Newsweek’s excellent cover story this week lists the many occasions when we might have formed cooperative links with Iran — all of them torpedoed by the warhawks in the White House. The vignette below exposes the careless cluelessness with which the Decider decides. It is for just such weighty considerations of national security that we are now being lied into a war with Iran.
A month later Tehran backed up the political support with financial muscle: at a donor’s conference in Tokyo, Iran pledged $500 million (at the time, more than double the Americans’) to help rebuild Afghanistan.
In a pattern that would become familiar, however, a chill quickly followed the warming in relations. Barely a week after the Tokyo meeting, Iran was included with Iraq and North Korea in the “Axis of Evil.” Michael Gerson, now a Newsweek contributor, headed the White House speechwriting shop at the time. He says Iran and North Korea were inserted into Bush’s controversial State of the Union address in order to avoid focusing solely on Iraq. At the time, Bush was already making plans to topple Saddam Hussein, but he wasn’t ready to say so.
Gerson says it was Condoleezza Rice, then national-security adviser, who told him which two countries to include along with Iraq. But the phrase also appealed to a president who felt himself thrust into a grand struggle. Senior aides say it reminded him of Ronald Reagan’s ringing denunciations of the “evil empire.”
Once again, Iran’s reformists were knocked back on their heels. “Those who were in favor of a rapprochement with the United States were marginalized,” says Adeli. “The speech somehow exonerated those who had always doubted America’s intentions.”
The US seem to be supporting rebel groups from ethnic minorities in the border regions of Iran. One of them might be 'Jundollah', Allah's brigade, having been linked to Al Qaeda before. Yesterday they blew up a bus carrying Iranian revolutionary guards with a car bomb.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=5848
The Iranian revolutionary guards deployed in this area near the Afghan/Pakistani border are bearing the the brunt of the battle against local drug lords in the region. Since 1979 3.300 have been killed in the fight against drug smuggling.
Before the fall of the Taliban Afghanistan produced 200 tons of heroin per year. Now it's up to 6100 tons. Guess how much of it ends up on American streets ...
Meanwhile, Cesar Chavez is nationalizing his oil plants as fast as he can, while Iran is on Bush's front burner - Iraq is just left to rot.
Posted by: Dante Lee on February 15, 2007 2:45 PMAt least Ronzo had enough brains to pick on little guys that couldn't defend themselves, like Libya and Grenada. In fact when he saved our shores from invasion by Grenadans, it was only a few days after 200-some Marine were blown up in Beirut. In the thrill of vanquishing Grenada all those dead marines were forgotten. But the Chimp didn't get the message. Once things went bad in Iraq, he should have picked a fight with Monaco. Instead he's picking one with Iran. Hey, Chimpy! Iran ain't Grenada. Ask Iraq.
Posted by: on February 15, 2007 6:02 PMDaddy Bush was the same way when he was beating the war drums for Gulf War I. First he put the troops in place and then he couldn't very well pull them back, which Saddam realized. So Saddam kept making offers one after another those last days that he would do pretty much anything Daddy Bush wanted, including pulling out of Kuwait, but Daddy kept demanding more and then finally invaded. Only a few Americans were killed, most of them by a lucky missile on a barracks as I remember. But that murderous Gen. Barry McCaffrey and his boss Stormin Norman killed thousands of helpless retreating Iraqis on the highway of death, so they both got to be heroes.
Posted by: Red Tide on February 17, 2007 3:10 PMCesar Chavez has diversified out of grapes? I'll never forget the case of hives I got after the boycott was lifted.
Posted by: Joyful Alternative on February 17, 2007 9:21 PM