In an article published by on October 28, 2015, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia said 'Our diplomatic establishment has been trying desperately to trust the nature of the beast, indeed a misplaced trust in the Mullah regime’s willingness not to develop nuclear weapons. During the 2009 uprising in Iran, Iranian masses protested, challenging the election result that brought Mahmoud Ahamdinejad in power. That uprising encountered a bloody putdown in the streets along with mass arrests of brave human rights advocates.
The Iranian people pleaded for support, at least moral support, from Mr. Obama by chanting 'Mr. Obama, are you with us or with them'. But the president turned a deaf ear in hopes of forging a legacy-building deal with their oppressors.
History teaches that it is not necessarily wrong to parley with the world’s bad actors, but that doesn’t mean ignoring the evil nature of those on the other side of the table. If a regime is based on beating its people into submission, how can we count on its good faith with us?
Despite opposition by a majority of Congress and the American people, the Iranian nuclear arms deal went through. It will provide Iran up to $150 billion in unfrozen assets, probably by early in 2016. This will allow the Iranian regime to expand its grotesquely wicked behavior, which includes spreading global terrorism and systematic abuse of human rights within its borders.
But these particular concerns highlight another legitimate concern. Our government’s debate over Iran policy should not be so centered on a flawed nuclear deal.
That is a symptom of a much broader misunderstanding of the Iranian threat. It seems the Obama position is predicated on the idea that the theocratic regime is trending toward moderation.
In 2013, the newly elected Hassan Rouhani was pointedly embraced by Mr. Obama and a number of others as a victory for the reformist elements in Iranian society.
Wrong.
Since Mr. Rouhani came to power there have been 2,000 executions, more than 700 this year alone. This figure represents the number of people put to death by the Iranian judiciary. It doesn’t include those killed by prison authorities, those denied lifesaving medical attention, or those who died under torture during interrogations.
As recently as Sept. 13, a well-known political prisoner, Shahrokh Zamani, was found dead in his cell. He had been working on documents related to labor rights as well as the plight of political prisoners. His body showed signs of abuse.
The political prisoner population, in fact, has not decreased during Mr. Rouhani’s presidency. Criminalization of dissent is still endemic to the regime, as it continues to be prominent on annual lists of the world’s most heavy-handed oppressors of journalists and civil activists.
The website 'Journalismisnotacrime.com' recently received the results of a study it had commissioned of the journalism profession in Iran. It found that nearly 60 percent of those journalists who participated in the study had been arrested. Twenty percent had been tortured.
Sadly, the study seemed to reveal that such repressive measures are reasonably effective. Seventy-eight percent of journalists who were interviewed by psychiatry professor Anthony Feinstein reported they’d dropped at least some of their journalistic projects as a result of threats to them or their families.
The Iranian nuclear program threatens the stability of the world and could be the harbinger of mass destruction and death. We have at least several months to respond to that apocalyptic scenario.
Before the treaty does its damage, we may expect another mass public execution of Iranian prisoners; another political detainee beaten to death for refusing to end his activism; another journalist tortured, his family threatened, simply because he dared tell the truth about his country.
Each abuse confronted on the international stage is another deconstruction of the absurdist narrative that portrays Mr. Rouhani as a moderate. When that narrative is gone, the false premises behind the nuclear agreement will be exposed.
Until the false narrative is disproven, the president and like-minded officials, here and abroad, will perpetuate the naive idea that the Middle Eastern crisis will resolve itself.
For the United States and our allies, this is not a choice between collusion with the Mullah regime or U.S. military action against it. Resistance groups are ready, including the People’s Mujahideen of Iran and the National Council of Resistance as well as ethnic oppositions...
Next time authentic Iranian democrats cry out for support, our response must be an unmistakable “Yes, we are with you, not with your oppressors.”
The Iranian people are our allies. Let us, as President Reagan did to the Soviet Union, an atheist dictatorship, provide support and encouragement to those many Iranians who oppose their Mullah theocracy.
The Iranian people pleaded for support, at least moral support, from Mr. Obama by chanting 'Mr. Obama, are you with us or with them'. But the president turned a deaf ear in hopes of forging a legacy-building deal with their oppressors.
History teaches that it is not necessarily wrong to parley with the world’s bad actors, but that doesn’t mean ignoring the evil nature of those on the other side of the table. If a regime is based on beating its people into submission, how can we count on its good faith with us?
Despite opposition by a majority of Congress and the American people, the Iranian nuclear arms deal went through. It will provide Iran up to $150 billion in unfrozen assets, probably by early in 2016. This will allow the Iranian regime to expand its grotesquely wicked behavior, which includes spreading global terrorism and systematic abuse of human rights within its borders.
But these particular concerns highlight another legitimate concern. Our government’s debate over Iran policy should not be so centered on a flawed nuclear deal.
That is a symptom of a much broader misunderstanding of the Iranian threat. It seems the Obama position is predicated on the idea that the theocratic regime is trending toward moderation.
In 2013, the newly elected Hassan Rouhani was pointedly embraced by Mr. Obama and a number of others as a victory for the reformist elements in Iranian society.
Wrong.
Since Mr. Rouhani came to power there have been 2,000 executions, more than 700 this year alone. This figure represents the number of people put to death by the Iranian judiciary. It doesn’t include those killed by prison authorities, those denied lifesaving medical attention, or those who died under torture during interrogations.
As recently as Sept. 13, a well-known political prisoner, Shahrokh Zamani, was found dead in his cell. He had been working on documents related to labor rights as well as the plight of political prisoners. His body showed signs of abuse.
The political prisoner population, in fact, has not decreased during Mr. Rouhani’s presidency. Criminalization of dissent is still endemic to the regime, as it continues to be prominent on annual lists of the world’s most heavy-handed oppressors of journalists and civil activists.
The website 'Journalismisnotacrime.com' recently received the results of a study it had commissioned of the journalism profession in Iran. It found that nearly 60 percent of those journalists who participated in the study had been arrested. Twenty percent had been tortured.
Sadly, the study seemed to reveal that such repressive measures are reasonably effective. Seventy-eight percent of journalists who were interviewed by psychiatry professor Anthony Feinstein reported they’d dropped at least some of their journalistic projects as a result of threats to them or their families.
The Iranian nuclear program threatens the stability of the world and could be the harbinger of mass destruction and death. We have at least several months to respond to that apocalyptic scenario.
Before the treaty does its damage, we may expect another mass public execution of Iranian prisoners; another political detainee beaten to death for refusing to end his activism; another journalist tortured, his family threatened, simply because he dared tell the truth about his country.
Each abuse confronted on the international stage is another deconstruction of the absurdist narrative that portrays Mr. Rouhani as a moderate. When that narrative is gone, the false premises behind the nuclear agreement will be exposed.
Until the false narrative is disproven, the president and like-minded officials, here and abroad, will perpetuate the naive idea that the Middle Eastern crisis will resolve itself.
For the United States and our allies, this is not a choice between collusion with the Mullah regime or U.S. military action against it. Resistance groups are ready, including the People’s Mujahideen of Iran and the National Council of Resistance as well as ethnic oppositions...
Next time authentic Iranian democrats cry out for support, our response must be an unmistakable “Yes, we are with you, not with your oppressors.”
The Iranian people are our allies. Let us, as President Reagan did to the Soviet Union, an atheist dictatorship, provide support and encouragement to those many Iranians who oppose their Mullah theocracy.
• Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire