Comments on: Bombing, Sanctions, And Rhetoric

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:17:03 +0000

re. Roberts’ article
I know MHO was not solicited, and I know nothing about the author of the article, but he worked hard to dismantle and reconstruct events to create the picture he was looking for. In affirming Khamenei’s rationale for repressing his opposition, I’m not sure if the author is trying to credit or blame the CIA & neocons. Either way, his argument presumes that the Iranian people are incapable of arriving at this point without outside orchestration.

I’m not saying that our govt didn’t insinuate itself into the situation here & there, but the idea we have been pulling the strings is just another example of arrogant disrespect of the Iranian people

By: Daniel Larison

Daniel Larison — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:18:30 +0000

I wouldn’t rule out some covert support or manipulation, but I have seen no solid evidence that this is the case. If there really is a successful covert operation going on, I suppose I wouldn’t, but I just don’t see anything that suggests it this time. In the other cases, there was clearly a perceived benefit for Washington in toppling one government and installing another. In Kyrgyzstan, this backfired badly, and in Georgia Saakashvili has become more headache than help, but at the time the assumption was that a more “pro-Western” regime was possible and desirable. In Iran, there was little chance for such a result, and any successful regime change plan has relied on the regime engaging in such excessive fraud or simply dismissing the opposition as irrelevant that it would provoke a large-scale uprising. Anything’s possible, but this requires us to believe that we have successfully infiltrated Iranian society enough and are sufficiently capable of manipulating Iranian public opinion to our own purposes, and I don’t think our government is capable of that in Iran at this time.

In 1953 our agents were responsible for stirring up protesting crowds that facilitated the Shah’s return, but I am skeptical that this is the same thing. Most, if not all, of the “color” revolutions of the last decade have been the fruit of combined intelligence and NGO efforts to topple regimes that Washington wanted gone, but it is possible at this point to imagine an entirely indigenous political movement copying the “color” revolutions in some of their methods in the mistaken belief that it was simple “people power” that prevailed in those earlier episodes.

By: taxman10m

taxman10m — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:34:08 +0000

Have you read Paul Craig Roberts’ article on VDare which suggests that the whole revolution that we are seeing was CIA inspired. Does that change your analysis somewhat? I’d love to hear your thoughts.