Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Iran: real threat or rhetoric?

Doctor Zin, of RegimeChangeIran, is drawing the attention of the media and the blogosphere to the poster used during the infamous "World Without Zionism" conference where President Ahmadinejad declared that Iran will wipe "Israel off the map". According to Doctor Zin, the graphic suggests a real threat against America and Israel.

The poster says "A World without Zionism" and depicts a hourglass from which two globes (grains of sand) descend. One, with the American flag, has already fallen to the bottom and it is broken; the other is falling and has the star of David on it. Is the broken American globe hinting at 9/11 or at Iraq's "resistance" humiliating the US? In either cases it would seem to signal a strong sympathy or even a sharing of Al Qaeda' views and aims.

So, how would Iran manage to free the world of America and Israel?

You only need to listen to Ahmadinejad's chief strategic guru Hassan Abbassi, for the answer. Abbassi is the architect of the so-called "war preparation plan" currently under way in Iran. This is the same Hassan Abbassi who said:
We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization... we must make use of everything we have at hand to strike at this front by means of our suicide operations or by means of our missiles. There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them.

Empty threats? Not necessarily, and they should be taken very seriously. However, I think Ahmadinejad, inexperienced as he is, would not be so stupid as to give advance notice of his intentions. Furthermore, if he is planning more terrorist attacks against American interests, he would be mad to advertise it; it would make retaliation so much easier.

On the other hand, Doctor Zin suggests, he might hope that by provoking the US and Israel into attacking Iran he would survive the ensuing limited war and, consequently, consolidate his power. All dictators, when they feel their grip on power is slipping from their hands, resort to the old trick of inventing an imaginary "external enemy" that, purportedly, threatens their nation.

Ahmadinejad might also have wanted to send a warning to other Muslim countries that of late (after Israel withdrawal from Gaza) have shown a willingness to recognize and do business with Israel, such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. Despite his short career, he must feel more and more isolated.

The mad statements coming from Iran's presidency raise other questions: who are the conservatives - Ahmadinejad and his cronies - talking to? Are they such naive zealots to believe their own words? Where is the audience they are trying to mobilize? No doubt the youth and middle class of Teheran and other big cities do not share their fascist views, but how many are the poor ignorant people brainwashed by decades of "Islamic revolution" who swallow every word coming from these terrorists? Are we seeing here something similar to what is happening in Zimbabwe or Venezuela, where Mugabe and his friend Chavez play to the rural poor with their racist rants?

If the regime is to be confronted effectively, these questions should be answered seriously and objectively.

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2 comments:

GNN Staff Writer said...

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marlow said...

Baciamo le mani!