In Praise of Tyranny?
Mike Walker, Col. USMC (retired)
All,
The joyful glee coming from some commentators regarding today’s phone call with Iran’s leader, Hassan Rowhani, is a little less than stunning.
I have always supported the President’s policy of opening a line of communication with the Islamic Republic of Iran, but only if done in a manner that strengthens the United States of America and its allies in the region.
It is far too early to see this as a good thing.
A generation ago, when the United States reached out to the People’s Republic of China, the talks properly began at a low level and it took a hundred meetings over many months to build the rapport and trust essential to bringing the heads of state together.
We had clear policy objectives in place and a political-military strategy that was refined and improved throughout the process.
One well thought out goal was to clearly identify those areas of common interest that could be built upon while mutually addressing the areas of often-profound differences that, if ignored by one side or the other, could undo the progress that had been made. That degree of clarity and creation of redundant avenues of communications ensured a successful future.
Only then did we have direct communications at the highest level, between heads of state.
Little of that groundwork has been completed with Iran and shame on us.
Iran believes that the United States has a Middle East policy that bewilders friend and foe alike. Take it from someone who has lived there, accurate or not, it is seen as weakness in the region and Iran is acting to take advantage of that weakness. Do not be fooled by smooth words from a smooth operator like Rowhani.
Ignoring that reality is not good for anyone but Iran and its allies, certainly not the United States and its friends in the region.
We need to slow things down, not speed them up. If we are to succeed, we need to go back and lay a lasting foundation – we should not and cannot build on clever phrases and empty gestures.
To understand why, we need to review the nature of the current regime in Tehran and you may not enjoy reading this.
The regime is an Islamic Republic ruled by an unelected supreme council of Ayatollahs. After the non-violent Green Revolution was crushed in 2009, the Ayatollahs decided to personally select every candidate for national office to include presidential candidates. The current president, Rowhani, passed this screening while every progressive candidate was banned. That is not good news.
In case you are wondering how the regime crushed the 2009 Green Revolution, the Islamic Republic runs a very effective police state. The former-Shah’s dreaded SAVAK was incorporated virtually whole into the new regime becoming MOIS/VEVAK (only the bosses loyal to the Shah were executed). Additionally, the regime uses the Revolutionary Guard Quds force and organized gangs of thugs known as the Sazmane Basij-e Mostaz’afin, or simply Basij, to squash any dissent.
Internationally, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a theocracy that espouses a violently revolutionary brand of Shi’a Islam that actively seeks to destabilize other states.
The examples are many so lets stick to the last decade of reports.
In regards to Syria, the Islamic Republic is all in. The Quds force has provided snipers, demolition experts, intelligence officers, interrogators, and military advisors of all sorts. All manner of weapons and munitions are also made available in quantity. Their role is growing while ours is in limbo. Their proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, has recently entered the battlefield in force and Iran has expanded its training program for Syria-bound global Shi’a jihadists as much as tenfold in the last year.
To get a feel for Iran’s commitment to the war in Syria, here is a quote from the 16 September 2013 in the Wall Street Journal:
“The fighters ‘are told that the war in Syria is akin to [an] epic battle for Shiite Islam, and if they die they will be martyrs of the highest rank,’ says an Iranian military officer briefed on the training camp, which is 15 miles outside Tehran and called Amir Al-Momenin, or Commander of the Faithful.”
Syria is only the tip of the iceberg.
In 2009, Yemen arrested several spies that were passing government secrets to MOIS/VEVAK who were also arming Shi’a jihadists in the southeast. Iranian attempts to radicalize the Shi’a population in Morocco through fake NGOs and cultural organizations run by MOIS/VEVAK led that government to break off diplomatic relations in 2009.
Stealing a page from Saddam Hussein who declared Kuwait as Iraq’s 19th province, the Islamic Republic avowed that Bahrain is the 14th province of Iran and in February 2013, Egypt’s ranking Sunni cleric, Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, publically chastised Iran over its meddling in Bahrain and other Gulf States.
On 25 May 2013, Argentine federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman released a study detailing the Iranian regional terrorism network in Latin America built on his previous 2006 investigation that indicted seven Iranians and one member of Hezbollah for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community Center in Buenos Aires that killed eighty-five people.
No one who served in Iraq has forgotten that the Islamic Republic’s Quds Guards and MOIS aided and abetted our enemies there and were directly responsible for the deaths of American soldiers (especially memorable are the Iranian designed and built enhanced penetrating “copper-disc” IEDs).
Closer to home, most never paid attention to the foiled 2007 JFK Airport bomb plot that resulted in a life sentence for Abdul Kadir, the former-head of MOIS operations in Guyana or the May 2013 conviction and 25-year sentence for Manssor Arbafsiar handed down in a Federal Court for his role in the foiled Iranian plan to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States and detonate bombs at the Saudi Arabian and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C.
That should give you a (dis-) taste for the current activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran and I hope you noticed there was no mention of WMD.
As I first said, opening a line of communication with Tehran is prudent and the President should be supported for this initiative, but only if we go in slowly, thoroughly prepared, and with our eyes wide open to reality.
To the cheering pundits and media elites: Wake up! This ain’t China in 1972.
Mike
