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Weekly Commentary
Preserving a
Faltering Tyranny
Last Monday, students at Tehran University gave the mullahs’
embattled president Mohammad Khatami an angry and humiliating
reception. He was bombarded with boos and angry slogans
reflecting widespread frustration with his utter failure and the
incompetence in office.
"Khatami, Khatami shame on you", "Khatami we detest you",
"Khatami, our votes were wasted on you" and "Where are your
promised freedoms?" students chanted.
“Just stop it. I will tell them to throw you out," a visibly
shaken Khatami lashed out. But for most present, Khatami's words
merely underlined the impotence of a man who many now view as
part of a system, which is unwilling to accept real change.
Once seen by the West as a great hope for change in the Islamic
Republic, Khatami asked the students to stop heckling and
accused his critics of intolerance. "Unfortunately what Khatami
sees as his tolerance was his extreme weakness towards the
opponents of democracy," said a student.
In reaction to this outright expression of student outrage,
Khatami presented his usual “Khatami act”: a mix of playing
victim, some doze of superficial talk about preference of
freedom to despotism, and a lot of demagoguery. Students did not
buy any of it, chanting, "Enough lies, enough lies,”
"Incompetent Khatami, may our vote not bless you!"
But what really spoke volumes were a few sentences Khatami
uttered about the role he played in preserving the ruling
religious dictatorship against the mounting demands of the
Iran’s democracy movement that seeks fundamental change and
political freedoms.
The Associated Press wrote that Khatami in his speech admitted
to his failure to fulfill the promise of implementing democratic
reforms because “he had bowed to the will of Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei” to “avoid riots and preserve the ruling
Islamic establishment.”
Khatami was acknowledging a fact known to Iran’s democratic
opposition forces for more than two decades: the realization of
democratic change is impossible as long the theocratic regime
rules Iran. Moreover, he conceded that only through a popular
revolt and mass protests the democratic changes in Iran could be
accomplished and if that were to happen, the ensuing uprising
would result in the downfall of the clerical regime. Khatami
admitted, “If I retreated, I retreated in the face of a regime
that I believe in… I considered it necessary to save the ruling
establishment."
The fantasy of “reform” in a totalitarian regime, structurally
and intrinsically lacking any capacity to change or to cope with
democratic aspirations of the Iranian people came to an end with
the ouster of Khatami’s faction from the parliament last
February. For seven years, the mullahs' president deceived
Iranians with his talk about the rule of law while his foremost
goal was to preserve the regime. He told students that "I really
believe in this system and the revolution and that this system
can be changed from within."
Sadly, for seven long years the West bought into this and
legitimized Khatami as vehicle of change and as such, it turned
a blind eye to Iran’s democracy movement and blacklisted the
Iranian democratic opposition forces who sought to unseat the
ruling regime.
Seven years later, the most extreme and belligerent factions of
the mullahs’ regime have gained control of all levers of power
and are challenging regional peace and security by working
relentlessly to advance their nuclear weapons program and
through extensive meddling in Iraq to influence the upcoming
elections.
Meanwhile, thousands of political dissidents and activist
students, journalists, intellectuals, and writers have been
killed or thrown in jail. Student uprisings in 1999 and the
following years were brutally suppressed by the regime security
forces, while the outside world, mesmerized by the fallacy of an
“Ayatollah Gorbachev,” continually ignored the students’ cry for
support and only offered lip service to the cause of democracy.
As the world is watching, the mullahs’ regime is on the
threshold of becoming a nuclear-armed power and a dominant force
in Iraq after the January 30 election. The appeasers in the EU
capitals and Washington bear a huge responsibility in giving a
declining regime a second lease on life.
As Washington is working to formulate a comprehensive policy
toward Tehran, the lesson to be learned from the seven years of
futile experiment with the myth of “change from within the
system” is that the true forces of change in Iran are those
Iranian democratic opposition groups, which have been
challenging this regime at great risk and cost for the past
quarter century.
(USADI)
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The Wall Street Journal
(Editorial)
December 8, 2004
Democracy for Iran
We keep reading that there are "no good options" for diminishing
the threat of Iran's nuclear program. And certainly preemptive
military strikes are an imperfect solution at best, though the
option has to be kept on the table. But that still doesn't
explain why the Bush Administration has been so reluctant to
support Iranians who want to overthrow the bomb-building
mullahs.
Opposition to the Islamic Republic remains alive and well in
Iran, despite the best efforts of Supreme Leader Ali Khameini
and his loyal ayatollahs to kill it. On Monday the ineffectual
Mohammed Khatami, the outgoing "reformist" president, was
heckled repeatedly while speaking at Tehran University. "What
happened to your promised freedoms," the students asked,
accusing him of "extreme weakness toward the opponents of
democracy."
For readers unfamiliar with the current Iranian system, all the
real power lies with the Supreme Leader and an unelected body
called the Council of Guardians, who must approve all candidates
for office. Mr. Khatami was the more liberal of the two major
candidates the mullahs approved to succeed former President
Hashemi Rafsanjani in 1997, and he won in a landslide. But in
office he refused to stand up for reform as the clerics vetoed
laws curbing the power of the Guardian Council, thus earning the
contempt on display Monday.
In parliamentary elections in February, the Khameini crew
abandoned all pretense of running a real democracy by
disqualifying scores of sitting deputies allied with Mr.
Khatami. About 100 newspapers have been closed in recent years.
And in the presidential vote set for next year the hardliners
look set to recapture the office. Rumor has it that Mr.
Rafsanjani -- once hailed by Foggy Bottom and the Council on
Foreign Relations as a "pragmatist," but who has said openly
that Iran must have the atomic bomb to threaten Israel -- is
interested in having his old job back…
One of the most frustrating arguments against supporting Iran's
democratic opposition is that the nuclear program is a matter of
Persian national pride, and that any government would seek the
bomb. But it should be obvious that a democratic Iran would be
much less of a threat than the current regime, which is the
prime sponsor of Hezbollah and perhaps now al Qaeda as well.
The national pride argument probably isn't true in any case. The
New York Times reported on Monday on an Iranian analyst who has
survey data to suggest many Iranians see the nuclear program for
what it is -- a means to help the current regime consolidate its
power. "The clerics want to get hold of the bomb to rule for
another 50 years," a man named Reza is quoted as saying.
It is becoming increasingly notable that a Bush Administration
committed to democracy everywhere else in the Middle East, and
now in Ukraine, has little to say about the subject regarding
Iran. This is not just a matter of consistency but of national
security, and time is not on our side…
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Knight Ridder Newspapers
December 7, 2004
U.S. Planning to
Increase Pressure on Iran
WASHINGTON -- As 150,000 U.S. troops battle to stabilize Iraq,
some officials in the Bush administration are already planning
to turn up the heat on another member of the president's axis of
evil.
Officials in the White House and the Defense Department are
developing plans to increase public criticism of Iran's human
rights record, offer stronger backing to exiles and other
opponents of Tehran's repressive theocratic government and
collect better intelligence on Iran, according to U.S.
officials, congressional aides and others.
Iran has embarked on a nuclear program that some specialists
fear cannot be prevented from producing an atom bomb; is trying
to extend its influence in Iraq and remains a prime sponsor of
Hezbollah and other international terrorist groups. U.S.
intelligence officials also believe some top lieutenants of
Osama bin Laden have sought refuge in Iran.
However, with the U.S. military now stretched thin by the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan, the new campaign may be intended not to
build support for military action against Iran, but to pressure
Iran to change its behavior so military action isn't necessary.
It's far from clear, however, whether a more aggressive U.S.
campaign to condemn the Iranian regime and court pro-Western
forces would have any effect. The major Iranian opposition
group, the Iraq-based Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK), remains on the
State Department's list of foreign terrorist groups, but it's
provided much of the intelligence about Iran's weapons programs.
The new, more aggressive tack is said to have the backing of
secretary of state-designate Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national
security adviser.
Among the steps under consideration, the officials said, are
stronger public condemnations of Iran's human rights practices
and treatment of women; increased U.S. broadcasting into the
country; and financial backing for pro-Western groups. …
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