PrintJune 26, 2010
Islamic Republic of Iran's Smoke and Mirrors
Since 1977, no two men have contributed more to the erosion of America's credibility and prestige than President Carter and his foreign policy advisor, Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski (with the verdict not yet in on President Obama). Jimmy Carter, aided by Mr. Brzezinski, introduced new directions in foreign policy that would ultimately trick Russia to invade Afghanistan in a cold blooded eagerness to payback Moscow for Vietnam and betray one of America's closest allies in the Middle East. By orchestrating the Shah's failure and supporting Khomeini, they created one of the most militant anti-American dictatorships, considered by many as the most dangerous threat faced by the United States today.
Their short-sided and ill-conceived policies have been a source of frustration and disappointment towards America leading to lack of trust and loss of respect for this great nation. Carter's policies have contributed to making the Middle East an extremely turbulent region giving rise to militant and ideologically-driven Islam that has been reigning terror ever since. Indeed, Taliban and the Islamic Republic are the byproducts of such miscalculated foreign policy decisions.
Out of character for America in terms of her history, sense of morality and basic decency, policy makers in administration after administration of American continue with their failed policies aided by the intelligence community and liberal ideologues, and orchestrated by Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) financed lobbyists and "so-called: reporters; university professors; opposition and human rights activists; and Iran experts. America is no longer the nation of Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower or Ronald Reagan. Gone are the days of America standing with democracy and freedom seeking groups." Bending down and bending backward to appease dictators, extending an open hand to terrorist nations, allowing a regime that randomly arrests, imprisons, tortures, stones, hangs and rapes women to have a seat on UN Women's Right Commission and ignoring blatant human rights violations by the United Nations member nations have become routine.
Such policies of appeasement have not gone unnoticed by various friends and foes. The United States' continuous acquiescence to IRI leaders has disenfranchised many pro democracy Iranians. Their last glimmer of hope was painfully dashed by Obama soon after his election when he extended his hand and addressed the rapist government of Iran on the occasion Iranian New Year. Frustrated by America's silence, demonstrators risked their lives and chanted "Obama are you with them or with us?", providing the United States with yet another opportunity to redeem itself. Obama turned his back on them and their cries for freedom and democracy went unnoticed. Sadly, such actions have emboldened the mullahs. Reports of torture, rape and hangings continue to pour out of Iran.
Cognizant that its weapons program and human rights violations might eventually be condemned by the world community, the Islamic Republic has been spending millions of dollars on a campaign of smoke and mirrors to legitimize, justify, and hide its criminal activities and weapons program.
Lobby groups and IRI agents are hard at work to discredit pro-democracy opposition groups and dissuade the world community from taking a decisive action against Iran. Deceitfully, they have infiltrated the universities, established foundations and mosques, bought out ethnic television stations to shape public opinion and the US policy. They appear on American television and news stations, write books and articles, and organize public events and orchestrate rallies. Their concerted and coordinated strategy is designed to fool the United States into thinking that Regime is pragmatic, can be reformed and Mousavi is the man to bring about the needed reforms. They oppose sanctions and claim sanctions only hurt ordinary people. They push for dialogue and diplomacy, and assassinate or smear those who oppose them as CIA, Israeli agents or belonging to MEK. All aimed at buying mullahs enough time to build their nuclear bomb to continue their vile existence.
Such handlers never talk about the elephant in the room, which has systematically monopolized major business and economic sectors of the Iranian community, the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the real power in Iran. IRGC will not allow any major economic reform to be implemented. Mousavi and any other "reformist leaders" will be powerless against them. IRGC has a lot to lose and little to gain by reforms. To some degree decisions on the nuclear weapons program indirectly rest with IRGC and not Khamenei. IRGC drives massive revenues by keeping the nuclear program alive. Forcing IRI to abandon its nuclear program translates to loss of a great revenue source for IRGC.
The schizophrenic position of IRI and its propagandists is indeed bizarre at best when it comes to sanctions. On the one hand, Ahmadinejad dares the West to impose strictest of sanctions, yet behind the scene he is frantically engaged in preventing it from happening. Despite what regime's handlers have made you believe, sanctions do work and the majority of Iranians are desirous and demanding of the strictest sanctions. Those who claim that sanctions will hurt the ordinary people are yet to provide any credible evidence to support their assertions. Such false claims are based on a few fabricated and phony surveys. A closer examination of such surveys reveals that they were sent to very few select individuals sympathetic to the regime. There is evidence now to support that lobbyist intentionally mislead Americans and lied to Congress using fabricated information. The majority of Iranians are angry at the West and the UN by not imposing the strictest sanctions in light of regime's blatant human rights violations.
Another strategy embedded within the propagandists' mission is to use the potential for war as the scare tactic and portray opposition groups as "war mongers." This is yet another ploy to push for dialogue and diplomacy with the rogue regime. In my opinion, just the opposite is true. Facts are, despite their differences of opinion, the world community is united on one issue. They are intent on preventing Iran from going nuclear and will not allow Iran to possess a nuclear bomb. If successful, it is the IRI propagandists, lobby groups and IRI policies that are inching Iran towards an all out war. Their strategy of aiding IRI to develop a nuclear weapon will ultimately lead to confrontation between Iran and the West.
The West was fooled once by Khomeini. He was sold to American as the great visionary, a Ghandhi- and MLK-like character with saintly qualities by agenda driven propagandists. Many of IRI's criminal activities and human rights violations were initiated by Khomeini and carried out by Mousavi and Mousavi-type characters. Mousavi sees Khomeini as his source of inspiration and dreams of returning Iran to that era. Mousavi is an anti American and a staunch supporter of the nuclear weapons program and was instrumental in establishing Hezbollah. After the imposition of a fourth round of watered down sanctions to stop IRI's nuclear weapons' program, and anticipating yet another failure, decision makers in the United States must ask themselves whether they want to continue to be hoodwinked by masterful IRI propagandists and buy in their fuzzy and deceptive logic that dialogue and diplomacy is the answer, or change the course and work towards regime change and support pro democracy groups? They need to consider that:
Dr. Brzezinski's strategy of using militant Islam against Russia has been obviously abysmal failure. IRI not only has not served as a defense against Russia, but has intimately allied itself with her. Many Iranians, having seen the real face fundamental Islam over the past 31 years, are turning away from it in large numbers and are converting to Christianity and Zoroastrianism, something which Islamic Republic paid pundits do not tell Americans about. The notion that Iran is going to fall into Communist hands is no longer a valid theory. Iranian Communists and Marxists, after a sequential love and hate relationship with IRI, have now allied themselves with IRI and are working toward regime's survival. Regime change, if successful, will kill two birds with one stone, and hopefully get rid of both IRI and the Iranian Left. Iranians during the demonstrations chanted several significant slogans expressing their prevailing views. Chief among them were slogans directly aimed at Russia, another in solidarity with Israel, and yet another one against Hamas and Hezb'allah. In reality, this is a great opportunity for the United States to seize the moment and support the Iranian prodemocracy demonstrators, since their political views are closely aligned with that of the United States. Dr. Arash Irandoost is the founder of Pro Democracy Movement of Iran (PDMI) which focuses on human rights and pro democracy initiatives. He can be contacted at hakemiat.e.mardom@gmail.com. The pen name Arash Irandoost is used due to his concerns for personal safety. Read more of his blogs hakemiat-e-mardom.blogspot.com. |
