Iran: Smells Like Appeasement
Jeanne De Rakhsh | 15.04.2007 22:22 | Analysis | Iraq | Terror War | World
There is a "strong smell of appeasement" in the air vis a vis Iran these days. They smuggle arms, roadside bombs (IEDs, and Explosively formed projectiles (EFP)), cash and training for the insurgency into Iraq to support killing US, UK, and Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi civilians. They do a mini-replay of the 1979 hostage crisis by taking UK sailors hostage to test the resolve of the west, and what do we do?
Do we declare war on them in kind, or attack their terrorist training bases inside Iran? Do we encourage regime change by helping the Iranian opposition to topple the regime from the inside at the people’s hands? Not at all. Instead, We throw a block party in Baghdad and Sharm-Al-Sheikh under the guise of “Iraqi Peace Regional Conference”, and invite both Iran and Syria, too! We host them pleasantly and greet them with a hand shake and a smile in the Baghdad summit. And we turn a deaf ear to the thousands of teachers, women, workers, and students who protested against the regime inside Iran.
What is wrong with this picture? Don't our foreign policy makers in charge know that the ONLY LANGUAGE THE IRANIAN REGIME UNDERSTANDS IS ONE OF STRENGTH, FORCE, AND DECISIVE ACTION?
Unfortunately, it looks like US state department, and pro-mullah elements within the US (Democrats), UK (exemplified by “Ayatollah” Jack Straw), and double-agents like Al-Baradei of IAEA (whose wife incidentally is Iranian) are having their way on Iran. The President appears to be giving in to state department pressures to appease Iran, instead of confronting it head on.
A "frog-in-the-slowly-heated-pot-of-water-until-it-boils" approach through economic and financial sanctions seems to be taken instead on Iran now. This approach on Iran failed before, and it will fail again. Although, this approach has had its regime-weakening effects inside Iran and some hope it could ultimately cause the regime to fall, but the most it could do is for Ahmadinejad government to be ousted and replaced by a European-bred mullahs like Rafsanjani and Khatami (the so-called "reformists") again. In another words, European hegemony will be back in power in Iran through their Khatami-like puppets without any regard to how much this is going to cost millions of Iranian women, students, workers, and ethnic nationalities in freedom and democracy that they will never attain under this plan. IS THIS WHAT US POLICY WANTS TO ACCOMPLISH IN IRAN?
Around 100,000 teachers demonstrated across Iran last week asking for living wages and reform; more than 30 women activists seeking democracy and equal rights were arrested and put in jail by the Tehran regime last week. Where was the media coverage in the US on these uprisings in Iran? Where were statements supporting the teacher union and women in their quest by US State Department, or the White House? Why are we playing coy, playing this silly and counter-productive push and pull game with the regime in Iran? Where is our resolve? Have we lost our nerves in confronting our sworn enemies in the middle east?
From Tehran's vantage point, the west’s policy towards it, and especially that of the US, is confused and weak. The mullahs are laughing at our good cop/bad cop policy of push and pull. One day with the threat of military action, the next day songs of appeasement and softly softly by Nicholas Burns of US state department.
The mullahs are loving this transparent, ineffective, and timid US policy. As they also loved the weak resolve of the UK in response to the seamen hostages. Iranians created chess. The mullahs see right through what US is trying to do, which is to scare them with military threats on one hand, and change frequencies and play party host on the next day. And they are laughing themselves silly over our weak, insecure, and painfully transparent policy in dealing with them.
And all when, in the meanwhile, the Islamic dictatorship terrorist regime in Tehran is galloping towards attaining nuclear weapons, funding Hamas and Hezbollah with hundreds of millions of dollars, killing US, UK, and Iraqi soldiers in Iraq, and persecuting the Iranian people; all at no cost to the regime whatsoever.
If President Bush, Vice-President Cheney don't wake up and smell the rot of appeasement towards Iran which is being served in a tray on a daily basis to Tehran soon, if the appeasers and doves in charge of the State Department are allowed to sleep with the enemy and strike a “Grand bargain with the regime in Tehran, everyone loses but the mullahs. If they allow a "Grand Bargain" with the Iranian regime, even worse security and geo-political nightmares await all of us in the near future.
It's high time that the west adopted an Iran policy that is squarely unidirectional and against the regime in Tehran. It's high time for US and UK to officially and unequivocally declare that they seek regime change in Iran and that they will help any Iranian democratic opposition inside and outside Iran who are working towards regime change in Iran. And they must follow their words with action and funds to make it possible for the opposition to do so. But they better get cracking at it soon; since time is definitely not working in their (or the Iranian peoples') favor right now. For every day that the regime in Tehran survives costs 1 month in our efforts to end the violence in Iraq and establish peace and democracy in the region. Every minute counts.
We can choose to take the initiative and take decisive action on Iran, or we will be guaranteeing more pain for the region, the world, and for the Iranian people.
What is wrong with this picture? Don't our foreign policy makers in charge know that the ONLY LANGUAGE THE IRANIAN REGIME UNDERSTANDS IS ONE OF STRENGTH, FORCE, AND DECISIVE ACTION?
Unfortunately, it looks like US state department, and pro-mullah elements within the US (Democrats), UK (exemplified by “Ayatollah” Jack Straw), and double-agents like Al-Baradei of IAEA (whose wife incidentally is Iranian) are having their way on Iran. The President appears to be giving in to state department pressures to appease Iran, instead of confronting it head on.
A "frog-in-the-slowly-heated-pot-of-water-until-it-boils" approach through economic and financial sanctions seems to be taken instead on Iran now. This approach on Iran failed before, and it will fail again. Although, this approach has had its regime-weakening effects inside Iran and some hope it could ultimately cause the regime to fall, but the most it could do is for Ahmadinejad government to be ousted and replaced by a European-bred mullahs like Rafsanjani and Khatami (the so-called "reformists") again. In another words, European hegemony will be back in power in Iran through their Khatami-like puppets without any regard to how much this is going to cost millions of Iranian women, students, workers, and ethnic nationalities in freedom and democracy that they will never attain under this plan. IS THIS WHAT US POLICY WANTS TO ACCOMPLISH IN IRAN?
Around 100,000 teachers demonstrated across Iran last week asking for living wages and reform; more than 30 women activists seeking democracy and equal rights were arrested and put in jail by the Tehran regime last week. Where was the media coverage in the US on these uprisings in Iran? Where were statements supporting the teacher union and women in their quest by US State Department, or the White House? Why are we playing coy, playing this silly and counter-productive push and pull game with the regime in Iran? Where is our resolve? Have we lost our nerves in confronting our sworn enemies in the middle east?
From Tehran's vantage point, the west’s policy towards it, and especially that of the US, is confused and weak. The mullahs are laughing at our good cop/bad cop policy of push and pull. One day with the threat of military action, the next day songs of appeasement and softly softly by Nicholas Burns of US state department.
The mullahs are loving this transparent, ineffective, and timid US policy. As they also loved the weak resolve of the UK in response to the seamen hostages. Iranians created chess. The mullahs see right through what US is trying to do, which is to scare them with military threats on one hand, and change frequencies and play party host on the next day. And they are laughing themselves silly over our weak, insecure, and painfully transparent policy in dealing with them.
And all when, in the meanwhile, the Islamic dictatorship terrorist regime in Tehran is galloping towards attaining nuclear weapons, funding Hamas and Hezbollah with hundreds of millions of dollars, killing US, UK, and Iraqi soldiers in Iraq, and persecuting the Iranian people; all at no cost to the regime whatsoever.
If President Bush, Vice-President Cheney don't wake up and smell the rot of appeasement towards Iran which is being served in a tray on a daily basis to Tehran soon, if the appeasers and doves in charge of the State Department are allowed to sleep with the enemy and strike a “Grand bargain with the regime in Tehran, everyone loses but the mullahs. If they allow a "Grand Bargain" with the Iranian regime, even worse security and geo-political nightmares await all of us in the near future.
It's high time that the west adopted an Iran policy that is squarely unidirectional and against the regime in Tehran. It's high time for US and UK to officially and unequivocally declare that they seek regime change in Iran and that they will help any Iranian democratic opposition inside and outside Iran who are working towards regime change in Iran. And they must follow their words with action and funds to make it possible for the opposition to do so. But they better get cracking at it soon; since time is definitely not working in their (or the Iranian peoples') favor right now. For every day that the regime in Tehran survives costs 1 month in our efforts to end the violence in Iraq and establish peace and democracy in the region. Every minute counts.
We can choose to take the initiative and take decisive action on Iran, or we will be guaranteeing more pain for the region, the world, and for the Iranian people.
Jeanne De Rakhsh
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