February 4, 2005 – Rick Santorum is busy at work on the “Iran Freedom and Support Act,” in other words a bill designed to get America ready to bomb Iran. “By supporting the people of Iran, and through greater outreach to pro-democracy groups, we will hopefully foster a peaceful transition to democracy in Iran,” Santorum told Fox News ( http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,146342,00.html ). “The bill also notes the futility of working with the Iranian government.”
You’d think, listening to Santorum, there are dozens of Iranian “pro-democracy groups” out there, waiting for assistance, eager to overthrow the mullahs. In fact, there are but two somewhat viable groups: the People’s Mujahedin of Iran and the monarchists. Obviously, Bush and Santorum are not interested in democracy. The People’s Mujahedin of Iran, or Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK or MKO), is listed as a terrorist group by the State Department ( http://www.usembassy.it/file2003_08/alia/a3081704.htm ). The monarchists are led by Prince Reza Palavi, son of the former Shah who kept the Iranian people in line using SAVAK, a secret police fond of murder and torture. MEK and the monarchists hate each other.
Beyond MEK and the monarchists, there are a few ineffectual and splintered groups, comprised mostly of Kurds, Marxists, and various Muslims opposed to the current Islamic regime. None of them will go anywhere and Santorum and Bush know it.
The “Iran Freedom and Support Act” is gibberish, simply a preparation for a military attack on Iran. Period.
Meanwhile, Bush has announced the appointment of the Iran-Contra criminal, Elliott Abrams, who pleaded guilty in 1991 to withholding information from Congress, to deputy national security adviser. He was eventually pardoned by Poppy Bush. “Abrams, who previously was in charge of Middle East affairs, will be responsible for pushing Bush’s strategy for advancing democracy,” reports the Washington Post( http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59235-2005Feb2?lan guage=printer ) , in other words advancing invasion, bombardment, murder, and misery.
“Elliott Abrams embodies neoconservatism,” notes Right Web ( http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/abrams/abrams.php ). “Perhaps more than any other neoconservative, Abrams has integrated the various influences that have shaped today’s neoconservative agenda. A creature of the neoconservative incubator, Abrams is a political intellectual and operative who has advanced the neoconservative agenda with chutzpah and considerable success.” Abrams is a diehard PNACer, having “authored the chapter on the Middle East in the 2000 blueprint for U.S. foreign policy by the Project on the New American Century. Edited by PNAC founders William Kristol and Robert Kagan, Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy is a chapter-by-chapter playbook on how to deal with America’s current and future adversaries.”
As the PNAcers wrote in a letter to Bush on September 20, 2001 ( http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/NAC304A.html ), “any war against terrorism must target Hezbollah. We believe the administration should demand that Iran and Syria immediately cease all military, financial, and political support for Hezbollah and its operations. Should Iran and Syria refuse to comply, the administration should consider appropriate measures of retaliation against these known state sponsors of terrorism.” Hezbollah, of course, is particularly loathed, not because of any specific terrorism it has engaged in, but rather because it kicked Israel out of Lebanon in 2000.
Santorum, a right-wing Christian-Zionist nut case—he is actually Catholic, but agrees to everything the Christian Zionists do—is simply greasing the skids for an invasion or bombardment of Iran, scheduled for some time later this year or early next year.
If the U.S. military can’t defeat the Sunni and Ba’athist resistance in Iraq, what do they think they will do to defeat the resistance in Iran? Israel skedaddled from Lebanon because it was unable to defeat Hezbollah. Shia warriors are particularly fierce and Iran has millions of them. Of course, a whole lot of Iranians are less than happy with the medieval mullahs, but they would far less happy with a U.S.-Israel invasion of their nation.
The Strausscon PNACers are driving us into a catastrophe. Rick Santorum and his Christian Zionist pals in Congress are setting the stage for that catastrophe. Question is, when will the American people finally wake up and get rid of these religious right-wing zealots?
Addendum
Of course, the fact there are no viable “opposition groups” inside Iran does not negate the possibility Rumsfeld’s SSB covert ops, who we know are currently active inside Iran, will create them. It’s not a stretch to imagine a scenario where such groups are created, declare their opposition to the mullahs, and then receive financial and military assistance from the United States. For my devalued dollar, this is precisely what will happen.
