| Why Iran is giving the Bush administration the chills |
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| Written by C.B. Forde |
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently created an uproar when he made a request to visit Ground Zero. He then expressed disbelief at the American public  s reaction when he was denied access to the site. No one in America will ever truly know Ahmadinejad s sincerity, but there is no denying his media savvy. If America is supposed to be a truly free country, then why should he not be allowed to go to Ground Zero? Mr. Ahmadinejad has definitely stirred the pot by questioning the validity of the Jewish Holocaust and quest for a nuclear Iran. But one of the tenants of a free society
 is freedom of thought, speech, and movement. If America is truly a free society it must practice true freedom for all. Unfortunately, we as Black people know all too well that this is a falsehood. The Jena 6 case in Louisiana is one of the daily reminders of  freedom in the United States. The media savvy Ahmadinejad is goading the American public for the benefit of his audience back home and exposing the holes in American democracy. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your perspective America has a media savvy President of its own. George W. Bush is using the public outcry against Ahmadinejad and Iran s nuclear ambitions to justify his war in Iraq. President Bush in his speech on Thursday, September 13 linked the war in Iraq with keeping Iran in check. If we were to be driven out of Iraq, extremists of all strains would be emboldened. Iran would benefit from the chaos and would be encouraged in its efforts to gain nuclear weapons and dominate the region. The Bush administration is charging Iran with adding the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan and utilizing Hezbollah and Hamas as proxies in its war with Israel. Although Iran has denied adding the insurgencies in Iran and Afghanistan, their support for Hamas in the Gaza strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon are matters of fact. The truth is that no matter what America does in Iraq, the action will some how benefit Iran. The blundering of the Bush administration in Iraq has lead to their hand picked interim government to court Iran for support. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani criticized the American military this past Saturday, September 22, for detaining an Iranian official earlier this week and demanded his immediate release. Talabani, who is himself an ethnic Kurd, stated: "You ignored our authority. I ask for his immediate release in order to maintain healthy relations between Iran and Kurdistan [province in western Iraq] and for the prosperity of Kurdistan. The cultural politics of Iraq are complicated. Much like the former dictatorship of Tito in the former Yugoslavia keep ethnic tensions at bay, the dictatorship of Saddam kept the Sunni-Shia tensions at bay in Iraq. Although Shiites account for only 10% of the world Islamic population, Iran is 90% Shia and Iraq 65% Shia. Shia and Shiite are synonomyus Saddam Hussein was a Sunni and his minority dominated the Shiites for years. Because of the cultural familiarity between the Iraq and Iranian Shiites it is natural that the new Shia dominated Iraq government to look to Tehran for guidence. Furthermore, if America withdraws its troops, Iraq will descend into a Civil War, and Saudi Arabia has pledged to fund and or arm the Iraq Sunnis to ensure there won t be a massacre. All the more reason for the Shia Iraqi government to court Ahmadienjad s support. It should also be noted that Al Queda is a Sunni Muslim organization. There have been rumblings from within the Bush administration, obviously coming from Dick Chaney, about a military strike on Iran. Those rumors were further fueled when Israel launched an air raid deep in Syrian territory. Syria is Iran s only regional ally. This action is an alleged message to Iran that they can be hit at any time. Furthermore France also began to ratchet up the international pressure. On Monday, September 17 Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, stated, We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war. This statement was made in response to Iran s refusal to halt its necular enrichment program. However, Iran has a big card in its pocket  a big red card, the ace of diamonds, Russia. Russia has already built Tehran a nuclear plant on the Persian Gulf in Bushehr and has plans to build more. The Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post reported on July 30 of this year that Russia was planning to sell Iran 250 advanced long range Sukhoi-30 fighter jets to Iran in an unprecedented billion-dollar deal. Russia will also sell Iran a number of aerial fuel tankers that will extend the range of the Sukhoi by thousands of kilometers, and provide Tehran with long range offensive capabilities.  The Shkjoi-30 is an agile two-seat mulit-role jet fighter and bomber. But this isn t the only weaponry Russian is providing to Iran. The Sukhoi Su-30 is an air superiority fighter that can also perform ground strikes and comparable to USA's F-14 Tomcat and F-15E Strike Eagle. The technologically advanced aircraft is designed to fly in poor weather and has superior air to air combat capabilities. Russia has also supplied Iran with advanced antiaircraft systems which will be used to protect Iran s nuclear weapons. The mobile Tor-M1 system can target aircraft and guided missiles operating at low and medium altitudes. Russia has vocalized loudly its opposition the current trends in U.S. foreign policy, such as a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. This coupled with Russia s desire to play a stronger role on the world stage has lead this writer to believe that Russia is skillfully utilizing Iran as a proxy against his old Cold War adversaries - NATO. Russia has reganied its economic strength through oil wealth and export of its technology. It should be noted that Iran is a world power when it comes to the oil industry. Do not underestimate the military, political and economic cooperation between these two countries. It would be very unlikely that Russia would allow serious harm to come to such a prosperous economic relation. Nuclear reactors and advanced weapon systems are not cheap. With the Red Russian card in his back pocket, Ahmadinejad is giving the Bush administration the chills. |