Toward A Coherent Policy In Support Of Regime Change In Iran
By The US Alliance for Democratic Iran (09/13/04)
In calling for a strong policy toward Iran, Lt. Gen. McInerney and Maj. Gen. Vallely, two veteran military analysts, wrote in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, “It is imperative… that we immediately and forcefully check Iran, inside and outside of Iraq.” In doing so, they cited the clerical regime’s sinister designs in Iraq.
The two added that “the best way to end the threat posed by Iran is end the mullahs' rule of Iran,” and called for removal of the Iranian main opposition organization, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq from the State Department's list of terrorist organizations, saying that group is "the most organized, disciplined, and popular opposition movement in Iran."
Similarly, Jed Babbin, the former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under President George H. W. Bush, told a recent symposium on Iran’s nuclear program that “Iran is, by far, the most dangerous terrorist nation. Their nuclear ambitions and their unarguable involvement in global terrorism make them our number one problem.”
Mr. Babbin went on to say, “We should be pursuing regime change in Iran now, through covert operations, support for Iranian opposition groups (such as the Mujahideen e Khalq, which we wrongly labeled a terrorist group at Tehran's request).”
Given the current stalemate in Washington concerning the policy on Iran, these bold policy recommendation are to say the least refreshing if not over due. But the obvious question is why these veteran analysts and policy experts see this urgency and why the removal of the MEK from the State Department terror list is indispensable to the any serious policy toward Iran.
The explosive “Iran problem” we are facing both in Iraq and in the nuclear arena is the same “mullah problem” the Iranian people have been fighting against for more than two decades now.
Never before in the history of US-Iran relationship, has the need for democracy in Iran and the security interests of the United States been so intimately intertwined. This fact has recently been in full display in Iran where harsher crackdown, including public executions particularly of minors in recent weeks, has been matched by an increasing number of suicide volunteers clerical regime has recruited for dispatch to Iraq.
Iran has been on a crash course to pass the nuclear point of no return and make its political and ideological gains in Iraq irreversible. The urgency these policy experts are talking about has been imposed on us by the tyrants in Iran. Unlike our policy makers in Washington, the mullahs are not deferring these issues to post presidential election. They have in fact been exploiting this apparent policy paralysis in Washington to act with impunity.
The terrorist designation of the MEK was a by-product of the failed policy of engagement pursued by the previous administration following the presidency of Khatami in 1997. That was the case then and it is now.
For 16 months after the war, the United States and law enforcement agencies interviewed the MEK members at their main Camp, Ashraf, in Iraq. Senior U.S. administration officials told the New York Times in July, “The United States has found no basis to charge members of an Iranian opposition group in Iraq [the MEK] with violations of American law.” The State Department also confirmed that the dissident group was not a belligerent during the Iraq war.
Now, with the failure of the policy of engagement and all of its aliases such as “grand bargain” and “direct dialogue”, the only viable approach is the formulation of a meaningful and coherent policy in support of regime change by Iranians.
Recommendations by Generals McInerney and Vallely, and Mr. Babbin are serious practical policy proposals based on a realistic analysis of the gravity of the threat the mullahs pose to the well-being of Iranians and our security interests.
Blacklisting this dissident group has not only hampered its campaign against the mullahs and weakened a significant segment of Iran’s democracy movement; it has also put our Iran policy in a stray jacket limiting our ability to reach out to the opposition groups in Iran. It has also enabled the regime to justify the savage treatment of its dissidents and MEK members and supporters as part of the “war on terrorism”.
Generals McInerney and Vallely wrote, “We understand these suggestions will strike some as too strong. Considering, however, that Iran is poised to make a play for regional dominance, our countermove must be the strongest we have ever made in our 25-year cold war with Iran. Iraq's success is dependent on it.” They could not have said it any better.
The US Alliance for Democratic Iran (www.usadiran.org), is a US-based, independent, non-profit policy advocacy organization, which aims to advance a US policy in support of Iranian people’s aspirations for a democratic, secular, and peaceful government. The USADI is not affiliated with any government agencies, political groups or parties.
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