Is Iran Being Set Up?....Safe from Attack? or Doomed After Next 9/11?

[RedEarth]

Safe from Attack? or Doomed After Next 9/11?
Is Iran Being Set Up?
By GARY LEUPP

A recent article by Juan Cole depicts Iran as the real victor in the Iraq War. This is because Iran, which Washington officially designates "evil," has been able to establish warm relations with the government ushered into power by U.S. occupation forces in neighboring Iraq.

In his state visit to Iran Prime Minister al-Jaafari was offered electricity, wheat, pipeline projects, use of Iranian ports to transship goods to Iraq. Jaafari paid a pilgrimage to the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini, one of the most vilified characters in the history of U.S. foreign relations. He blamed the Iran-Iraq War (in which the U.S. backed Baghdad) on Saddam Hussein and accepted Iraqi culpability. He promised that Iraq would not allow any attack on Iran from its soil.

Reports about the recent flurry of Iran-Iraq diplomacy must shock the neocons. Things are not going at all according to plan. Neocon ally Chalabi should be in power, hosting the Israeli prime minister's official visit and mapping a common strategy against Iran. Just 30,000 U.S. soldiers should be in Iraq, living on permanent bases. The privatized oil industry should be paying for the nearly completed reconstruction of the country. Instead, devout Shiites who revere Khomeini are in power, Iraq is far from recognizing Israel, 130,000 U.S. forces are bogged down in a guerrilla war, the oil industry hasn't recovered to pre-2001 levels, and the costs of the war and reconstruction fall on the American taxpayer. No, this is not at all what the neocons expected.

Not anticipating that Iraqi Shiites would either turn on their "liberators" or feel sympathy towards Iran (with which Iraq fought a long very bloody war in the 1980s), the neocons instead expected (or at least, publicly stated that they expected) a welcoming population that would submit to something like the U.S. occupation of Japan (1945-52). L. Paul Bremer III, heading the "Coalition Provisional Authority" in Iraq, said in June 2003 that while the occupation imposed "no blanket prohibition" against Iraqi self-rule, and he wasn't personally "opposed to it," it had to occur in "a way that takes care of our concerns. Elections that are held too early can be destructive. It's got to be done very carefully" (Washington Post, June 28, 2003). The January 2005 election was held not because the U.S. came with a plan to quickly establish an Iraqi democracy, but because Shiite demonstrators rallied by Ayatollah Sistani demanded both an end to the occupation and free elections early on.

http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp07272005.html

Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial Crusades.

[volitionx]

1. I think the neo-cons screwed up...

by letting the Shiite majority in Iraq win the bulk of seats in the election, and then align themselves with the Shiites in Iran. But you'll never hear Bush admit to this or any other mistake.

The invasion of Iran was next on the neo-con list, in their attempt to create a new American Empire, but I'm not so sure if it'll happen now. On the other hand, in my opinion, the whole reason Bolton is being nominated as ambassador to the U.N. is to chill U.S. relations with the U.N. to the point that Bush can invade Iran and not have to listen to any guff from the rest of the world. Not that he listens to anyone other than Cheney, anyway...

[newyawker99]

2. Hi volitionx!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: