Untitled Document
In Iran, the neo-cons got what they hoped for. Iran's President
Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and his rhetoric about Israel being moved to Europe and
the Holocaust never occurring is made to order for the neo-cons who want the
United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear sites. Ahmedinejad, the arch
conservative mayor of Tehran, was elected in a surprise victory last June replacing
moderate President Mohamed Khatami. The neo-cons and their allies -- the terrorist
Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) based in Iraq and the pro-Shah exiles -- called for
a boycott of the election in radio and TV satellite broadcasts to the country.
That and Iran's stagnant economy and high unemployment had the desired effects
for the neo-cons who want a war with the Iranian regime: Ahmedinejad coasted
to victory beating the favorite of the old Reagan-Bush guard who helped facilitate
the Iran-contra deal from the Iranian side -- former President Hashemi Rafsanjani,
a multi-millionaire pragmatist.
The neo-cons wasted no time in attacking Ahmedinejad. They falsely said that
he was one of the U.S. embassy hostage takers and that he was an international
assassin who traveled to Austria to murder a dissident. Ahmedinejad, whose Muslim
conservative base is similar to George W. Bush's base of fanatic fundamentalist
Christians and Orthodox Jews, ratcheted things up by playing the Israel and
Holocaust denial cards.
Iran's pragmatists, who now include the Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamanei, slowly
began to see the trap the neo-cons laid for Iran by helping to engineer Ahmedinejad's
victory. Khamanei has promoted Rafsanjani to head the Expediency Council, a
sort of referee arbitration council that settles policy and legislative differences
between the Parliament (Majles) and the mullahs. Khamanei has also positioned
Rafsanjani close to him at public appearances -- a sign that Rafsanjani may
be the next Ayatollah after Khamanei's death and is increasingly calling the
shots. Essentially, Ahmedinejad, who wants to pack the government with Revolutionary
Guard elements, has seen his power checkmated.
The neo-cons would have us believe that Ahmedinejad is the new Saddam.
However, Saddam never had religious leaders who checked his power. Iran is not
Iraq and the neo-cons cannot sell us a new (and costlier) war based on the same
old tired rhetoric and myopic viewpoints.
