Sunday, July 1, 2018

Elliott Gabriel — US’ Iran Regime-Change Plan: Hit Economy, Orchestrate Protests, Engage MEK Cult to Chant “Democracy”

While the hard-hit Iranian economy is likely to continue reeling, driving more protesters into the streets, one shouldn’t mistake their pain for a desire to subject themselves to a totalitarian cult with hardly a fraction of the support enjoyed by the Shia clergy helming the Islamic Republic.
Remember Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi government in exile that was supposed to lead "democratize Iraq" after the fall of Saddam?

You don't? Because it never got off the ground.

A similar plan is being hatched for Iran and the outcome will be the same — abject failure owing to magical thinking.

In fact, it is even worse. The US is relying on MEK, until recently declared a terrorist organization, along with some cronies of the despotic shah. At least Chalabi was only accused of financial crimes.

Moreover, Iran is a completely different situation than Iraq owing to difference of scale. 

In addition, the US is inserting itself into the Sunni-Shia divide, which is comparable to the Protestan-Catholic divide that resulted so much division and war in Europe.

In fact, the plan is so wildly improbable one wonders whether the actual objective is just more destabilization, which seems to be the underlying US global strategy.

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Last year, at the same conference, Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton told the MEK they would be ruling Iran by 2019....

Addressing a meeting of violent opposition group the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) in Paris, U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said the United States would keep applying pressure on Iran's government until it collapses.
"We are now realistically being able to see an end to the regime in Iran," Giuliani told supporters of MEK, an organization that calls for the violent overthrow of Iran's government, supported Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war, and was listed as a terrorist organization by the United States until 2012....
Telesur
Trump Attorney [Giulliani] Meets Exiled Iranian MEK, Promises Regime Change

10 comments:

Konrad said...

I think there are many misconceptions here. First of all, the only reason why people like John Bolton and Rudy Giuliani support the MEK is that Bolton et.al. receive huge "speaking fees" (i.e. bribes) by the MEK.

This support is merely verbal. No one in Washington actually supports the MEK, which is a Marxist-feminist cult. The USA listed the MEK as a terrorist organization until 2012, when the MEK literally bought their way off the terrorist list. Even so, U.S. forces ran the MEK out of Iraq in 2016. The MEK had to move to Albania.

Second, there is no way that the MEK can be used for regime change in Iran, since the MEK are despised by every Iranian, rich and poor, nationalist and neoliberal, clergy and lay public. The MEK joined Iraq in its war against Iran (500,000 Iranians killed), and committed many terrorist acts in Iran.

Meanwhile in Iran there is a government power struggle between [1] wealthy neoliberals (including the current president, Rouhani) and [2] nationalists, represented by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran.

Average Iranians see both sides as hopelessly corrupt and self-serving. This is why average Iranians are rioting and protesting. A prolonged drought has destroyed the livelihoods of millions, and forced them to converge on Iran’s main cities, where youth unemployment and unhappiness is extreme. Young Iranians see the clergy, the rich neoliberals, and the Revolutionary Guard as thieves and swindlers who are grabbing all they can for themselves.

No one is more opposed to the U.S. Empire than I am, but let’s be careful about automatically assuming that every problem in the world is a product of the Empire’s meddling. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn’t.

Nicaragua is likewise engulfed in rioting. Again, many people assume that this is the result of U.S. meddling. In reality the rioting is a native response to poverty, and to government corruption. Below is an article that will give you the truth about Nicaragua.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/06/25/nicaragua-barricades-and-crossroads#

Noah Way said...

Regime change begins at home.

Tom Hickey said...

It is very difficult to manufacture regime change without the assistance of an unwitting population. The m.o. is to harness discontent and use it to accomplish one's purposes. Same with terrorism. The US is fighting terrorism and simultaneously using terrorists against adversaries. These are aspects of hybrid warfare, which the US has been using for a long time. The current spate began with Carter's arming and funding the "freedom fighters" under Bin Laden to make trouble for Russia in Afghanistan. It escalated from there. This is principal occupation of the operational arm of the CIA, assigned by NGOs as cover. Not that to say that the NGOs involved are all completely corrupted but only where needed. Since this is all top secret it is difficult to know what is going on at the time and it only surfaced decades later.

Konrad said...

“It is very difficult to manufacture regime change without the assistance of an unwitting population. The m.o. is to harness discontent and use it to accomplish one's purposes.”

Yes. The trick is to find fault lines in the target society, and then inflame and widen those fault lines to achieve imperial goals. For example, the Empire has never been able to conquer post-revolution Cuba, because the Cuban people have never been sufficiently divided. A genuinely united people cannot be conquered. By contrast, a divided people can be conquered, and easily. Even if they are not conquered from outside, their society will eventually collapse.

“Same with terrorism. The US is fighting terrorism and simultaneously using terrorists against adversaries.”

With respect, the U.S. is not fighting terrorism. The USA is perpetrating it. The USA is a terrorist nation.

“These are aspects of hybrid warfare, which the US has been using for a long time. The current spate began with Carter's arming and funding the ‘freedom fighters’ under Bin Laden to make trouble for Russia in Afghanistan. It escalated from there."

It goes back farther than that. Just after World War II the USA started arming and funding the Muslim Brotherhood against the secular pan-Arab solidarity and nationalist movement led by people like Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser.

The USA has been arming and funding jihadist groups ever since then, while claiming to be fighting them.

Tom Hickey said...

Actually, it began in 1941 with the establishment of the OSS, which later became the CIA. The OSS performed the entirely legitimate task of countering fascism in Europe by aiding the resistance, for example. The OSS also recruited Nazis for use in the ensuing Cold War against the USSR, which began at the end of WWII, when the policy objectives shifted. This provided the experience and personnel for the establishment of the CIA as a covert operational force in addition to being an intelligence agency.

Allen Dulles was an early leader in the OSS, and he was appointed CIA director at time of the founding of the CIA by President Truman. He remained in the position until he was dismissed (forced to resign) by President Kennedy.

It's an interesting story with many plots that goes back a long way.

Konrad said...

Yes. I was only speaking about jihadist groups.

TRIVIA: During World War II the Waffen SS had a Muslim division called the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS "Handschar" (1st Croatian).

Numerically this was the single largest division in the Waffen SS.

Noah Way said...

The trick is to find fault lines in the target society, and then inflame and widen those fault lines to achieve imperial goals.

And if the target society is your own?

Konrad said...

@Noah Way:

The principles of divide et impera (divide and conquer) especially apply if the target nation is your own.

American peasants are divided along lines of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, political loyalties, and so on.

Rich elitists cultivate these divisions in order to keep the peasants from uniting against their rich owners.

Tom Hickey said...

Identity politics.

Noah Way said...

It isn't regime change when one set of puppets is replaced by another.