FIRE WITH FIRE

If you thought that Bush could actually bring democracy to the Middle East and therefore peace to a strife-torn area, I have a bridge in Brooklyn at a very low price just for you.

Okay that's tongue in cheek, but really the Middle East does not want democracy and certainly not the type of democracy that the United States has envisioned.

The type of government that people in the Middle East seem to embrace is modeled on their own tribal and personal relationship model that they embrace. Many in the Middle East look for a strong man to make the decisions and to shape the government. This is one reason why Saddam Hussein was even in power.

Just look around at the other countries there what kind of government model do they have? Saudi Arabia is a monarchy, Lebanon has a Parliament, but the government is constantly being challenged by well armed strong leader militants. Look at Iraq the militias are the real force in the state with Iran pulling the puppet strings. Then look at Iran, there is the Supreme Leader in charge even though they have a President. Again strong men, who the population wish have their best interest at heart, but are not representative of the real people in the country.

The entire culture of the region is built on strong personalities and men who have taken power. Democracy as we know it will never take root and never thrive in this type of cultural equation.

Labels: democracy

Posted by The Watcher at Thursday, August 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I'm poised for both Pakistan, Indonesia, and Iraq to become Muslim theocracies in the very near future. I'm watching Turkey too!

If you read the newspaper in any country, you will see headlines about trouble with the established governments in all of these countries.

There is a very strong grass roots movement away from "Western" influences and a re surging interest in returning to "basics" and family values as well as a strengthening interest that increased religious involvement is the solution for many of these social problems.

What is concerning is that there are many who feel that ONLY a religious theocracy can solve these problems; people have increasingly lost the trust of secular governments and elected officials in these specific countries to be able to enact these needed social changes.

Posted by The Watcher at Wednesday, August 29, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Iran announced that it has started production of a new "smart bomb". Smartly scary that is! This new bomb is already in production and is an air-surface, long range guided missile technologically advanced bomb. It is to be delivered by aircraft to targets.

Disturbingly it was announced that this new bomb is to be used against Iran's enemies and in any threat situations.

Now with increased deadly capability the "nuclear dance" that we have all been playing with Iran just increased in threat and severity.

Labels: Iran bombs

Posted by The Watcher at Monday, August 27, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

The Bush Administration is pushing the Iraqi administration for change, but can it really happen? The current US administration is entering the "lame duck" period and with such a huge loss of political capital it is apparent that even Iraqis won't listen.

The Iraqi government is splintered and truthfully there is little hope that the current government in Iraq can govern effectively. All that seems to have happened is that there has been a coalescence that change is needed. With civil war strife written all over the current Iraqi administration the only thing that I see happening is an increasing rife between the people and the government that is supposed to represent them.

This is the perfect scenario for Iran to move forward with a strong push for a Muslim-based religious government based on the groundwork that it has already laid in Iraq over the last months and years.

Posted by The Watcher at Saturday, August 25, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

By designating Iran's Revolutionary Guards as terrorists, the Bush administration may be creating a monster instead of beheading one.

Formed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Revolutionary Guards function as a national army numbering about 125,000. The Guards are a tightly organized, well-trained, well-armed, well-equipped state military unit. We're not talking about shadows in the night like al-Qaida, Hamas or Hezbollah, other designated terrorists. This is tantamount to putting the US Rangers on a terrorist list. It's the first time the army of a sovereign nation has been called a terrorist by the US.

Because the Guards own and control many of the front companies involved in Iran's nuclear efforts, Bush may be trying to go in the back door. Attacking the Guards may be another way of putting pressure on Iran's nuclear ambitions, said Middle East analyst Georgie Anne Geyer in a recent column. (Geyer writes for United Press Syndicate.) Read Geyer's column here.

But Bush may be putting too much pressure on Iran. "All of us want to back Iran into a corner," said nuclear proliferation expert Joseph Cirincione, "but we want to give them a way out, too." The terrorist designation "will convince many in Iran's elite that there's no point in talking with us and that the only thing that will satisfy us is a regime change."

From recent remarks he has made, it seems that Bush is trying to foment rebellion in Iran. During a recent news conference he said, "My message to the Iranian people is, you can do better than this current government. You don't have to be isolated. You don't have to be in a position where you can't realize your full economic potential."

Bush's attacks on Iran are bound to backfire. Rather than driving apart traditional and liberal elements as he hopes, his efforts will only bind these adversaries in a nationalist movement to protect their country from the US foreign devil.

Labels: foreign policy, Iran, terrorists, US

Posted by The Watcher at Friday, August 24, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Iran finally released an Iranian-American academic scholar from prison, but they won't let her come home. Haleh Esfandiari, 67, who has dual US-Iran citizenship, had been imprisoned in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since May. Read the full story here.

Head of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, Esfandiari was in Tehran to visit family when she was accosted by armed masked men, stripped of her passports and thrown in jail. She was accused of revolutionary activity by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, a charge the scholar, her family, her employer and the US State Department have vehemently denied.

Esfandiari may be out of jail, but her passports remain confiscated. She will not be allowed to leave Iran until she faces charges of endangering national security. Her 93-year-0ld mother used the deed to her Tehran apartment to post the $330,000 bail necessary to gain Esfandiari's release.

Esfandiari is one of four Iranian-Americans jailed last spring on national security charges. The other three remain in jail and have been allowed no contact with their families.

Labels: arrests, Haleh Esfandiari, Iran, US-Iran citizens

Posted by The Watcher at Wednesday, August 22, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

During their recent Camp David summit, US President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai seemed in tune about everything except Iran's future role in Afghanistan. Their vastly different opinions about Iran struck a glaringly discordant note that may disrupt future harmony between the two nations.

Karzai characterized Afghanistan's powerful neighbor as "a helper and a solution."

Bush disagreed, saying, "I would be very cautious about whether the Iranian influence in Afghanistan is a positive force."

Bush and the US believe Iran to be a destabilizing force in the Middle East, bent on achieving its own expansionist goals to reestablish a Persian empire. Barely a week after the summit, US military commanders in Iraq accused Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps of operating in that war-torn country. While no member of the elite Iranian military unit had been captured, weapons caches bearing Iranian markings were found during a military sweep south of Baghdad. US commanders cited "military intelligence" in naming the Guard Corps as the source of the weapons.

Bush and US military leaders have repeatedly accused Iran of supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Several times Iranian-marked weapons have been discovered during US clashes with al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. The US has also accused Iran of actively supporting Shiite attacks against Sunnis in Iraq. The only Shiite Muslim state in the Middle East, Iran has made no secret of its support for development of a Shiite-controlled state in Iraq.

Labels: Afghanistan, arms traffic, Iran, Iraq, President Bush, US

Posted by The Watcher at Saturday, August 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Iran is flexing its biceps. Joining with the leaders of Russia and China, Tehran warned the US that interference in central Asia would not be tolerated. The three Asian powerhouses issued a statement that central Asia should be left alone to manage its own affairs:

"Stability and security in central Asia are best ensured primarily through efforts taken by the nations of the region on the basis of the existing regional associations."

Issued at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the thinly veiled threat appeared to be directed at the US. Although he did not specifically name the US, Russian President Vladimir Puttin took an oblique swing at American involvement in Iraq, saying "any attempts to solve global and regional problems unilaterally are hopeless."

The stability of strategic, resource-rich central Asia has been of concern in western quarters. Iran has increasingly aligned itself with Russia and China against the US. Is Iran lining up allies before it makes its own play on Iraq?

Labels: Iran, Iraq, US

Posted by The Watcher at Thursday, August 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

No wonder the Iraqi government is failing. As fast as citizens step up to the plate, al-Qaida strikes them out -- permanently!

An Iraqi oil minister was kidnapped today by terrorists. (Click here to read the story.) Two more Sunni leaders were killed this week for taking a public stand against al-Qaida. A southern governor and police chief were killed by a roadside bomb. All this in just two days! There are continuing reports of Iraqi political leaders being killed, police recruits mowed down, police barracks bombed, Iraqi soldiers targeted.

Al-Qaida, Shiite and Sunni insurgents and other terrorist groups operating in Iraq have found an effective way to maintain chaos. Every time Iraq begins to grow the head of leadership, they lop it off, leaving the limbs of the beast to flail away ineffectively. Messy but highly effective. No wonder the Iraqi government is in such disarray. Volunteering to serve is tantamount to a death wish.

Labels: al-Qaida, bomb, dissidents, hostages, Iraq, Sunni, violence

Posted by The Watcher at Tuesday, August 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

The accusations are flying hot and heavy between the US and Iran. Yesterday President Bush warned Iran to stop meddling in Iraq. Today Iran told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that only a US pullout will stabilize Iraq.

Patting the poor boy on the head, Iran assured the Iraqi PM that big brother Iran will take care of him and is doing everything possible to bring peace to his war-torn country. If that bully President Bush and his nasty US military gang will just get out and go home, everything will be fine.

What a nice family picture. Makes your heart soar to see such love between brothers. It's time President Bush realizes that you can't buy love. Iraq will never be grateful for the millions of dollars and thousands of lives the US has invested in Iraq. We forced our way in uninvited and plunged their country into chaos (a view shared by many Americans). We will always be the bully, the outsider. We will never be part of the family. Americans, our culture, our view of the world are just too different. Iraq will never see the monster slithering slowly through its sands, quietly wrapping its tentacles around every aspect of Iraqi life until the day it snuffs that life out.

Iran is familiar, the Shiite big brother who would never harm his smaller sibling. The US will always be the hated foreign interloper, the infidel. Arabs are notorious for failing to learn from the lessons of history. Iraq will find that the price is high.

Labels: foreign policy, Iran, Iraq, US

Posted by The Watcher at Saturday, August 11, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

President Bush warned off Iran -- again. At a news conference the President again charged Iran with training and arming Iraqi insurgents bent on killing US soldiers. He, again, threatened nebulous "consequences" if Iran does not cease and desist immediately.

Though the news media is treating this as news, it is not. We've heard this song and dance routine before. The US accuses. Iran hotly denies. The US threatens. Iran blusters. The cycle repeats. It's an international pas de deux in which both dancers are out of step.

How many times will US forces have to find active Quds units (Iranian special forces) operating in Iraq before we do something to stop it? Obviously political chit chat isn't going to solve the problem. Iran has shown time and again that it will say anything to appease international censure, then go blithely on its way and do whatever it wants to. And what it wants to do is reestablish the Persian empire in all its glory and might with Iran at the helm. Iraq is the first stepping stone toward the realization of future Iranian might; Afghanistan, the second.

If Iran truly sought peace in the Middle East, it would back its high level meeting palaver with action. Instead of arming Shiites and setting them against Sunnis and US soldiers, Iran would be leading them to the bargaining table, bringing its considerable pressure to bear to force Iraqis to peace. How can America fail to notice that this is not what Iran is doing. Iran continues to foment rebellion in Iraq.

Iran actively encourages attacks against Sunnis and Americans because Iran wants peace in Iraq to fail. Iran is making every effort to force Iraq further into civil war. Only when Iraq is in total chaos (and it doesn't seem like that will take long), can Iran race in, the conquering hero, and restore peace in the guise of protecting its own borders and helping its neighbor. Unfortunately for Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, Iran seems to define peace like Saddam Hussein, not George Bush.

Labels: dissidents, foreign policy, Iran, Iraq

Posted by The Watcher at Friday, August 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Striking another blow to freedom, Iran shut down its leading reformist newspaper this week. The doors were slammed on the daily Shargh (East) after it published an interview calling for greater gender equality. This is the second time in the past 12 months that the government has forced the paper to stop publication. The first time was in September 2006 after it printed a cartoon poking fun of Iranian leaders. The Shargh was finally allowed to reopen in June. Read the full article here.

Founded in 2003, the Shargh published an interview with opposition poet Saghi Qahraman who argued for less restrictive gender roles. Qahraman, a woman, encouraged men to take a greater role in household and childcare activities. Her views were deemed "anti-morality" by the government and counter to Islam.

Pro-reform journalists have been targeted by the hardline judiciary. More than 100 publications have been shut down and dozens of editors and writers jailed since 2005 in this "democratic" country.

Labels: Iran, journalists, newspaper ban, reformists

Posted by The Watcher at Tuesday, August 07, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

An estimated 2.35 million Muslims call the United States home. While 65% are foreign-born, they are "decidedly American in their outlook," according to the latest report by the Pew Research Center as quoted in the July 30, 2007 issue of Newsweek. Click here to read the entire article.

Here's a snapshot of the average Muslim in America:

Labels: Muslim, Sunni, US

Posted by The Watcher at Saturday, August 04, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Is US intelligence a joke or are Bush and his cronies really that obtuse? Two headlines caught my eye this week:

Labels: dissidents, foreign policy, Iraq, Kurds, President Bush, Shiite, Sunni

Posted by The Watcher at Thursday, August 02, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post