How US Can Solve Iran's Nuke Issue
Sam Ghandchi
http://www.ghandchi.com/743-iran-us-nuke-eng.htm
If
you are looking for the same diatribes that have been written about
nuclear issue with Iran in the last 30 years which have not really made a
dent, please do not read further. Otherwise, this is a very straight
forward statement about what US is doing to Iran versus what it can do
to resolve this issue.
United States during the last thirty years
has tried either to use all the back doors to talk to Islamic Republic
or has tried to execute various plan B projects using some obedient
opposition groups with the Iranian monarchists and Reza Pahlavi at the
top. Individuals such as Michael Ledeen and Kenneth Timmerman have been
instrumental in the king-making efforts with such symbols of
dictatorship, trying to sell them as Iran's "democratic" opposition. Any
individuals from real democratic opposition of Iran who worked with
these people lost their own credibility.
Some Israeli advisers
have called for using news agencies such as VOA for US plan B efforts
and thus have caused the loss of credibility of such organizations that
have commitment to their audience to offer balanced uncensored news,
exercising and promoting American values of democracy and not to become
instruments of US government- the very thing which they criticize about
media in countries like China, North Korea and Islamic Republic of Iran.
For example the new editor of VOA, Mr. Kaveh Basmenji and his
supervisor for VOA Persian web have caused a drastic drop of newsworthy
material in the VOA Persian broadcasts. Of course, this is not surprising as Mr. Basmenji at one time reporting about most important events of the decade at BBC had completely "forgotten" about Iran's Green Movement of 2009 (1).
The VOA charter is
different from the charter of Radio Israel, and working for VOA is not
the same as working for Israeli foreign ministry. Iranians hate CIA to
decide for them what to see or watch and like to get all the news and
make up their own mind. News should be a product of journalistic
environment and not a center with intelligence watching over one's
shoulder, something the US yes-men cannot create. The thing that we
criticize about Islamic Republic when big brother interferes in the news
selections and their media end up with censorship.
Democracy
cannot be built in an environment when people would be scared by
intelligence supervision. If such policies were going to work, there
would be no need for VOA in the first place. And Mr. Ledeen should have
been successful when for years he tried to make Reza Pahlavi the king of
Iran and isolate democratic voices of Iran tired of continuation of
1953 coup policies.
These policies are a total failure because
they neglect the Iranian people and their aspirations for independent
thought. This is not a cliché. Just remember when US Congress looked at
former Czechoslovakia's situation, they looked for an independent-minded
leader like Vaclav Havel to invite, but when US government looks for an
Iranian to talk to, they think of Reza Pahlavi who is paid by CIA, or
they invite journalists who only say what they like to hear. In short,
the US officials have been looking for Iranian yes-men the same way the
British looked for people of such character in Iran during their time of
influence. Talking to Iranians, the U.S. government should see that
Iranian people today only go for mutual respect and independence and
this is exactly why the ones US has picked to talk to, have no
credibility among Iranians.
What can US do? United States needs
to first break the wall that separated the two nations in the 1953 coup.
Again this is not a cliché. It means all the management at US agencies
that deal with Iran and Iranians, starting with VOA, should make sure to
have the kind of people in charge, who look for equal and unbiased
approach to Iranians and not discriminate against people on the basis of
political thought which is so central to Iranian life today. In other
words to talk to Iranians who are not yes-men and are even critical of
them. The current managers such as Kaveh Basmenji and his deputies are
part of the problem and not the solution. These are not the kind of
people that can help the US relation with Iranians. They would be best
to work at Radio Israel and the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Next
thing the US should do is to clearly speak to Iranian people not just by
Norouz greetings. US should cut thru the chase and say what it really
wants to do to remedy the errors it made when it did the CIA coup of
1953, and when it helped the Shah and Savak rule of terror for 25 years,
and when in the last 30 years it has helped Reza Pahlavi and not the
real Iranian democratic opposition, those of Iranian descent who want a
similar democratic republic for their country of origin as there is in
the U.S. Iranians talk to their relatives back in Iran and this is how
the credibility of US government words is checked. It is not just
apologizing about 1953 coup but it is about apologizing for continuing
the same policies towards Iranians for 30 years after the 1979
revolution, trying to make US puppets to represent Iranians and creating
fake opposition councils. This is not about Islamic Republic, this is
about respecting Iranian people and considering them as equal not as
servants.
Look at the time of Soviet Union. The communists in
Iran were surprised why despite all Soviet propaganda at Radio Moscow,
people did not want the communists. Because people knew more about what
the reality of communism than the Iranian communists. How? They knew
from their relatives who were truck drivers going thru those Eastern
Bloc countries seeing the misery. People knew by hearing from relatives
who had moved to those Eastern Bloc countries. The same is true about
Iranians today. They trust more the words of their relatives who live in
the U.S. and when they hear that US is still making a puppet and is
trying to do king-making for Iran, they lose trust. When they hear about
discriminations in favor of monarchists in American government offices,
they will not trust the words US says about supporting human rights.
Human rights is about deeds and not words, otherwise Islamic Republic
says all kinds of words about justice and freedom. People can see the
honest action and treatment of mutual respect feeling equal..
Now
to solve the nuclear issue, once this fake gateway of Iranian
monarchists and yes-men is brought down, the U.S. will be able to see
what real Iran's democratic opposition wants and working together, the
solution arrived will be able to gain the support of Iranian people
inside Iran. Using Radio Farda (RFL/RE) to tell Iranian people that they
have selected Reza Pahlavi as the person of the year for 2011 (2), only
creates more mistrust among Iranian people towards the U.S. as it is an
insult to Iranians' intelligence; they will say the U.S. is doing the
same things it did at the time of 1953 CIA coup and 25 years after that
in Iran when trying to push its own choice as Iranians' choice.
Two
weeks ago I wrote an article entitled "Mr. Obama Please Tear Down this
Wall," (3) I still believe that is what the U.S. needs to do to make any
change in the relation of the US and Iranian people. Supporting human
rights in Iran starts with having honesty with Iranian people and not
trying to make Reza Pahlavi a leader for Iranians which he is not. Mr.
Pahlavi does not represent Iran's democratic opposition (4) and hundreds
of interviews on VOA, RFE/RL, Deutsche Welle, and BBC will not do the
job. Iranian people do not want CIA to select their leader.
Islamic
Republic has been able to show the nuclear issue to Iranian people as
equivalent to nationalization of oil at the time of Mossadegh because US
policy towards Iranian people and democratic opposition has not
changed. Otherwise, Iranian people would not view the nuclear as an
issue of independence and would consider it just like many other world
class issues like pollution and global warming that would be addressed
from a global perspective and not thru a narrow nationalistic keyhole.
Sam Ghandchi, Editor/Publisher
IRANSCOPE
http://www.iranscope.com
January 19, 2013
Footnotes:
1.
http://my.gooya.com/%D8%B3%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%B3%DB%8C/3102-%D8%A2%D9%84%D8%B2%D8%A7%DB%8C%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%B9%D9%85%D8%AF%DB%8C-%DB%8C%D8%A7-%D8%B3%D9%87%D9%88%DB%8C%21.html
2.
http://www.rferl.org/content/farda_audience_late_shah_pahlavi_son_iran_person_of_year/24523974.html
4.
http://www.ghandchi.com/741-reza-pahlavi-not-democratic-alternative-eng.htm 
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