|
Okay,
let's play "Name That Nation": Al Qaeda is supposedly
hiding there, the country's rulers are fast developing "weapons
of mass destruction," and the population, we are told,
longs for "liberation."
No,
it's not Iraq before the recent war, but Iran before the next
war. How long before is an open question
.
All
the stories they told us about Iraq are now being repeated,
shamelessly, in an Iranian context, the only difference being
that, this time around, no one is even bothering to verify
or treat them as anything other than a pretext for "Operation
Iranian 'Freedom.'" Osama
bin Laden's son, and two other top Al Qaeda chieftains
responsible for the recent Riyadh bombing are said to have
found refuge in northern Iran, near the border with Afghanistan,
"according to intelligence sources." What
sources, from which agency or which country? It isn't
quite clear. What is clear is that we are now entering phase
two of the neoconservative plan to effect regional "regime
change" and refurbish the Middle East with rulers
more to America's and
Israel's liking. Get on board the War Train. Next
stop Tehran. Toot! Toot!
This
war, too, is going to be a "cakewalk":
the Iranian people are just waiting for us to intervene, and
they will rise up and overthrow the mullahs just like the
Iraqis didn't rise up and overthrow Saddam. And the parallels
don't end there
.
While
Iraq has the Iraqi National Congress and a
convicted embezzler as America's puppet-of-choice, our
Iranian sock-puppets are even more bizarre: the matriarchal
cult-like Mujahideen-e-Khalq
(MEK), based on a weird amalgam of Islam and Marxism and ruled
over by Maryam
Rajavi. Yes, a woman in a country where the role of women
has always seemed irretrievably stuck in the tenth century
B. C. And she's
a radical feminist! That should bring the lefties on board,
if or, rather, when it comes to war.
Iran,
for its part, vehemently
denies providing assistance to Al Qaeda, whose leader
has, after all, called for the overthrow of the Tehran regime.
But Osama's hostility to the secular Ba'athists didn't give
the Iraqis an alibi acceptable to the Americans, and the Iranians
will do no better. Although U.S. officials deny
it, low-level negotiations between the U.S. and Iran have
reportedly been
severed, and the announcement by the Iranians that they
have arrested some Al Qaeda members has provoked an American
demand that they be handed
over. The two sides are now locked in to a crisis mode
that can only end in one of two ways: the capitulation of
the Iranians, which seems unlikely, or a U.S. military strike
against Iran.
The
same double-pronged attack formerly endured by Iraq is now
being launched against the Iranians. If the Bushies fail to
establish a viable Iranian connection to Al Qaeda, then they
can always get them on a "weapons of mass destruction"
charge. The reason being that such allegations, including
possession of chemical and biological weapons, are impossible
to disprove. This time they won't bother with the UN, and
Congress, too, will get very short shrift: according to the
Bushies and every President since Harry Truman – they don't
even have to consult our elected representatives until after
the fact.
With
Iraq
and Afghanistan
constantly
threatening to slip
out from under U.S. control, the prospect of conquering
and occupying Iran is more than merely daunting. U.S. resources
and military capabilities would be stretched well beyond the
breaking point. As in the case of Iraq, the War Party has
started out by telling us that the "opposition"
forces are capable of overthrowing the regime with just
a little help from Washington. In order to earn their
subsidy, the pro-U.S. opposition in this case, the commie-feminist-MEK
is acting
as a channel for charges of WMD possession. This ups the
ante considerably, and sets the clock to ticking: we can't
wait for the Iranians to rise up, we'll soon be told, because
the
ayatollahs will have the Bomb in a matter of months or
even weeks.
The
Iranians contend that they are pursuing a nuclear program
designed solely to provide plentiful electric power to their
woefully underdeveloped country, but surely this is a matter
that can be solved by inspections. The U.S. is seeking to
have the International Atomic Energy Commission verify
what is, or is not, being cooked up in Iran's nuclear facilities,
but it is the matter of the Al Qaeda connection that could
prove to be explosive.
The
arrest of Al Qaeda operatives on Iranian soil, if confirmed,
shows at least that Tehran and Bin Laden are not allies. Furthermore,
this time the Saudis (and Moroccans) have experienced their
own version of 9/11, and they, too, are demanding
that the plotters be handed over to Riyadh. Such a hand-over
would short-circuit U.S. war plans, and send the War Party
back to the drawing board in search of a new pretext for an
invasion.
But
once the
War Party has its sights set on a goal, it rarely relents.
The Iranians had best prepare for the worst. Sooner or later,
the
same crowd that "liberated" Iraq will have its way
with Iran, with or without a popular uprising against
Tehran. In Iran we have a fully-certified member of the Axis
of Evil said to be in possession of WMD and high-ranking
Al Qaeda leaders. If Pentagon planners haven't yet been asked
to come up with an invasion scenario, it's probably for fear
of a leak.
Iran,
like Iraq, can be contained, and poses no military threat
to the U.S. Its rulers, left to themselves, will alienate
and anger their own people to such an extent that a revolution
will be inevitable. Only
U.S. intervention, ironically, can save the mullahs, now:
by giving them the chance to pose as patriots and defenders
of Iranian independence against U.S. aggression.
The
idea that we are going to establish "democracy"
in Iran by overthrowing the region's largest functioning democracy
Tehran is presided over by an elected President, albeit
one whose power is circumscribed by the unelected theocracy
is typical of the absurdities now being promulgated by the
neocons. Their
preferred candidate to succeed President
Mohammed Khatami: the
son of the late Shah Reza Pahlavi. Replacing a democratically-elected
President with a King installed by U.S. force of arms that's
the
neocons' idea of "democracy."
–
Justin Raimondo
|
comments
on this article?
|
|
|
Please Support Antiwar.com
Antiwar.com
520 S. Murphy Avenue, #202
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
or Contribute Via our Secure
Server
Credit Card Donation Form
Your contributions are
now tax-deductible
|
