Only Iran Can Help America Save Face

Recent American stands and U.S. attitudes on Iraq, particularly when they involve Iran, seem so ridiculous that it reminds me of an old Persian saying composed in poetic verse that says in effect, “When matters turn dark, men do whatever they can imagine turn the tide, but it’s no use.” By this I mean that to whatever deception Washington resorts, it won’t extricate itself from its difficulties but instead only create more.

These days, every new effort that the Americans attempt in Iraq just adds to the problems they had created before. They are like a man who is plunged into quicksand and flails about to escape, but the more he struggles, the more deeply he is trapped.

Of the many foolish attitudes adopted by the United States, one may refer to its stance toward Iran. Its detention of Iranian consular officials in Arbil, northern Iraq or the groundless accusations occasionally leveled by commanders of the defeated U.S. forces in Iraq or Afghanistan are just a few such examples. Indeed, such accusations are baseless and foolish and attributing them to Iran is utterly absurd and ridiculous. The latest allegations – that Iran has been helping extremist Salafist [in other words – arming the Sunnis and the Shiites] terrorists in Iraq or that it supplies weapons and ammunition to Taliban in Afghanistan, are no different from those that have gone before.

Is it at all conceivable to imagine, even momentarily, that Iran would help groups that are actively engaged in killing Shiites the world over, and with which it has such fundamental differences? Such American allegations and attitudes can mean only this: that the Americans have absolutely no understanding of Iran or its policies and principles.

But the question for us is this: Have the Americans espoused such attitudes out of stupidity, or do they have other purposes in mind? I have no doubt that the only reason for this foolish behavior is the immaturity of certain American politicians. With all of its power and military might, American activities against Iran – like other recent actions it has taken – will sooner or later result in the greatest defeat of the United States in the world’s contemporary history.

Can America solve its problems by blaming Iran for everything that has gone wrong? Will its strategic difficulties be dispelled with an armed attack on Iran? These are the questions now occupying the minds of many Americans and Europeans as well. But jumping to hasty conclusions, one should ask what the evidence is or whether and proof really exists to prove that Iran supports, even marginally, extremist terrorists in Iraq or Taliban in Afghanistan.

Presently, suicide bombers and other terrorists who couldn’t possibly have the slightest material or spiritual link with Iran, embody the most difficult problem that the Americans have. These people are of a different stripe from and are deeply opposed to the fundamental principles institutionalized in the Islamic Republic [Iran].

And while it’s an established fact that Iran has never accepted the arrogant nature of the United States, at the same time it doesn’t consider supporting such extremist groups as a way to oppose it.

On the contrary, Iran is the only government capable to pulling the United States out of the quicksand that it presently flails about in. No one should doubt that sooner or later, this fact will become clear.

Considering the ideological and factional interests of the region’s countries, the only state among them that can and will be prepared to stand against the extremist terrorists that have brought the United States to its knees is the Iranian government and nation. In Iran, both Shiites and Sunnis are united and unanimous about confronting these extremists, who have so seriously damaged the prestige of Islam and Muslims. Iran’s Islamic ideology is a paradigm that that depicts Islam as moderate, ad promises a peaceful and at the same time powerful future for the Islamic world.

Iran is undoubtedly capable of playing an effective role in stabilizing the region, while at the same time it can dissuade the aggressive Americans, who have made inroads and blatantly violated the rights of others, from their unjustified course, instead respectfully encouraging them to withdraw their forces without their having to lose face.

This is a golden opportunity for the United States and is in line with what the Iraq Study Group recommended to the Bush Administration. Unfortunately, the Americans disregarded the most essential point in the Group’s report, which was to establish contact with the Iranian government.

The United States undoubtedly knows that it is in Iran’s interest to have a secure Iraq next door. Washington also knows that during the past four years, no other nation has supported Iraq’s democratic process and has stood for the formation of a democratic government there as much as Iran has. Most neighboring Arab states have remained antagonistic toward the process and have helped finance and support the terrorists.