Iranians need to tell us what freedom is...
Reader comment on item: Will Washington Betray Anti-Regime Iranians?

Submitted by A Befuddled American Voter (United States), Aug 5, 2008 at 15:01

I've never been to Iran. Yet, I know enough to know that the MEK is reviled throughout the country. Iranians need to tell us what their interpretation of freedom is and, in order to secure the future of US-Iranian relations, we must listen to what they have to say. One of our chief problems (that ultimately led to the Revolution of 1979) was that our leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, did not seem to care what Iranians felt about their political system. I don't think we have enough experts on Iran to tell us what Iranians want from government. We are still stuck in the Cold War era in many ways. All we do know is that they have spent the past 55 years (since the overthrow of Mossadeqh) living under fascism. A knew, democratic Iran would have to be their democracy; not ours.

I, like many others, believe that the mullahs have to go (though it is important to note that there are religious leaders like Mohsen Kadivar or Hussein Khomeini who could make suitable leaders; both favor democratic secularism in Iran). Unleashing the MEK is a bad idea, though I don't consider it a terrorist organization; it simply has no legitimacy. The problem with the MEK is that it has little, if any legitimacy, in Iran. The fact that it dislikes the current regime is not enough. Iranians, at least as I understand it, will never forget the fact that the MEK invaded Iran on the Iraqi side during the Iran-Iraq war. That alone is probably inexcusable in their eyes.

Did I mention that MEK members also helped Saddam torture and murder Shiites during the 1991 uprising? If the MEK were unleashed, it would probably cause Iranians to run to the side of their current government. The impact would be even worse than the shockwaves that come about in local newspapers when that idiot Ahmadinejad opens his mouth. It would be just another in a long, sad history of bad ideas.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.