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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: LindyBill who wrote (104974)3/20/2005 5:37:10 AM
From: frankw1900  Read Replies (1) of 793843
 
Barnett's sort of right:

People gotta be a lot more realistic about who's really likely to help us secure lasting change in the Middle East. You may not like the mullahs, but you better find a way to get at that Shiite population through them, whether you like them or not.

The Shiite mullahs in Iran are not all of one mind. But the ones who control the country are together in their determination to continue their control. They alternately bribe and terrorize their more reasonable colleagues from dissent. For the most part they are a vulgar terrorist kleptocracy and out of step with the majority of the world's Shiites who don't believe priests should rule.

The Iranian ruling mullahs' most important client and main extra-territorial agent, Hezbollah, has the same character as its patron. Its organization in Lebanon bears a strong resemblance to the IRA with its paralleled "political" structure fronting for gangsterism and fascism.

For the time being, and quite likely for a while to come, if the Western world wants to deal with mullahs in Iran (and there is some question in my mind why this should be desirable, given majority Shiite attitude to religion and politics), then it has to speak to the dissenters. And it has to do this practically and symbolically.

The best way of speaking to them is to attack Hezbollah and Syria even more vigorously than is being done now and to continue to claim forcefully - as Bush does - the Iranians need real democracy and freedom.
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