USA out of Iran

We all know USA had Mossadeq removed and the Shah installed, and we also know the political failures and the corruption of the Shah eventually led to the Islamic revolution.

I am not going to get into all that; Obama has already admitted it, much to the dismay of US conservatives who - in spite of all reverence for the past and its traditions - don't like to be confronted with it.

Compromising a grass roots movement

Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York, has this comment on the US million dollar budget to promote civil uprising in Iran.

He thinks it is a bad idea, and he is afraid it could kill the grass root movement.

You know what? It is, and it would. He is absolutely right. For all I respect Obama for all his admirable qualities, I also got to say this is a prime time geopolitical blunder of eschatological proportions.

Don't do it.

The government of one large nation, an economic and military superpower already widely criticized and held in contempt for preemptive warfare, illegal intelligence operations, rendition and torture, actively funding the opposition of another country?

This is another case of simply not getting it.

Even if the intentions are sincere - which I doubt they can be - the automatic assumption by any citizen anywhere in the world, is that a nation only acts out of self-interest.

It is our testimony of each other, a collective human verdict on the human race - there is always, always, always, an element of self-interest.

As much as I support the Iranian protests, would like to see them rise up and topple the regime to form any kind of democracy, I have to say:

Foreign governments have to stay out of it.

Sanctions okay, funding uprising: Not cool

I generally understand the need to impose economic sanctions on Iran as long as this criminal and fanatic regime continues to pursue the current course of international bullying mixed with terrorist funding mixed with scary men in leather outfits on bikes killing, beating and terrorizing ordinary civilians.

Economic sanctions are a legitimate instrument of the international community. It is an extention of the sovereignty of a nation; one people's prerogative against another, which they deem a threat.

But please don't corrupt and compromise the Iranian protesters who are sincere in their contention with US government funds, earmarked for destabilization and regime change.

It's not just that it looks bad and will most certainly backfire.

It is bad. It is not how we - and I am sure I am speaking for the majority of people supporting the protesters - want this movement to turn out, even if succesful: As a puppet regime for Washington, bought and paid for by the military-industrial complex of the West.

Of course, if it is to happen - if the protest movement was to accept "the check" - they would be doomed, compromised, caught in a spike trap.

Come on, nothing would be easier than for the Guardian Council to pass the verdict it is national treason. USA is an enemy state. There are no diplomatic relations, and rumors of invasion have persisted for years, decades.

The accusation has already been made.

Even if USA was to keep it clean, only using the funds to sponsor marginal - and probably ineffective - campaigns, with no direct transfer of cash... in public diplomacy this serves as "proof" of an endless number of conspiracy theories and ammunition for the relentless Iranian spin cannon.

So, I didn't think I was going to have to say this under Obama's presidency and while Ahmadinejad performs for the Islamic clergy in Tehran, but: