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Title: Why Iran Believes ISIS is a U.S. Creation
Source:
Time (yeah, it still exists in dental offices)
URL Source: http://time.com/3720081/isis-iran-us-creation/
Published: Feb 26, 2015
Author: Kay Armin Serjoie
Post Date: 2015-03-01 08:09:05 by Tooconservative
Keywords: None
Views: 22254
Comments: 91
Iran has taken a lead role in defending the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and strengthening the Baghdad government in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). But that doesn’t mean Iran views the United States as an ally in that war, even if they share a common enemy in ISIS. Abdullah Ganji, the managing-director of Javan newspaper, which is believed to closely reflect the views of the government and the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards, says that U.S. support for ISIS is in fact a way of ensuring Israel’s security and disrupting the Muslim world in the cause of advancing Western interests. “We believe that the West has been influential in the creation of ISIS for a number of reasons. First to engage Muslims against each other, to waste their energy and in this way Israel’s security would be guaranteed or at least enhanced,” says Ganji. “Secondly, an ugly, violent and homicidal face of Islam is presented to the world. And third, to create an inconvenience for Iran.” Iran’s relations with the U.S. have been strained since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ousted the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran and negotiations are currently underway between Iran and Western nations, including the U.S., to ensure the Islamic Republic does not produce nuclear weapons. Ganji went on to say that much of ISIS — its propaganda, structure and weapons — were all the work of the West. “A group that claims to be an Islamic one and has no sensitivity towards occupied Muslim lands in Palestine but is bent on killing Muslims as its first priority, it’s not a movement with roots in Islamic history. Not only many of its weapons but its methods of operation, its propaganda methods and many of its internal structures are Western, that’s why we are distrustful of the roots of ISIS,” he says. “As the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Khamenei] also said, [the coalition forces] have on a number of times even made weapon drops for ISIS. How is it that they have laser-guided precision munitions and bombs but drop weapons for the wrong people? And not only once but at least a number of times,” he says, referring to incidents when weapons dropped from U.S. aircraft landed in ISIS-controlled areas rather than the intended Kurdish-controlled areas. “Iran cannot cooperate with the United States against ISIS because it doesn’t trust America, it doesn’t believe in their honesty in combatting ISIS. Iran can’t trust the U.S. to begin something and to continue to the end. It acts patronizingly and will change its path whenever it feels it is justified. We are also worried that the U.S. is using ISIS as a pretext to return its troops into Iraq,” Ganji says. “I believe that the U.S. prefers a weak ISIS that cannot be a major threat but will still cause inconvenience for Iran, Iraq and Syria and generally what they themselves called the Shiite crescent.” Poster Comment: I've read other reports that, across the Mideast, it is the majority view that ISIS is an American creation. Here, the Iranians make those accusations their official position.
"We believe that the West has been influential in the creation of ISIS"
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 75.
#1. To: TooConservative (#0)
The USA stirs up trouble, everywhere. There is no good reason for the USA to be militariy or politically involved half-way around the world meddling in the affairs of others.
I wouldn't go that far. We have always had foreign interests to protect going back to the early decades of the Republic. But that is no excuse to turn the Mideast in a shootout at the OK Corral. The neocons often talk about it in terms of being like the Wild West, like they can just go in and shoot things up and it will all turn out so well ("greeted as liberators", Arab Spring, etc.). They actually discuss it among themselves in these terms. Appalling. And it is an obvious subtext in the warmongering rhetoric we hear from a number of these GOP candidates as they try to win favor (and hundreds of millions) in the Sheldon Adelson Primary. I posted this in response to another poster who was discussing why Shi'a Iran hadn't gotten involved in driving Sunni ISIS from Shi'a Iraq, despite Iran's proximity to Iraq.
I explained it on the other thread. 1. The Persians know how far they can push their Arab Shia allies. 2. Persians wait for Arabs to finish killing each other. No matter Islamic affiliations. Iran also had (probably still has) dealings with Sunni terror and insurgent groups. 2007-2009 when Maliki showed some independence from Tehran we started seeing EFP IED attacks on Iraqi security forces in Sunni areas. Interesting that the devices used were Iranian made. It's a lot more untidy over there than many want to admit. Iran wants uninterrupted rat lines to Hezbollah. The rise of ISIL challenges their freedom of maneuver and interior lines. Of course they will blame the US.
I was watching FNC tonight and they mentioned that, after cancelling the leaked plan to go on offensive against Mosul, now the Iraqis have announced that they will be making a preliminary attack on Tikrit, Saddam's hometown and a hotbed of Ba'athist revanchists and former top members of Saddam's regime (his wife's relatives). And who is joining these Shi'a militias and the 20,000+ Iraqi army soldiers? Iran's Quds artillery units. So Iran is going to have boots (or at least artillery) on the ground in assaulting Tikrit. Which leaves me wondering if the plan might be to leave Tikrit in the same shape as Vlad Putin left the Chechen capital, Grozny. IOW, a lifeless moonscape, flattened like a pancake. And in other news of our ongoing glorious victories, you may recall how we were going to train and arm the "secular Syrian rebels" (actually another bunch of Sunni suspect militia), and we had one specific militia with thousands of fighters signed up for arms and training. Well, they suddenly disbanded today and completely disappeared. And al-Nusra swooped in a scooped up the (old) weapons we had already provided them with. It's just one happy victory after the next for Commander Barky and his faithful butler, Lurch. I can only hope that Bibi takes a moment to congratulate Barky and Lurch on these triumphs of their policy during his speech tomorrow. Some withering sarcasm would be epic.
There will be a lot of that in my Sunni-Shia Thirty Years War vision!
You are remarkably fond of your vision of a Mideast in flames. : ) I noticed on FNC today some reporting on Iran's cooperation with Iraq in the Tikrit assault. They mentioned General Soleimani as working with the Shi'a militia and artillery but FNC didn't specify if that was Iraqi or Iranian artillery or both. They mentioned the presence of Iran's Revolutionary Guards but made no mention of fighters. I got the impression that they were serving as technical advisers (instead of us) or serving as staff and field officers for the various Shi'a militia. As I noted some time back, General Soleimani is a very interesting character (beyond his strong resemblance to Sean Connery in The Hunt For Red October).
I found an map of the operations, courtesy of Wikipedia. Red may be familiar with the lay of the land shown.
Nice of them to put it in English:) You sure this was not some Iraq Army Vet sketching out his understanding of the fight? I was mainly in the Babil and Baghdad areas on my 3 OIF tours. But I did spend some time up at Tikrit AP.
Fox News alleged Quds were involved in fighting at Tikrit again this morning in a lead-up to an interview with General Keane. As far as I could tell, this amounted to no more than the presence of the general and his staff. They did mention his role in Yemen's recent Houthi victory. And in training Shi'a fighters in Iran to fight against American troops in Iraq. And a role leading Hezbollah when they ejected Israel from Lebanon years back. They mentioned that the general is not thehighest ranking Iranian general. But he is the only general who reports only to the Ayatollah and is accountable to no other military authority. A kind of commander-in-chief apparently. And yet he operates effectively in the Iranian interest throughout the region. When they're serious, they dispatch him to the area. Interesting portfolio. No doubt, Mossad and CIA track him very closely.
Could he be the 12th Imam Mahdi!:)
I found the FNC vid and interviews with Keane. They keep saying "Quds force" but apparently the general is what constitutes the entire "Quds force". So, FNC is playing Chicken Little here. FNC: Quds force leader, commanding Iraqi forces against ISIS, alarms Washington It is a James Rosen story with Hemmer apparently sprinkling on the Quds alarmism. I suppose that Hemmer would say that if the Quds commander is there, you can be sure other Quds elements are present. Still, not the same as proving that formations or even small teams of Quds operatives are present at Tikrit.
Sounds like a Persian Gylippus. Sometimes one guy can make a big difference.
#77. To: nativist nationalist (#75)
Sounds like he is the commander-in-chief or supreme commander of Iran's intel/special forces (Revolutionary Guard, Quds), particularly regionally. Far less so for domestic defense of Iran itself. And answerable only to the top ayatollah. That is very telling.
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#2. To: Pridie.Nones (#1)
There is no good reason for the USA to be militariy or politically involved half-way around the world meddling in the affairs of others.
#10. To: TooConservative, tomder55 (#2)
I posted this in response to another poster who was discussing why Shi'a Iran hadn't gotten involved in driving Sunni ISIS from Shi'a Iraq, despite Iran's proximity to Iraq.
#36. To: redleghunter, SOSO, tomder55, sneakypete (#10)
#63. To: TooConservative (#36)
So Iran is going to have boots (or at least artillery) on the ground in assaulting Tikrit. Which leaves me wondering if the plan might be to leave Tikrit in the same shape as Vlad Putin left the Chechen capital, Grozny. IOW, a lifeless moonscape, flattened like a pancake.
#64. To: nativist nationalist, redleghunter (#63)
(Edited)
There will be a lot of that in my Sunni-Shia Thirty Years War vision!
#67. To: TooConservative, redleghunter (#64)
#68. To: nativist nationalist, TooConservative (#67)
I found an map of the operations, courtesy of Wikipedia. Red may be familiar with the lay of the land shown.
#69. To: redleghunter, nativist nationalist (#68)
#70. To: TooConservative (#69)
#71. To: redleghunter (#70)
#75. To: TooConservative (#71)
I found the FNC vid and interviews with Keane. They keep saying "Quds force" but apparently the general is what constitutes the entire "Quds force".
Replies to Comment # 75. Sounds like a Persian Gylippus. Sometimes one guy can make a big difference.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 75.
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