definition may vary — but generally it’s predicated (regrettably) on the use of direct force (bombings, beatings, rape, etc) as the main tool. Sadly this minimises cases when psychological warfare or secondary tools are used to target people.

We can discuss until the cows come home whether the IRGC itself uses direct force at scale as its main tool. The Quds Force, which is part of IRGC, does for sure but it has been designated as terrorist separately. It’s not important for the question at hand. It’s clear that the IRGC, outside of the Quds Force, has used force to terrorise dissidents, violate the human rights of Iranian citizes inside and outside Iran but also others. It definitely falls inside the perimeter of what can constitute terrorism.

The Canadian justification is reasonable, though leaving room to interpretation as its grounded in foreign policy considerations, meaning that politics does play a central role here. Of course, it doesn’t make the decision wrong.

“The Iranian regime has consistently displayed disregard for human rights, both inside and outside of Iran as well as a willingness to destabilise the international rules-based order,” he [Mr. LeBlac] said.

The question becomes though, where does that leave the IDF?

It’s also a force the has long been used to terrorise people into submission as a direct means of exercising occupation.

It has been used to violate basic human rights with both direct and indirect force, sometimes at the same time.

It completely disregards the international rule-based order in its entirety and ends up cherry-picking what (if any) rules it follows.

If the above justification is enough to warrant this designation (and by all means it should) then the IDF is well within said threshold as well.