Iran's Revolutionary Guard branded "terrorists"

The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran That the White House Doesn't Want You to Know

Two former high-ranking policy experts from the Bush Administration say the U.S. has been gearing up for a war with Iran for years, despite claiming otherwise. It'll be Iraq all over again.

In the years after 9/11, Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann worked at the highest levels of the Bush administration as Middle East policy experts for the National Security Council. Mann conducted secret negotiations with Iran. Leverett traveled with Colin Powell and advised Condoleezza Rice. They each played crucial roles in formulating policy for the region leading up to the war in Iraq. But when they left the White House, they left with a growing sense of alarm -- not only was the Bush administration headed straight for war with Iran, it had been set on this course for years. That was what people didn't realize.

It was just like Iraq, when the White House was so eager for war it couldn't wait for the UN inspectors to leave. The steps have been many and steady and all in the same direction. And now things are getting much worse. We are getting closer and closer to the tripline, they say.

"The hard-liners are upping the pressure on the State Department," says Leverett. "They're basically saying, 'You've been trying to engage Iran for more than a year now and what do you have to show for it? They keep building more centrifuges, they're sending this IED stuff over into Iraq that's killing American soldiers, the human-rights internal political situation has gotten more repressive -- what the hell do you have to show for this engagement strategy?' "

But the engagement strategy was never serious and was designed to fail, they say. Over the last year, Rice has begun saying she would talk to "anybody, anywhere, anytime," but not to the Iranians unless they stopped enriching uranium first. That's not a serious approach to diplomacy, Mann says. Diplomacy is about talking to your enemies. That's how wars are averted. You work up to the big things. And when U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had his much-publicized meeting with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad this spring, he didn't even have permission from the White House to schedule a second meeting.

The most ominous new development is the Bush administration's push to name the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization.

"The U.S. has designated any number of states over the years as state sponsors of terrorism," says Leverett. "But here for the first time the U.S. is saying that part of a government is itself a terrorist organization."

http://www.esquire.com/print-this/iranbriefing1107
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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• War
• Iraq
• Iran
• Imperialism
• Bush
• Oil
• 9/11
• Democracy
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[zozwan]

fuck israil

[atsignyahoodotcom]

The only country in the world that used a nuclear bomb against the civilian people is .........?

The only country in the world that invaded other countries and spent more than 3 trillion dollars on war and destruction is ---------?

and so and so..

Now tell me who is the real terrorist?

[santoory]

@Alive4Metal I take my words on 'revolutionary guards not being terrorists' back; although I'm against brainwashing people by calling/advertising random groups/individuals that are against us terrorists (for example ghadhaffi called the rebellions terrorists, or the U.S right wing media called Julian Assange a terrorist), the basij and the guards committed serious crimes against the Iranian people after the election.

This doesn't change the fact that people need to grow the fuck up though...

[fenix144]

@Fourteen88SoCal by joke I meant pathetic.

[fenix144]

@dadecountyhustler305 the problem starts with the US disastrous foreign policy. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and you fucking know it.

[fenix144]

@dadecountyhustler305 replace Syria and Iran with USA and you're totally right.

[fenix144]

@dadecountyhustler305 don't want to sound like a douche but who trained, paid and protected oussama bin laden, saddam hussein and shah?

[fenix144]

@bobisnohere1 I could believe you if you didn't say USSR. the USSR disappeared 20 years ago. lack of credibility much?

[fenix144]

@Fourteen88SoCal the US foreign policy is the real fucking joke.

[Alive4Metal]

@i know, people are fucked up, who on their right minds wants to see a world war 3, think of the destruction it would bring, and trust me, there would be no winner, everyone would fuck each other up the ass so much that they wouldnt be able to get back up and walk again from it. seriously people grow the fuck up.