By: Prof. Kazem Kazerounian
Source: Global Politician
The dynamics of the relation between the United States and the Iran’s mullahs resembles that of an abused wife and the batterer husband. Domestic violence comes as a form of bullying, as a means that is easier than other methods. There are different reasons why spouses stay in physically abusive marriages. Some women stay because they fear the community’s reaction, some hope that their husbands will change, some stay out of fear of the husband’s violent reaction, some stay because of low-esteem, and some stay because they can’t find a way out. United States must find a way out of this dishonorable cycle.
Since 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s dossier of terrorism against the United States includes: taking 52 American hostages in Tehran for 444 days, attacks on U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 killing sixty three people including seventeen American servicemen; second U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut in 1984 killing 24 people, two of whom were U.S. military personnel; Khobar Towers bombing in June 1996 in Dahran, Saudi Arabia killing nineteen U.S. servicemen and injuring more than 500 others, 240 of whom were Americans;
In Iraq, Tehran’s terrorist activities are designed to bully and humiliate the United States and inflict casualties. Mullahs’ activities in Iraq include: smuggling weaponry and explosives to Iraq and placing them in the hands of a potpourri of terrorist groups to create an intimidating environment for Iraqis and an impossible situation for coalition forces; strengthening and utilizing centuries old religious connections to influence the public positions and political landscape; bribing hundreds of corrupt politicians to be Iran’s voice within the newly installed government; conducting targeted terrorist activities to create ethnic and religious tensions; buying houses and businesses extensively in order to establish native proxy clusters; smuggling drugs to Iraq and promoting organized prostitution with intent to create controllable corruption and mafia-like webs; conducting targeted or mass executions to stop resistance to Iran’s infiltration in Iraq; lighting cities and towns on fire to force strategic migrations of Iraqi citizens; destroying holy shrines to spur religious confrontations; facilitating travel and supplies for Al-Qaeda through Iran; conducting direct or commissioned assaults on coalition forces to wear them down; forcing hejab (veil) on Iraqi women.
Nevertheless, the United States reaction over the past two decades has not been more than the reaction of a battered spouse in an abusive relation that she can not break out of. United States has gone to the back door and front door negotiating rooms with mullahs time and again. When the mullahs asked the West for impeding opposition to the Iran’s regime, United States and Europe responded affirmatively by placing Iran’s main opposition group (MEK and NCRI) in the terrorist list for the past ten years. This categorization has tied the hands of the enemies of the ayatollahs and has eased the regime’s anxiety. Nevertheless Tehran’s behavior has not changed. In the past few months, knowing well what mullahs intentions in Iraq are, the US went to the negotiating table twice. In these meetings US envoys complained about the mullahs’ behavior while the mullahs’ proxies delivered their usual insults and demeaning lectures.
A bunch of so called scholars in Washington have played the role of family advisors to the battered wife asking the US to remain in this abusive relationship (read the August 1 st 2007article by Daioleslam in the Global Politician). Such advice will lead to a disastrous situation in which war between US and Iran will be inevitable and will claim the lives of countless Iranian and American young men and women.
It is time for an honorable, just and wise action. The United States must give up hope that the barbaric mullahs will some day learn how to behave in a civilized manner. The only solution for the Iranian people, for the region and for the world is regime change in Iran. More importantly, the agent of change can not be a foreign power or foreign war. Iranian regime must be changed by the Iranian people and their legitimate resistance, National Council of Resistance of Iran, Mojahedin-e-Khalgh and all other opposition groups who have not been involved in the crimes of the Shah and the mullahs rule and strive for a secular, free and democratic Iran.
Prof. Kazem Kazerounian teaches at the University of Connecticut.
