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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (96366)	4/26/2003 12:08:06 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The Iranians will combine this political strategy with terrorist acts and assassinations, as in the case of the very charismatic Ayatollah Khoi in Najaf. He was a real threat to them, because of his personality and his solid pro-Western views. So they killed him, and they are planning to kill others of his ilk, along with as many Coalition soldiers as they can murder. Thousands of Iranian-backed terrorists have been sent to Iraq, from Hezbollah killers to the remnants of al Qaeda, from Islamic Jihadists to top Iranian Revolutionary Guards fighters... Anybody who says that is either engaged in deliberate campaign of misinformation and fear-mongering, or is not qualified to pass an opinion as an "expert". This is one of the biggest loads of crock I have ever seen and the worst part is that right away it gets to be passed around as the gospel. First of all, Khoi was killed by supporters of Sadr. Sadr is as far removed from Iran as you can get. Most high level Shia clerics are from Iranian lineage. Sadr is an exception. He is born and raised Iraqi. Sadr doesn't like the fact that Iranians have leadership role in the Shia world. In many ways, Sadr is a combination of extreme nationalism and extreme Shia (even more extreme than Iran's hardliners). What is more, Sadr believes that only the edicts of his father must be fallowed. This flies against a major pillar of Shia which states one cannot be the follower of a dead cleric. After Sadr's father was killed by Saddam, Sadr stayed in Iraq and went underground. He gathered the poorest of the poor and fought. Khoi and the SCIRI left Iraq and fought from exile. Sadr considers them a bunch of spineless cowards. He considers those who stayed quiet (read Sistani) to be just as spineless. Khoi on the other hand, was an Iranian. Now how come I never hear the gurus put Khoi and Sistani down for being Iranian? So I ask you, given all this, does it make sense that Sadr ordered his people to kill Khoi because Khoi was a threat to Iranian clerics? Add to this the fact that Khoi's death was not a planned assassination. Khoi was stupid enough to bring Saddam's minister of religion into the clerics' meeting and ask them to forgive him. How stupid can you be?! By all accounts, Khoi died in a fight that started with the sentence, "why do you bring that filthy animal here?" Let's move on to the next group that is listed: "Thousands of Iranian-backed terrorists have been sent to Iraq" Again what a mischaracterization. That Iran and Iraq have been enemies is no secret. Neither is it a secret that Iraqi opposition took refuge in Iran, just as MKO (MEK) established bases in Iraq. Now if you had been fighting Saddam for 15 years, would you be staying out of Iraq now that he is gone? If somehow the Iranian regime is overthrown, do you think US will prevent the MKO to return to Iran? As to the inclusion of al-Qaeda in the list, I have lost respect for anyone who uses this term like a boogie man without justification. First of all, perhaps our "guru" here has forgotten, but AQ was a close ally of the Taliban. And Iran was fighting the Taliban in everyway short of invading Afghanistan. Secondly, fundamentalist Shia and fundamentalist Sunni hate each other more than they hate the Jews. And I am not exaggerating here. As a small example, a few weeks ago Pakistani Sunni militants (which are close to AQ) went into a Shia mosque at prayer time and machine gunned several people including a 9-year old boy. So how do you think there could be an alliance between the two sides? And don't give me "the enemy of my enemy" logic. Using that logic I can show that US must be loved by fundamentalist Shia because we are destroying the fundamentalist Sunnis. Ledeen should just keep his mouth shut about what he doesn't know. Sun Tzu PS It would be naive to think Iran does not have an interest in Iraq and is not trying to stir things their own way. But they are not doing it by murdering an Iranian Cleric and supporting anti-Iranian factions. If they were that stupid they would not have lasted so long.