Post #426 - A Critical Moment

Here is a brilliantly-done video promotion, urging sanity and prudence in taking the next step vis-a-vis Iran:

http://www.niacouncil.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Action_seizethemoment

Post #425 - Voices Matter

Check out this channel for making your wishes known:

http://act.credoaction.com/call/price_dent_letter?source=fbshare-n1&referring_akid=8340.1768011.FziyRt

Post #424 - It's All Connected

This letter was written by the principle organization working in the American Jewish community to seek a sustainable peace in the Middle East:

Alexander,

Ahmadinejad is on his way out.

Iran’s belligerent, anti-Semitic president will soon be replaced with Hassan Rouhani, who ran for and won the Iranian presidency on a platform of “constructive interaction with the outside world.”

The surprising election results present a new opportunity for serious diplomacy-- an opportunity a bipartisan group in Congress is today urging the President not to miss.

Ask Representative [name of my congressman] to join Representatives Charlie Dent (R-PA) and David Price (D-NC) in supporting a renewed diplomatic effort to resolve the nuclear crisis with Iran.

Let’s not be naïve. We don’t know if diplomacy will work. President-elect Rouhani too has sent mixed signals about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. And Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei remains in charge.

That's why meaningful sanctions remain in place and President Obama firmly states that “all options are on the table.”

But we’ll never know if diplomacy will work to ensure Iran does not get a nuclear weapon unless we seriously test Iranian intentions.

Ask Rep. [name] to stand with those who support a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear crisis by signing the Dent-Price letter today.

Thanks,

Dylan Williams

J Street Director of Government Affairs

Read more about J Street at http://jstreet.org/

Post #423 - Is the Emperor Actually Clothed?

The following article was published by The Tablet (London) on 6/29/13:

  

Is the West wrong on Iran?

By Jonathan Shaw

We are all prisoners of our own prejudices – dangerously so in the case of the Middle East. The popular press portrays Iran as the principal security threat to the UK, suggesting that its acquisition of nuclear weapons is inevitable, triggering a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, and, at worst, spelling destruction for Israel. These questionable assumptions have led us to a posture at odds with the UK’s national interests. At worst, they may lead us into the very war these interests dictate we should avoid.

I say this in the light of personal experience. In 2007 I commanded the British-led division in the Iraqi city of Basra (not far from the border with Iran) where I faced the challenge of extracting the Coalition (mainly British) forces from the city. Crucial to success was an attempt to read the future, a future in which we would have no part. This forced us to look at the powers at play in the area and to identify their motives and objectives.

I was living within the Shia population of Basra. As I also had access to diplomatic telegrams from the British Embassy in Tehran, I had an unusually informed perspective on Iran and its motives. What I learnt then still seems relevant to the debate now about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

British Christian children tend to be brought up in a cultural tradition that is rooted in the Old Testament and our classical education. The former leaves us with an instinctive sympathy for Israel and the Jews as victims; the latter makes us absorb a Greek view of the ancient world which portrays the Persians as “the enemy”. When considering modern Iran, these twin prejudices reinforce themselves and make it easy to discount contrary evidence.

Iran throughout history has been driven by an urge for cultural recognition, and for respect of its regional status. It is intensely aware of its cultural and religious isolation. Iran is the only dependably Shia-run state (Lebanon, Syria and Iraq are highly contested) and Shias are regarded as apostates by Wahhabi Salafist interpretations of Islam, such as those dominant in Saudi Arabia.

Iran has suffered Western interference. The UK-inspired US overthrow in 1953 of the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mossadegh and imposition of the increasingly tyrannical Shah earned the UK the epithet “Little Satan”. To this day the UK is deemed guilty by association for the actions of the Great Satan, the US. Our current support for “democracy” is seen as hollow and hypocritical by regional observers, especially in Iran.

Iran is surrounded; to the west by Iraq, historically run by Sunni Arabs, then latterly by the US, and to the east by Sunni in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iran’s incentive for securing its borders and creating buffers from aggressors is clear.

The West has been cold to Iran’s overtures of support. Having backed the US in its condemnation of 9/11 and subsequent invasion of Afghanistan, Iran found itself weeks later castigated as being part of the “axis of evil”. This not only showed a lack of gratitude for Iranian support to the US, it also discredited the reformist movements within Iran and their argument that it was possible to trust the West.

When I was based in Basra, I found Iranian interference in the city (and Iraq more generally) to be carefully calibrated, enough to make the Coalition uncomfortable but always with the desire to sustain majority Shia rule and economic prosperity. I recognised the huge Iranian investment in Basra’s prosperity, prompted by comments from Arab friends who had advised that the way to deal with Iran was to trade with them, and bind them into mutually advantageous commercial arrangements. Basra represented just such a commercial arrangement, as evidenced by the fact that no one ever bombed the oil pipelines in the south, in stark contrast to the US-run areas; not because UK security was better but because the internal dynamics of the population were different. By seeing Iran as the enemy, the Coalition missed the cohering effect of Iran on Iraq, and its limiting effect on intra-Shia violence. Basra has turned out to be the relatively stable and commercial success we predicted, but it took the Coalition in Baghdad by surprise.

It would be no surprise if Iran did harbour ambitions to have nuclear weapons. It lives (like Israel) with the ever-present fear of an existential threat and any aspiration it may have to nuclear weapons will be unaffected by President Hassan Rouhani’s recent election.

That said, seasoned observers question if Iran is really intent on becoming a nuclear armed power (and in this context it is worth remembering that the region is already nuclear armed, with both Israel and Pakistan – the Sunni bomb – possessing nukes in contravention of the non-proliferation treaty of which they are not signatories). But even if Iran was intent on creating the Shia bomb, the doctrine and reality of the ownership of nuclear weapons are that it is defensive, not aggressive (with the single exception of the two US bombs dropped on Japan in 1945). Just as Israel has not used its nukes to obliterate its opponents, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs interlocutors to whom I have spoken accept that the Iranian Government is highly unlikely to launch a nuclear attack, recognising that to do so would be to sign their own death sentence. But “Why should we take the risk?”, they then ask.

And here is one of the cultural challenges of the region – an Israeli aversion to risk that is understandable given its history but unsustainable as a guide to foreign and security policy. Israel’s risk-aversion sits uneasily with the dominant risk-management tradition of international diplomacy.

A more interesting question is whether the region would calm down if Iran was accepted as having no nuclear-weapon ambitions. I suspect that little would change. Israel would still feel threatened by Iran as the sponsor of opposition to Israel from Syria and Hezbollah, while the Sunni Gulf states would still feel threatened by the Shia minorities (or majorities, in the case of Bahrain) in their midst, which they see as being provoked and encouraged by Iran. From this perspective, it would not be surprising if both Israel and Saudi Arabia see the Iranian nuclear issue as a useful tool for keeping the US and the West engaged on an anti-Iran ticket that goes far beyond the nuclear issue itself. For them, an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be hugely advantageous, quite beyond any short-term effect on the nuclear facilities. For to counter the Iranian threat of retaliation by blocking the Straits of Hormuz, the US would have to devastate Iranian conventional capability, particularly in the coastal region. This would have the potential drastically to adjust the military balance of capability in the region, to the advantage of Israel and the Gulf states.

One of the mysteries of the UK’s current posture is its apparent pursuit of policies that are at odds with its security threat analysis. Throughout my time in the UK’s defence-planning milieu, the direct threats to the UK came from extreme Sunni groups; I cannot recall a single Shia threat to the UK mainland.

While we may sympathise with the domestic threats faced by Israel and the Sunnis, it is hard to see why they should override our own domestic interests or priority given to countering Sunni extremism, which receives its ideological and financial foundation from sources in Saudi Arabia and, increasingly, Qatar. It is this that makes our current policy in Syria so inexplicable. Not only is it uncertain that intervention would make things better, but it is clear that the leading force within the opposition are a group who have openly committed themselves to the cause of al-Qaeda. It is far from clear to me – and, it would appear, to many MPs – why we intend to support a group allied to our greatest threat.

We need to face facts. Iran’s position in the Middle East resembles Germany’s in Europe: too large to sit comfortably in the neighbourhood, but not large enough to demand inevitable dominance. It was only after appalling conflicts in Europe that we reached the accommodations enshrined in the EU that bound Germany into stable relationships. If we are to avoid similar bloodletting in the Middle East, we should recognise that Iran has valid concerns – and not seek to threaten and marginalise it.

The liberation of the US from dependence on Gulf oil should give it the courage to take a detached view of the region and withdraw its unquestioning support for Israel and Saudi Arabia on this issue. Denied US military muscle to achieve their aims, they might then be forced to accept Iran as a legitimate state in the region and to begin the creation of trust, without which the world is doomed to perpetual conflict.

In recent elections, the electorates of both Israel and Iran have rejected some of the more bellicose candidates for office. Perhaps this is a propitious time for the international community to look afresh at the legitimate aspirations of all in the region before an unchallenged conviction that Iran is by definition “the enemy” leads us over the abyss into a war that is certainly not in the interests of the UK.

[Major General Jonathan Shaw was Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Global issues) and served as General Officer Commanding Multi-National Division (South East), Iraq, 2007.]

Post #422 -- Reaching the End of the Rope

Daniel Somers was a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was part of Task Force Lightning, an intelligence unit. In 2004-2005, he was mainly assigned to a Tactical Human-Intelligence Team (THT) in Baghdad, Iraq, where he ran more than 400 combat missions as a machine gunner in the turret of a Humvee, interviewed countless Iraqis ranging from concerned citizens to community leaders and and government officials, and interrogated dozens of insurgents and terrorist suspects. In 2006-2007, Daniel worked with Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) through his former unit in Mosul where he ran the Northern Iraq Intelligence Center. His official role was as a senior analyst for the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and part of Turkey). Daniel suffered greatly from PTSD and had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and several other war-related conditions. On June 10, 2013, Daniel wrote the following letter to his family before taking his life. Daniel was 30 years old. His wife and family have given permission to publish it.

I am sorry that it has come to this.

The fact is, for as long as I can remember my motivation for getting up every day has been so that you would not have to bury me. As things have continued to get worse, it has become clear that this alone is not a sufficient reason to carry on. The fact is, I am not getting better, I am not going to get better, and I will most certainly deteriorate further as time goes on. From a logical standpoint, it is better to simply end things quickly and let any repercussions from that play out in the short term than to drag things out into the long term.

You will perhaps be sad for a time, but over time you will forget and begin to carry on. Far better that than to inflict my growing misery upon you for years and decades to come, dragging you down with me. It is because I love you that I can not do this to you. You will come to see that it is a far better thing as one day after another passes during which you do not have to worry about me or even give me a second thought. You will find that your world is better without me in it.

I really have been trying to hang on, for more than a decade now. Each day has been a testament to the extent to which I cared, suffering unspeakable horror as quietly as possible so that you could feel as though I was still here for you. In truth, I was nothing more than a prop, filling space so that my absence would not be noted. In truth, I have already been absent for a long, long time.

My body has become nothing but a cage, a source of pain and constant problems. The illness I have has caused me pain that not even the strongest medicines could dull, and there is no cure. All day, every day a screaming agony in every nerve ending in my body. It is nothing short of torture. My mind is a wasteland, filled with visions of incredible horror, unceasing depression, and crippling anxiety, even with all of the medications the doctors dare give. Simple things that everyone else takes for granted are nearly impossible for me. I can not laugh or cry. I can barely leave the house. I derive no pleasure from any activity. Everything simply comes down to passing time until I can sleep again. Now, to sleep forever seems to be the most merciful thing.

You must not blame yourself. The simple truth is this: During my first deployment, I was made to participate in things, the enormity of which is hard to describe. War crimes, crimes against humanity. Though I did not participate willingly, and made what I thought was my best effort to stop these events, there are some things that a person simply can not come back from. I take some pride in that, actually, as to move on in life after being part of such a thing would be the mark of a sociopath in my mind. These things go far beyond what most are even aware of.

To force me to do these things and then participate in the ensuing coverup is more than any government has the right to demand. Then, the same government has turned around and abandoned me. They offer no help, and actively block the pursuit of gaining outside help via their corrupt agents at the DEA. Any blame rests with them.

Beyond that, there are the host of physical illnesses that have struck me down again and again, for which they also offer no help. There might be some progress by now if they had not spent nearly twenty years denying the illness that I and so many others were exposed to. Further complicating matters is the repeated and severe brain injuries to which I was subjected, which they also seem to be expending no effort into understanding. What is known is that each of these should have been cause enough for immediate medical attention, which was not rendered.

Lastly, the DEA enters the picture again as they have now managed to create such a culture of fear in the medical community that doctors are too scared to even take the necessary steps to control the symptoms. All under the guise of a completely manufactured “overprescribing epidemic,” which stands in stark relief to all of the legitimate research, which shows the opposite to be true. Perhaps, with the right medication at the right doses, I could have bought a couple of decent years, but even that is too much to ask from a regime built upon the idea that suffering is noble and relief is just for the weak.

However, when the challenges facing a person are already so great that all but the weakest would give up, these extra factors are enough to push a person over the edge.

Is it any wonder then that the latest figures show 22 veterans killing themselves each day? That is more veterans than children killed at Sandy Hook, every single day. Where are the huge policy initiatives? Why isn’t the president standing with those families at the state of the union? Perhaps because we were not killed by a single lunatic, but rather by his own system of dehumanization, neglect, and indifference.

It leaves us to where all we have to look forward to is constant pain, misery, poverty, and dishonor. I assure you that, when the numbers do finally drop, it will merely be because those who were pushed the farthest are all already dead.

And for what? Bush’s religious lunacy? Cheney’s ever growing fortune and that of his corporate friends? Is this what we destroy lives for

Since then, I have tried everything to fill the void. I tried to move into a position of greater power and influence to try and right some of the wrongs. I deployed again, where I put a huge emphasis on saving lives. The fact of the matter, though, is that any new lives saved do not replace those who were murdered. It is an exercise in futility.

Then, I pursued replacing destruction with creation. For a time this provided a distraction, but it could not last. The fact is that any kind of ordinary life is an insult to those who died at my hand. How can I possibly go around like everyone else while the widows and orphans I created continue to struggle? If they could see me sitting here in suburbia, in my comfortable home working on some music project they would be outraged, and rightfully so.

I thought perhaps I could make some headway with this film project, maybe even directly appealing to those I had wronged and exposing a greater truth, but that is also now being taken away from me. I fear that, just as with everything else that requires the involvement of people who can not understand by virtue of never having been there, it is going to fall apart as careers get in the way.

The last thought that has occurred to me is one of some kind of final mission. It is true that I have found that I am capable of finding some kind of reprieve by doing things that are worthwhile on the scale of life and death. While it is a nice thought to consider doing some good with my skills, experience, and killer instinct, the truth is that it isn’t realistic. First, there are the logistics of financing and equipping my own operation, then there is the near certainty of a grisly death, international incidents, and being branded a terrorist in the media that would follow. What is really stopping me, though, is that I simply am too sick to be effective in the field anymore. That, too, has been taken from me.

Thus, I am left with basically nothing. Too trapped in a war to be at peace, too damaged to be at war. Abandoned by those who would take the easy route, and a liability to those who stick it out—and thus deserve better. So you see, not only am I better off dead, but the world is better without me in it

This is what brought me to my actual final mission. Not suicide, but a mercy killing. I know how to kill, and I know how to do it so that there is no pain whatsoever. It was quick, and I did not suffer. And above all, now I am free. I feel no more pain. I have no more nightmares or flashbacks or hallucinations. I am no longer constantly depressed or afraid or worried

I am free.

I ask that you be happy for me for that. It is perhaps the best break I could have hoped for. Please accept this and be glad for me.

Daniel Somers

Post #421 - If only....

This inspired video asks ordinary Iranians what their wish is...(NB:  make sure your closed captioning is turned on, unless you understand Persian):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8klYIR9Lm4g

Post #420 - Renewal and Rebirth

The U.S. President recognizes that with each new year there is the possibility of new life -- even in negotiations about nuclear programs:

http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2013/mar/18/obama-nowruz-new-us-iran-relationship-possible