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2/15/2007


 

HUMINT: Dear Ahmadinejad

Dear Mahmood Ahmadinejad;

With your permission, given by your attention, allow me to lead this discourse. Let me open my letter to you with a form of leadership you are familiar with; leadership by example. These words are simply text on an html page, but be aware, they represent much more. I am writing to you, not out of any hope for reconciliation between us, nor fear of your imperialist ideology. I am writing to you as a demonstration of spiritual and intellectual will, in honor of my nation’s first President, President George Washington.

My reasoning for engaging you is complex. The purpose of this letter is best explained by historical analogy. George Washington’s responsible abdication of power was a prerequisite for the democratic prosperity the United States enjoys today. His abdication guaranteed his immortality in the American mind. His singular abdication of supreme authority is the root cause of America’s Super Power Status today. With his faith in God, Law and Philosophy, Washington’s permanence will last for as long as the United States proudly bares its flag at home and abroad.

In remembrance of Washington – My words represent my thoughts and only my thoughts. In this letter and in this forum, I purposefully abdicate all symbols of my authority. In these words, I am standing up for what I as a lone citizen believe, nothing more. While my countrymen may find solace in my opinion, these are my words, not theirs. I do not profess to speak for them. Let me emphasize, that in America, Americans are free to make up their own minds about the differences between your nation and mine.

While it is clear that my nation is not planning a war with yours, my country is prepared to destroy yours. Why do you suppose that is Mr. Ahmadinejad? While you may assume, and therefore assert that the United States is an aggressor, you are dead wrong. You have made strides at convincing other world leaders of your opinion, and in so doing, only making you more wrong. I could list the transgressions demonstrating your guilt, as if I was an international lawyer, but this is neither the time nor the place. You know what your national policy must become in order to transcend all existing international punishments.

Where does your confidence come from? The evidence contradicting your rhetoric is as clear as the nose on your face. No one in America chants “Death to Iran”, but in Iran your countrymen chant “Death to America”. Officials within your regime consistently disorganize the brains of your nation’s youth by sending them into the streets to throw stones and the embassies of my nation’s allies and burn my country’s flag. Your behavior as an authority figure is hypocritical at best and criminal at worst. Is it not clear Mr. Ahmadinejad, why the people of these United States do not respond in kind?

If you’ve never considered why, please allow me to explain it to you. In the United States, American authority figures empower citizens to be the best they can be. They do so with the explicit demand that citizens not subtract from the spiritual, ethnic or racial value of their American neighbors. Think about that for a minute. Who are our neighbors here in America? As a land of immigrants, Americans hail from every corner of the planet. Yes Mr. Ahmadinejad, this means Americans have neighbors who were once your neighbors. Invariably, some of our neighbors here in America are the flesh and blood remnants of your so called Islamic Revolution. It is through their stories and your own bombastic assertions that I know you. Only concrete actions exercised immediately by you and your government can redirect the trajectory of our two countries.

Is it any wonder that our nations are at odds? The United States demonstrates peaceful coexistence everyday. Your ignorance of our history is hard to endure. To that end, do not mistake the American marathon of tolerance for your spiritual bankruptcy as weakness. Freedom of religion was born in America more than two centuries before your Ayatollah Khomeini manifested the Islamic Republic. Be aware, you are allowing opportunity after opportunity to slip by. To the contrary, you and your government abandon opportunity at a reckless pace. In every prayer, sermon or speech that you defame my country, you are denying peaceful coexistence.

In closing, I recommend you seek the council of rational minds. Sit down with them and make a two column list. In the first column, write down your diplomatic choices. In the second column, write down the most likely result affiliated to each choice in column one. Once you’ve compiled a list you are proud of, send it for review to the best minds you have access to. Do not let those minds praise you for it. By my measure of your words and reasoning to date, I estimate your first list will be absurdly emotional and woefully incomplete. Once compiled, make your choice. Make it a choice worth living for.


Sincerely,


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2/13/2007


 

HUMINT: Iran Malaise

West Adds to Strains on Iran's Lifeline

To curb demand, which has been driven in part by subsidies that keep the domestic pump price at a mere 35 cents a gallon, the government plans to begin rationing gasoline in March, a measure so unpopular, and potentially explosive, that rationing plans have been put off several times in the past.

Iran uses petroleum (and other) subsidies to manufacture consent. That's why such a rich country can hardly breath. The economics of the situation are straight forward. International demand is the only complicating factor. The West is inadvertently paying for the lifestyles of the ayatollahs who are indeed their enemies. What to do? Hmmmm, nothing sounds like a good plan, but we've been trying that for years and it hasn't worked yet. Maybe we should try to do "nothing" even harder than we are doing "nothing" right now. The only one who can really help the West do "nothing" are defeatists who are also journalists. All they have to do is scream bloody murder when a soldier of the West acts like the soldier he or she was trained to be. Oh yeah, and I almost forgot... the Press should also scream bloody murder when the President of the United States has the audacity to behave Presidentially. Orders to kill the enemy on sight are anathema to everything they stand for as a defeatist.

Iran seen as key to untangling Iraq

Indeed, Iranians say, their image of an ideal settlement in Iraq looks remarkably like America's: a strong, democratically elected government in Baghdad — that would, by dint of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, be a natural ally of Tehran — an end to the violence, and preservation of territorial integrity. But with one important exception. "The difference is
Iran doesn't want to see the U.S. claim victory. The U.S. shouldn't come out of this battle victorious. And Iranians perceive that the dominant part of that objective has been achieved," Tehran political scientist Nasser Hadian said. "It is no longer plausible for the U.S. to claim victory in Iraq."

Indeed, Iranians say they practice democracy when the opposite is true. The difference between U.S. and Iranian visions for democracy in Iraq are the differences between securing American interests in Iraq and securing Iranian interests in Iraq. Ask yourself, how does influence spread in the Middle East? Now ask yourself, do enemies peacefully compete in the ME or do they slug it out in bloody death matches? Now ask yourself about the interplay between blame and responsibility in the [Persian | Arab] mind. I don't know what your answers are telling you, but mine are screaming. If the U.S. does not secure a democratic Iraq (democracy as understood by those of us in America who actually practice it) Iran will envelop it. Subsequently, Iran will have huge market share at OPEC, so huge indeed that the leverage represented by Saudi Arabia would be gone...

Hmmmm, that should start ringing some alarm clocks for people unable to see through the morning fog of a great big war. If Iran secures its interests in Iraq, - Neighboring states will organize a response to counter the Iran-Iraq alliance. That's why some analysts are predicting a nuclear arms race in the region. I for one, am predicting a regional war that will lead to the targeting of Israel as well as oil wells in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Take those three nations out of our global energy portfolio and we are talking about WWIV.

There is however one hope... it's not one that I usually count on, but it is hope in an otherwise hopeless situation. Imagine, if you can - every important figure in the geo-political equation of the Middle East is sufficiently shortsighted to make the entire problem disappear into a quantum singularity. To make this plan work, we must all agree to forget everything we have learned about Iran over the last quarter century. I'm willing to try if you are? Ready, set GO! ---- Did it work for you? I could name a few politicians it appears to work for but I won't. No matter how hard I try(drink), intentional forgetting just doesn't work for me.


Iran rejects U.S. accusations it armed insurgents in Iraq with roadside bombs

Iran rejects U.S. accusations it armed insurgents in Iraq with roadside bombs

How about providing the U.S. access to investigate the evidence of Iranian munitions manufactured inside Iran? It looks as though Iranian officials have serious trouble comprehending the basic mechanics of international diplomacy. Iran Rejects the U.S. by attacking the United States wherever and whenever it can; through inflammatory rhetoric about the United States and through its collusion with dictatorships in Asia and Latin America. At every turn, Iran is turning the notion of responsible government on its head. The trajectory toward greater human freedom in the world is supported by the United States today, like no other nation in the history of our planet. It is an affirmation of the American mission in this world that Iran - in all of its spiritual bankruptcy - stands opposed to freedom's march. Tehran, under its current leadership, will find itself compared to the worst of the worst in the annals of human history if it fails. If Tehran under its current leadership succeeds... without freedom, what point would there be to read about history at all?

Diane Sawyer's Interview with Ahmadinejad

AHMADINEJAD TO SAWYER: Are you trying to solve the American problem in
Iraq? These things need to take place at a diplomatic level. You are just a journalist.

Dianne did an outstanding job interviewing Mahmood. She stayed on point but he managed to dance around her questions. It's obvious he never intended to answer them. That's how things work in Iran. The government there doesn't answer to any democratic constituency as we in America understand it. Every time an American journalist interviews Iranian officials, and is willing to ask tough questions, they will see first hand how diplomatic progress with them is highly improbable if not totally impossible. This interview, and recent changes in both tone and language used by Ahmadinejad, suggest that he is being coached by the Supreme Leader's office. They are most likely telling him to use the language of peace to divide Iran's enemies in Europe, America and the Middle East. It worked for Khatami, but Iran had more options back then. Now, it is clear that Iranian officials feel threatened. They must realize that they have finally been backed into a corner. They are gambling everything they have on their hope that there is no bight underneath an American bark.

My favorite part of the interview was when Mahmood invoked the rational procedures of American jurisprudence to assert his country's innocence. He basically told Dianne, "prove it". When she (who is just a pathetic journalist according to Mahmood) asked about Iranian culpability in the deaths of 170 American service members, he expected her to prove it. In Dianne's context, she had evidence worthy of journalistic investigation. In war, evidence worthy of investigation followed up by Mahmood's distractions and denials, is tantamount to proof. What Mahmood really meant to say was, "prove it to the American public by the judicial standards Americans are accustomed to".

In the history of the United States, American leadership tended to allow sufficient time for emotional tensions to cool before making difficult decisions about foreign policy. U.S. diplomatic efforts with Tehran have followed that same model. The fact is, Iran was given more than a quarter century to cool off and begin the tried and tested process of joining a community of nations who work together everyday for peace in the world. At every turn, Iranian officials squander their opportunities to become constructive partners. At every turn, they shift the blame and responsibility to the United States or Israel. The day Americans finally take responsibility for Iran instead of simply barking at Iran for its habitual transgressions, will not be as Ahmadinejad imagines it.


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