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12/18/2007
HUMINT: Iranian Tyranny
 The Islamic Republic of Iran is directly and indirectly perpetuating violence across the Middle East. Iran backs violence because it is a sectarian and dogmatic regime. Iranian foreign policy is an ever-present danger. Iran’s ambitions are overt and extend well beyond the scope of illegally pursuing a dual use nuclear program. The Old Persian Empire is wearing a new shroud and it’s an oppressively theocratic breed of governance.
Wherever Iran operates, organizations supported by Tehran represent political forces that pursue the fracture of sovereign nations. Iran backs militias around the world that seek to become states within states. Hezbollah represents a near autonomous State within Lebanon. Hamas represents an autonomous state within Palestine. The lesson here is that Iranian foreign policy follows a clear pattern of reckless destabilization.
Iran destabilizes a host nation by encouraging strife at the local level, splitting local municipalities from their central government along sectarian lines. Overtime, this policy makes the central government fracture and look for external sources of cohesion. Ususally that cohesion is found through a shared enemy, IE the United States and or Israel. Regardless of which nation Iranian interference occurs in, the policy always threatens the sovereignty regional neighbors.
Make no mistake; the Islamic Republic of Iran remains a serious regional threat. That’s no secret. That’s not hype. That’s a fact. But Wait! If the situation in the Middle East were to improve, could the U.S. partner with Iran? Could the political situation conceivably improve if a “grand bargain” were struck between Iran and the United States? No! Iranian imperialism will continue destabilizing the Middle East because that’s the reality of that government’s world view. Iranian officials feed on crisis.
Some experts argue that the imperialist tendencies of the Iranian government are shared by the Iranian people themselves. Evidence suggests the opposite. In polls conducted in Iran, Iranians want to join the international community and are overwhelmingly pro-American. There’s no question about it. The Iranian people are not represented by their Government. Therefore, they are not likely to share the Iranian Government’s anti-American foreign policy either.
Yet many Western intellectuals argue that supporting the Iranian people’s democratic aspirations is too problematic and too confrontational to become official American policy. As for the Iranian people and Americans who support their aspirations for democracy, it’s definitely worth the risk to challenge the status-quo in Iran. [1]
Pundits who claim the Iranian people will side with Iranian clerics before siding with Americans who support their inalienable rights are missing the big picture. So what if Iranians do turn to their masters before embracing liberty? Those that side with tyranny over their own freedom are politically and diplomatically irrelevant. Therefore, international relations with Iran remain tenuous at best and dangerous at worst.
Iran’s intransigent birth cannot be downplayed. The Islamic Republic was born a hostage taking nation and continues to use hostage taking as leverage in foreign policy negotiations. Violence is embedded in the current Iranian government’s national identity. Nothing short of a regime change will end Tehran’s imperialist ambitions. Call this essay a quest for behavioral change among Iranian officials, if you like; nevertheless, regime change is this essay's ultimate demand. [2]
If recent newspaper headlines are an accurate indication of a shift in American foreign policy toward Iran, the United States has once again rejected a policy of regime change in that country. Recent headlines across Europe and the Middle East are lavishing praise on Iranian nuclear resistance to international requests for the Iranians to halt their nuclear enrichment program.
It's not in anybody’s interest that Iran receive a pass for its bad behavior. Western pressure to stop Iranian uranium enrichment has been met time and time again with deception and denials. Ultimately, U.S. consensus on the Iran issue has been capitulation. Rational requests from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to halt uranium enrichment are repeatedly denied by the Revolutionary Government of Iran with a consistency the International Atomic Energy Agency, (IAEA) and UNSC couldn’t match.
It’s been the Iranian government’s lying, sarcasm and stubbornness that effectively broke the back of the UNSC and the IAEA. The IAEA is tasked with inspecting declared nuclear sites in Iran. Instead, the IAEA has been complicit in Iranian lying, sarcasm and stubbornness through mismanagement and lethargy. Arguably the United Nations and its sister organizations have been a broken bureaucracy from their inception. So what do world leaders do? Do they find a way to make it work? Do they engender the will to face sarcastic liars? No! They dither!
None has dropped the atomic ball more than the world’s recognized democratic leader, the United States of America. U.S. efforts to curb Iranian domination are not easy, but they shouldn’t be undercut by agencies within the United States. Of course, Russia, China, Venezuela and Syria support Iran’s nuclear progress. Dictatorships actively sabotage the efficacy of democratic international relations. That’s because they aren’t democracies. Their obstructions are expected. Capitulating to these nations’ support for Iran’s defiance is capitulating to global dictatorships. That’s a far cry from the UN operating as a healthy global democracy. Global policy toward Iran at this time is no longer about consensus building, it’s about dithering. Arguably, that’s what the United Nations does all the time. Dither!
No matter how one looks at it, Iran’s inflexibility has been met with flexibility from the Untied States and the International community. That’s not pragmatism. That’s capitulation. The United States, a world leader for freedom and democracy looks as though it recently surrendered to an international oligarchy, hell bent on protecting Iran as it continues to develop the means to make a nuclear weapon!
The international community can continue equivocating over such things as Iran’s intent. In terms of the Iran threat, it represents more than a nuclear threat. The threat is the regime itself. Nothing’s changed.
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1. The pursuit of freedom is not just one option among many; it is an obligation. If there are no Iranians who harbor an ambition to be free, that would only make the effort to encourage democracy in Iran more urgent. Fortunately, there are many Iranians who do pursue their own freedom and they deserve Americans’ support.
2. Regime change in Iran is an appropriate foreign policy position. Regardless of Iran’s nuclear intentions, which remain dangerous, Iran represents a threat to freedom of [religion, expression, assembly and of the press]. The threat occurs inside Iran and extends beyond its borders.
Labels: humint, iran, tyranny
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