Michael Sheuer, former CIA operative, on what Obama’s Position On Iran Should Be
“I think Mr Wolfowitz and many people in the press..they want to break the Iranian regime..that’s all they are interested in..its a matter of power. For westerners to flicker into youtube and to urge these kids to go out in the street, and as Gary said, fall on the bayonets of the revolutionary guards to me is, its just almost criminal. The US should stay the devil out of this business. Obama managed to keep his big mouth shut while the Israelis killed 1500 people in Gaza ..he just [] with the greatest jail master in the middle east in Cairo, stay out of this business. America doesn’t need another war.”- Michael Sheuer, former CIA operative.
Sheuer reminds us that the position the neocons and republicans are advocating for, a stronger US involvement in the Iran crisis, will only worsen things and turn the situation into an Iran-US showdown while the Iranian people will pay the price with their blood. Moreover, he reminds us that these same critics couldn’t give two shits about the people in the Middle East and their quest for democracy, justice, and freedom.
Although I value Gary Berntsen’s solidarity with the Iranian people, I do think that what he is aiming for, a complete overthrow of the current regime in Iran, is an example of what problematic expectations certain U.S. officials have of the recent turmoil in Iran– exactly what Sheuer was referring to. The Iranian people are protesting what they perceive to be a rigged election, and for their voices to be heard. They are rallying for Mousavi, not for an overthrow of the Islamic regime. As Sheuer and many others like him have pointed out, Mousavi is not that different from Ahmadenijad. If by some miracle he is declared to be the next president of Iran by the Guardian Council, it will not necessarily mean the end of the Islamic Republic nor the dissolution of the “problems” the US has with Iran.
The legitimate protests of the Iranian people have been met with tear gas, live ammunition and severe brutality from their own government and Basij militia. The Iranian people are fighting for their rights, for their right to be heard and for their right to nonviolent protests as enshrined in the Iranian constitution. They are not a means by which the U.S. government will use to reach its foreign policy goals– these protests are about them, not us, and it’d be great if certain US officials would see it that way.
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