Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Iran is a big story

There are two sides to the notion of intervention in Iranian affairs. One side (the regime's side and its Arab supporters) contend that what is happening in Iran is the result of an outside conspiracy engineered by the US/Israel/Saudi Arabia. Another side (the side of the supporters of the "reformers"--and I use the word reformer with the same conviction that I describe Hamiz Karzai as a reformer--contend that Iranian protests are purely and exclusively domestic and internal and that the outside world is only watching. Hell, some among the CNN-saves-Iran crowd, believe that Obama only extends his wishes to the protesters. Here is my take: I woke up thinking about it. While I want every Middle East regime overthrown and the Zionist racist state dismantled altogether, I am sure that in 50 years, when the documents are declassified we will learn that the US/Saudi Arabia/Israel played a very big role in the affairs of Iran, and that billions of dollars were spent toward the goal of destabilizing the regime. You need to read David Ottaway's latest book to learn about Saudi services to US covert operations. But of course, if the regime does not have its own genuine dissident movement, and if it has not alienated segments of the population, there would not be anything to exploit. But to deny that there are US/Israel/Saudi hands in the affair, is to deny the obvious. Supporters of the Iranian protests will now write to me in disapproval. I am not impugning the national credential and motives of the protesters themselves, especially as they grow in size, but we know from Operation Ajax from more than 50 years ago, US covert operations have handled demonstrations and coups in the Middle East all along. Of course, some of those operations are comical, like the staged removal of the Saddam statue in Firdaws Square.