{"id":297,"date":"2007-05-24T08:53:49","date_gmt":"2007-05-24T13:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=297"},"modified":"2007-05-24T08:53:49","modified_gmt":"2007-05-24T13:53:49","slug":"confrontation-with-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=297","title":{"rendered":"Confrontation with Iran?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Language\" content=\"en-us\" \/> <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=windows-1252\" \/><title>The news is awash in stories abo<\/title>The news is awash in stories about rising tensions between the US and Iran.\u00c2\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alertnet.org\/thenews\/newsdesk\/L24343514.htm\">Reuters reports<\/a>  on US naval maneuvers in the Gulf and accompanying jitters in the oil market.<\/p>\n<p>So, maybe the US is heading for a military confrontation with Iran.<\/p>\n<p>I doubt it.\u00c2\u00a0 Here is Israeli Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu on the  subject in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/8ec69b4e-0867-11dc-b11e-000b5df10621.html\">an  interview with the <em>Financial Times<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[Y]ou can reserve the military option, preferably by the US, which has  \tthe means to do so. But that should be a last resort, because it is far too  \tcomplicated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Maybe the US is leading the way toward a &#8220;velvet revolution&#8221; in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>I doubt it.\u00c2\u00a0 Those who most wish it were so discount the possibility.\u00c2\u00a0  Here is Right Zionist <a href=\"http:\/\/pajamasmedia.com\/xpress\/michaelledeen\/2007\/05\/23\/the_plot.php\"> Michael Ledeen<\/a> on recent reports that the White House authorized the CIA to  undertake covert operations to undermine the Iranian regime:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[I]t\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a typical CIA product: the opposite of a serious program. You  \tdon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need a secret disinformation operation; instead, we need an effective,  \tpublic, information effort, including a VOA Farsi Service that entertains  \tcriticis of the mullahs more than their apologists, and administration  \tspokesthings who talk about the grisly repression of the Iranian people  \tcarried out by the regime. Above all, four little words \u00e2\u20ac\u0153we support regime  \tchange\u00e2\u20ac\u009d would be a great way to start. And those words should come from the  \tWhite House or Foggy Bottom. So far, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got the secretary of state saying  \tshe doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want regime change, just \u00e2\u20ac\u0153better behavior\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the mullahs&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>[T]his sort of leak invariably comes from people trying to kill the program.  \tMy guess is that CIA doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to do ANYTHING mean to the mullahs, and so  \tthey are trying to sabotage their own silly program.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The nuclear issue is in the news, but the nuke story is only a proxy for a  larger geo-political story.\u00c2\u00a0 As hawks on both sides recognize, nobody  really cares about the nukes, as such.<\/p>\n<p>Not surprisingly, an Iranian official <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.irna.ir\/en\/news\/view\/line-17\/0705246444100916.htm\">recently  asserted as much<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Deputy Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) for  \tInternational Affairs Javad Vaeedi [said], &#8220;Iran&#8217;s access to nuclear  \ttechnology is not the problem of the US or the West. Iran&#8217;s attaining a  \tgeostrategic position is their problem.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>More surprising, at least on the surface, is that Right Zionists like Michael  Rubin over at the American Enterprise Institute tend to agree that the real  issue is the current geostrategic <em>orientation<\/em> of the regime.\u00c2\u00a0 A  nuclear Iran allied with Israel and the United States might continue to be a  concern for Arab regimes (as the Iranian nuclear program was under the Shah).\u00c2\u00a0  But it would be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aei.org\/publications\/pubID.22810,filter.all\/pub_detail.asp\"> far less threatening for a figure like Rubin<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span class=\"BodyText\"><strong>A democratic Iran might not abandon its  \tnuclear program, but<\/strong> neither would it sponsor anti-American  \tterrorism, undercut the Middle East peace process or deny Israel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right to  \texist. <strong>Democratization<\/strong>, therefore, <strong>can take the  \tedge off the Iranian threat<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"BodyText\">All of which goes to saying that the real question on  the table right now is whether the US can &#8220;flip&#8221; Iran and change its  geostrategic orientation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"BodyText\">All through the 1980s, Right Zionists like Michael  Ledeen <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=278\">thought this was  urgent work<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"BodyText\">During the 1990s, Cheney <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=263\">clearly favored an opening  with Iran<\/a>, in part to enhance US leverage in its Great Power rivalry with  Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"BodyText\">Are we seeing <a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=296\">a return to that older  Cheney<\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"BodyText\">If so, will his Right Zionist allies follow his lead?\u00c2\u00a0  Or will they accuse him of &#8220;selling out Israel&#8221; by cutting a deal with an  &#8220;unreconstructed&#8221; anti-Zionist regime in Iran?<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The news is awash in stories aboThe news is awash in stories about rising tensions between the US and Iran.\u00c2\u00a0 Reuters reports on US naval maneuvers in the Gulf and accompanying jitters in the oil market. So, maybe the US is heading for a military confrontation with Iran. I doubt it.\u00c2\u00a0 Here is Israeli Likud [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}