U.S. to Designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as Terrorists - washingtonpost.com
The United States has decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s 125,000-strong military branch, as a “specially designated global terrorist,” according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group’s business operations and finances.
This is a fairly amazing bit of political tongue-twisting, isn’t it?
We’re targeting the Revolutionary Guard, but not the men who created, finance, train, support, and use them - the Iranian regime itself.
And all this so we can “target the group’s business operations and finances.”
How about if we just shoot a bunch of the barbaric bastards instead?
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not to be a nudge, but I was reading in the Economist the other day that the Revolutionary Guard is actually one of the largest business-owners in Iran, a country whose economy is state-run and owned in many cases. In fact, one of the largest mosques in the country is part-owned by the Revolutionary Guard, and they run most of the construction projects in the country. If we can freeze their finances or mess with their funding in any way, it could seriously hurt the Iranian economy and government purse.
This recalls the distinction the White House has crafted between al Sadr (our partner for peace in Iraq) and “rogue Mahdi militias.”
It also parallels the way al Qaeda has become the only enemy in Iraq we need to fight, and thus the only party we can’t fund, equip, arm and train.
I suspect every other word out of BushRice’s mouth will be “Mahmoud ‘bomb Israel’ Ahmadinejad” as they bend over backwards to rhetorically separate the mullahs from the Iranian president and his nasty Revolutionary Guard who are — to the dismay of the mullahs — killing our troops in Iraq. That preserves the mullahs as people we can strike a Grand Bargain if we have the wisdom to involve global powers who will join us in agreeing to respect Iran’s legitimate security interests. After all, national leaders, even tough, hardheaded ones are only dangerous if they feel threatened. The best way to civilize Iran is to bring it back into the international community via a series of arrangements proving our good faith and our common interest in a strong Iran that helps bring stability to the region.
Naturally, whitewashing the mullahs is hard work. Here’s a contribution to the effort by General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
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Now, magically, we have a “specially designated global terrorist” group to blame it on! It’s a made-in-the-Oval-Office sound bite, ready for Bushies and in-the-tank brass like David Petraeus to strew it thick through their press conferences.
Peace In Our Time draws near as we prepare to enter a new era of dialogue with Tehran.