Sunday
Dec272009
Iran: The False US Friends of the "Iranian People" (An Open Letter to Charles Krauthammer)
Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 6:50 
Mr Krauthammer,I never thought I would open an letter to you with a word of thanks. To be honest, I have almost never agreed with your past quarter-century of syndicated polemic in US newspapers and magazines. I respect your right to hold an opinion and your skill in writing. However, I find that your analysis is more often propelled by rigid belief rather than evidence, whether that belief is a specific objective (the unbending advocacy of Israel, whatever the circumstances) or a general aspiration, such as your call for an American “unipolar era” in which all others would bow to the dominance of the United States.
The Latest from Iran (27 December): The Day of Ashura
Yet I must note that, in your column on Friday, “2009: The Year of Living Fecklessly”, you ostensibly recognised the post-election demonstrations in Iran as a “new birth of freedom”. I am not sure exactly what a “new birth” is --- I have found that most Iranians with whom I communicate have a long-held desire for freedom --- but any acknowledgement of the public calls for justice and rights is to be welcomed.
So, thank you. And now a request: Go Away.
Please go away now and do not return to Iran as the setting for your political assaults. For --- and let this be acknowledged widely, if not by you than by others --- the “Iranian people” whom you supposedly praise are merely pawn for your political games, which have little to do with their aspirations, their fears, and their contests.
Let us recognise that your column begins with an attack on the “feckless” Barack Obama. The Iranian case, and specifically the US negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear programme, is the platform for another front in your continuing assault on the President. So if I agree with you that the nuclear-first approach gives “affirmation” to an embattled Iranian Government --- and I do --- that agreement starts from a desire not to bolster President Ahmadinead in the current domestic crisis in Iran, rather than your own domestic crisis with an American leader from a political party you do not like.
Let us recognise that your own supposed defence of the Iranian people is propelled by your own nuclear conceptions, bolstered by your emphasis on Israel: “Iran will dominate 2010. Either there will be an Israeli attack or Iran will arrive at -- or cross -- the nuclear threshold.” For, if this piece was completely honest, you would have informed your readers, and the Iranian people, that you have supported Israeli airstrikes. In the columns offering that support, you made no reference to how “a new birth of freedom” would be affected by missiles fired upon Iran. Your frame of vision was limited, as if this was a journalistic smart bomb, to the target of the Iranian regime.
Let us recognise that, if there is a context for you beyond this nuclear arena, it is a supposed geopolitical struggle in which an “Iran” confronts the American presence in the Middle East and Central Asia and participates in the regional battle with Israel. Thus, your support of a “revolution” is not for what it brings Iran's people --- who, incidentally, may not be protesting for a “revolution” or, more specifically, a “counter-revolution” against all the ideals of 1979 --- but for “ripple effects [which] would extend from Afghanistan to Iraq (in both conflicts, Iran actively supports insurgents who have long been killing Americans and their allies) to Lebanon and Gaza where Iran's proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, are arming for war”.
(Had I the time and patience to dissect your geopolitical construction, I might note that US officials have been quietly talking to Iran about co-operation in the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan --- strange behaviour indeed if Iran is allied with the Taliban and the Sunni Al Qa'eda in Mesopotamia ---- or that Hezbollah and Hamas cannot be reduced to puppets of Tehran masters. I know, however, that this would be logic falling on your stony ground of politics and ideology.)
Let us recognise, therefore, the slip of the pen in your sentences, when you refer to the apparent silence of Washington to the call of Iranian demonstrators, “Obama, Obama, you are either with us or with them”: “Such cool indifference is more than a betrayal of our values. It's a strategic blunder of the first order.” The slip is not your implicit confession that it's the “strategic” that really concerns you --- if these protesters were far removed from your strategy for American power, you wouldn't hear a word they were saying --- but in “our values”.
Assertion of “our” values does not mean acceptance of “their” values; it ignores them or, at most, wedges them into the framework of power that you find acceptable. Simply putting out the word “freedom” as if it were a universal umbrella for any proposal that follows does nothing to acknowledge, let alone, consider the complex negotiation of religious, social, economic, and political beliefs that has propelled movement inside Iran not just for the last six months but for decades.
Let us recognise, therefore, that you can throw out supposed solutions for “them”, not because they are considered measures but because they fit a model of “regime change” which is yours, not necessarily “theirs”. You advocate, “Cutting off gasoline supplies”, even though that cut-off might do far more harm to the “Iranian people” than to the regime you are condemning. You merrily think of “covert support to assist dissident communication and circumvent censorship”, even though overt calls of covert support play into the hands of an Iranian Government invoking the spectre of “foreign intervention”. (Far better to be open, in the name of the values of freedom and communication, in proposing overt funding of anti-censorship and anti-filtering programmes, as well as the encouragement of unrestricted media.)
Let us recognise, indeed even find common ground on, “robust rhetorical and diplomatic support from the very highest level: full-throated denunciation of the regime's savagery and persecution”. Let us do so, however, not because that denunciation supports your strategy of regime change for the sake of American power --- just as your denunciation of Saddam Hussein merely propped up your campaign for years to extend a US economic, political, and military presence through the “liberation” of Iraq --- but because that denunciation fulfils a morality and ethics beyond “your values”.
Let us recognise that I could have written this letter not only to you but to a legion of others who, in recent weeks, have embraced the “Iranian people” as their vehicle for regime change. Outlets like the Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Standard put forth former Bush Administration officials and former activists for the Iraq War who now see a new platform for a US power which was not fulfilled in the military ventures of 2001-2009. Let us recognise that, in those calls, the “Iranian people” serve as pawns in a game beyond their own concerns.
After all these recognitions, let me conclude by returning to my thanks to you. For --- I am certain unwittingly --- you have re-affirmed this central belief:
This is not “our” regime change, “our” revolution; “our” values. This is “their” movement.
Please respect it as such. If you cannot, move on. Thank you.
Reader Comments (89)
I appreciated Obama's comments on Iran. Keep it up.
More on the Right’s New-found Affinity for the “Iranian People”
on Pulsemedia.org by Jasmin Ramsey
December 28, 2009
http://pulsemedia.org/2009/12/28/on-the-rights-new-found-affinity-for-the-iranian-people/
excellent.....i have NEVER (and never will) understand how bloviators such as chuckie are in these positions to be treated with respect for their blovates......and as you so accurately pointed out, "your analysis is more often propelled by rigid belief rather than evidence"....and precisely the problem in republiCON politics today.....
Well done, the irony is amazing. Who would have thought the Iranian "people" could move themselves closer to Democracy without us bombing the crap out of them, invading and occupying them and installing "our values" as their Government, hmmm.
Very well done. Thanks.
Wait, I thought the new war... er, liberation, was going to be in Yemen. Did I just waste all that time figuring out where the Arabian peninsula is?
Very nice read.
First of all I'd to say that Scott Lucas is very eloquent and astute, so please forgive me as I try best to keep this reply coherent. I'm married to a Tehrani who until a couple of years ago lived near Haft-e Tir, but she had to leave for the same reasons that these protesters are facing today; Evin and the Basij. All the things that the world is hearing and seeing about this Regime is basically old news to me and after 4 years living with expat Iranians I can say this, they are about as American as we are, or were!?
There was a lot of support for Omama with the Iranians I associate with but after his reaction in June that support kind of washed off and he is now seen as a business as usual politician but somewhat inept at it. I know it's hard to believe it but America is looked up to as the bastion of freedom and liberty. There is deep resentment for European countries and Russia who are seen as colonists and opportunists but, and in spite of Carter, I've seen no animosity towards the US. The people spilling their blood on the streets of Iran did at one time or maybe still see hope that the US will lead and push other countries will stop dealing with this regime, maybe even start a fire under it so that they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is unfortunate that the freedom movement has to become as brutal as the Regime and also try to bring it down without all the nice weapons that the regime dogs have because other countries continue to fill the coffers of the Mullahs and Hezbollah. The Mullahs are now preaching that the protesters need to face the same justice as the dissidents did '88; over 30,000 executed. The Obama administration's policy of doing nothing is exactly that, nothing. Any leverage and clout that we had in he world just went away in an act of timidity and indecisiveness. We are looked at by Europeans as obedient lap dogs and by the Iranians like a friend who has walked away from a fight.
These brave people on the streets know they are alone and they know the chance is slim that the US will fall in line and support them with something substantial instead of a timid finger wave at the Ayatollah. They know it's their fight and their future, but why should we legitimize this regime by not pushing to stop trading and negotiating with a government that kills all dissent? I don't know much about Krauthammer except that he's Jewish and has a German name and used to be super liberal in the early eighties, but I've been on the ground in Israel and I hope America never has to live the way they do. But he is right, this is an opportunity to stop the funding of terror groups that destabilize Palestine. A new democracy in Iran with a government led by it's people would have no interest in nuclear weapons. But if this cycle of appeasement permits Iran to build one nuke then someone is going to bomb them, unless we bomb the aggressors first. So wouldn't it be in the best interest of humanity to support the Green Movement now and stop these politically charged character attacks at anyone who criticizes Obama and give Iranians something they can believe in, after all, they have inspired us too and really made us think about the freedom that we take for granted. They are watching us as much as we are watching them and as far I'm concerned they hold the moral high ground now...look up Howard Baskerville, this is the America that Iranians know.
To Catherine:
(Rights new found-affinity for the "Iranian People")
You are exactly doing what is not needed right now, you can't keep your politics out of the business at hand. The basis of the whole article you recommended above is from this guy, Dr. Trita Parsi. First of All the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) is the administration's lackey and not many Iranians even now about it. Trita Parsi, bashes everyone who cares:
On the fanciful speculation that if the regime fell on the Day of Ashura, the Parsi bothers ponder that, "It didn’t come to an end due to the efforts of exiled opposition groups or the regime-change schemes of Washington’s neoconservatives. Rather, the Iranian people are the main characters in this drama,"
Of course the Iranian people are the main characters. And so are the Iranians living in exile. Unfortunately many of these exiles that he is slamming happened to have spent quite a bit of time in solitary confinement with torture and maybe even the loss of relatives and friends who were not so lucky to get out in time. As a matter of fact, the regime will hunt down the really active exiles in their new country and cut them up into little pieces and stick the genitals in their mouth. How many jail cells has Mr. Parsi seen? None! I read his bio and he didn't even grow up in Iran, so essentially he is an exile putting down other "real" exiles.
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"The Fraud of the National Iranian American Council By: Hassan Daioleslam
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, June 19, 2008
National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and its president Trita Parsi have arranged to receive congressional appropriated funds from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) through an expedited process. They have spent these funds on trivial activities aimed at enhancing false-flag Iranian NGOs, that were in fact managed and controlled by Iranian Deputy Ministers or high level officials - making a mockery of the term “Non-Governmental.” At the same time, NIAC and Trita Parsi have lobbied the congress to stop appropriating other funds meant for dissident democratic movements and NGOs in Iran through non-NIAC channels. While NIAC’s actions appear paradoxical, it is a cohesive, targeted and deceptive tactic that has three distinct but related goals:
- to block resources to the NGOs not controlled by the government,
- to provide resources to their showcase NGOs,
- and to funnel the American taxpayers’ money to the Iranian lobby in the US to benefit Tehran’s goals.
NIAC’s actions with respect to the congressional appropriated funds are suspect of defrauding American taxpayers and deserve nothing short of a full congressional investigation."
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Jasmin Ramsey, must be some European because she writes like one or she could also just be a big admirer of Europe and their mentality, "F" Bush, you know what I mean, but anyway. I think it's insulting to bash other people for ideas after another and better option presents itself. The level of the current democracy movement is really a huge surprise but the wild card isn't that there are so many people; there has always been huge protests, but the fact that the regime has simply shot it's own foot and is now spiraling out control, hopefully without recovery, is like gift from above. So dismissing one judgment because the context for an old idea has altered is a little ridiculous. Instead of bashing conservatives Ramsey should write about people who are actually helping the Green Movement, that is if she can find time to stop bashing Israel too.
Before you keep on bashing conservatives or neoconservative or whatever, just remember it was Carter who had the great idea to let Iran go down this path and totally ignore everything about Islamic fundamentalism.
Catherine,
Thanks for sharing the Pulsemedia article. It's right on.
Mike,
Thank you for an eloquent and passionate response. Personally I share your disquiet with the approach taken by the Obama Administration since June, notably its emphasis on a nuclear-first engagement, but I think this is now shifting with recognition of the primacy of the rights and hopes of the Iranian people.
My problem with Krauthammer is not with his criticism of Obama. It is because I fully support the call to support what Iranians believe in (and in the two-way dialogue of belief and values) that I wrote the piece, for I think Krauthammer's approach was to set up a caricature of that belief to justify his real interests such as the extension of American power and an Israel-first approach in all matters in the Middle East and Persian Gulf.
You are right to point out, however, that my own issue with Krauthammer should and must be secondary to the wider concern of recognition and support of rights and justice for all in Iran.
S.
Thank You Scott, My wife didn't want me to write anything, mostly because of her disgust over Obama's do nothing policy. What people don't realize is that the movement tried to reach out to us and figure out what side Obama was on by chanting "Obama, you're either with us or with them" in front of the world and the Basij. This happened for one day only, and I thought that surely the tables will turn now, but the resounding silence from our administration was enough to push the violence level to a new high for the regime and sink the Green movement to the level of accepting that death for freedom is better than this regime. Unfortunately many learned students and citizens may have resort battling with the regime's low lives and even killing them too.
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The President's message to Iran:
"I've a message for the Iranian people: The United States respects you and your country. We admire your rich history, your vibrant culture, and your many contributions to civilization. When Cyrus the Great led the Iranian people more than 2,500 years ago, he delivered one of the world's first declarations of individual rights, including the right to worship God in freedom. Through the centuries, Iranians have achieved distinction in medicine and science and poetry and philosophy, and countless other fields...To help provide more opportunities for the people of Iran, we will look for new ways to increase contact between Americans and Iranians, especially in education and culture, sports and tourism. We'll provide more than $75 million this year to promote openness and freedom for the Iranian people. These funds will allow us to expand and improve radio and television broadcasts to the people of Iran. These funds will support Iranian human rights advocates and civil society organizations. And these funds will promote student and faculty exchanges, so we can build bridges of understanding between our people.
Americans believe the future of Iran will be decided by the people of Iran -- and we believe that future can be one of progress and prosperity and achievement. We look forward to the day when our nations are friends, and when the people of Iran enjoy the full fruits of liberty, and play a leading role to establish peace in our world."
The White House
President Bush's Speech about Iranians
June 19, 2006.
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President Delivers Commencement Address at
the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
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posted by; ViaHHakimi, "President George W. Bush is the only world leader who has concerned himself with the tragic plight of the Iranian people. His example should be followed by the leaders of other countries specially Britain, the EU, Russia and China."
http://activistchat.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=28716#28716
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Compare that speech with Obama's speech wishing Iran an happy Norooz, in ARABIC no less. If one looks at the message of the Cairo university and Persian new years speech in compared to what has happened to date, I would say that the US, has been reduced to a toothless Rottweiler.
Watch out about lashing out at the "neoconservative" for supporting the green movement, the Iranians have been hanging on the hope that when the time comes, the US will help, and adroitly usher this evil regime out the door to historical obscurity.
I hate to break it to some people out there but most of my Iranian friends think that Obama is a nice guy but wish that McCain was elected. At least he is somebody they perceive as having the resolve, integrity and experience to do what is needed right now. I don't blame them either, we did are own speculating during the American revolution, wondering when the French and Spanish were going to blockade and cripple English industry.
I'm not trying to hurt or promote any cause other than a free and democratic Iran, my family and friends are very honest, nice and proud people who have resisted islamic oppression for almost 1500 years. I'm thankful to be accepted as a member of this family and we all see a very bright future for America and Iran. They understand that the disappointment with my government now is temporary and are chomping at the bit to be able to think the same way about their own government.
Hang in there @drgarym and others, it's hard to be in a room full of wolves, but like my ex-hippy neocon NYC Cop. friend says, "liberals are people who haven't been mugged yet" and yes the police try to beat the fire department to the scene, how else are they going to get the money, jewelery and merchandise before it burns up? Enough said, I want all to know that I love everybody here and I'm happy to be able to freely express my feelings. Life's full of disappointments but it's still good...
Until the elections and the massive demonstrations afterward, it was difficult to see any option other than the ones on the table, either a nuclear armed Iran run by an apocalyptic mad man or to remove the nuclear threat militarily. Sanctions, thanks to the feckless Russians and Chinese, were a joke. The Iranian people gave us a third option. The affinity of the right for the Iranian people isn't one of finding a new pawn for our geopolitical chess game, it is seeing hope where before there wasn't. If the current regime decided to start a full fledged conflagration in the region (not just stoking brush fires in Lebanon and Yemen) the Iranian people would bear the brunt of the backlash so yes, the game of geopolitical chess that is being played out in the Mid East is born out of a concern for the people of Iran as well as Israel, Lebanon and the rest of the region.