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| Iran Celebrates US "Defeat" in Najaf |
| 2004-08-28 |
| Iran celebrates US 'defeat' in Najaf Amazingly, the sneer-quotes around "defeat" are actually the Beeb's, but so is the attribution of mullah-head delusions to Iran in general, which is plainly very far from the truth. The first Iranian reactions to the latest developments in Najaf have portrayed the peace deal brokered by Ayatollah Sistani as a major setback for the US. The US siege of the holy city of Najaf inflamed Iranian opinion State radio said the agreement had frustrated US plans to disable Iraq's Shia as a political force. And in his Friday sermon, the still influential former Iranian President, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said events in Najaf - which he compared to Stalingrad - should alert the West to the power of the Islamic clergy. The Iranians have played a waiting game over Najaf, with senior officials from the president downwards fiercely denouncing the use of military force there by the Americans while never officially committing themselves to full-blown support for Moqtada Sadr and his followers. This strategy allowed Iran to show solidarity with the Shia uprising while avoiding a complete break with the other important Shia political forces in Iraq. And throughout the crisis, Iran remained consistent in its backing for Ayatollah Sistani and his position. Emotive comparisons Now, the apparent success of his peace initiative in Najaf has given Tehran an opportunity to revel in what it sees as the frustration of America's strategy. In his Friday sermon, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani - who remains one of the most powerful political figures in Iran - told his congregation that American power had been humbled. "Today, Najaf is prouder than Stalingrad," he said. "In contemporary history, Stalingrad is a symbol of resistance. The State of Israel, besieged by Nazi Satans for 56 years, is the real successor to Stalingrad. "But in the alleys and streets of Najaf, a small number of people fought this well-equipped army, which used cluster bombs and sometimes even dangerous material and dangerous gases in their attacks, but failed to open the gates of the city." The Ayatollah's return: Iranians were reminded of events in 1979 Speaking in the same vein, Mr Rafsanjani made a further comparison - even more emotive for his audience - this time over what he described as Ayatollah Sistani's courage in returning to Iraq. "Of course, with a slight difference, it resembled Imam Khomeini's return from Paris to Tehran." "At the time, the Imam insisted on returning despite the fact that the Shah's army, police and secret agents were guarding the city streets." "The Imam's manoeuvre on that day broke the back of the Shah's regime," he said. Border protest Mr Rafsanjani's sermon, accompanied by the sound of the congregation chanting "God is great" and "Death to America", was broadcast live on Iranian state radio. The radio station earlier issued its own commentary on the Najaf deal, portraying it as a "major defeat for America". It said the US had tried to divide the Shia in Iraq and drive them from the political stage - but had failed. One sign of how much Iranian feeling has been stirred up over Najaf was a mass anti-American protest march to the Iraqi border that had been planned for this coming Monday. That has now been called off - but the sense that Najaf marked a new stage in the simmering hostilities between America and Iran remains palpable. This kind of propaganda is one reason I believe the Iranians will carry out their threat to launch a pre-emptive strike against US forces. This seems insane to us, but it is very different to those whose primary sources are the Islamic propaganda machine and its fifth column allies in the western media. In true emulation of the creator of activist media, Joseph Goebbels, these enemy propaganda beasts have adopted the alleged feebleness and incompetence of the US military as one of their common themes since the beginning of the WoT. From the US "defeat" in Operation Anaconda (Robert Fisk), to the "quagmire" caused by the "fierce resistance" of the Fedayeen Saddam during the invasion last year (BBC, Al Reuters, many others), to the allegedly valiant and successful stand put up by the "minutemen" and "resistance fighters" of Fallujah and Najaf (Mike Al-Moor and the usual suspects) this has been a constant message in the ears of would-be jihadis and their leaders throughout the Muslim world. (Of course, Al-Jazeerah is the biggest of the big liars and has been complicit in all this.) No doubt thousands of credulous young Muslims have perished because they believed this nonsense and joined the jihad. It is unlikely that the professional military in Iran believe any of it, but the mullahs just might----and they're the ones who call the shots. "We are much stronger than those heroes in Fallujah and Najaf," the mullahs might say, "and they defeated the American infidels, why can't we do the same?" |
| Posted by:Atomic Conspiracy |
| #11 There guys might want to read up on an old Greek named King Pyrrhus of Epirus... |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-08-28 8:09:18 PM |
| #10 Yep Yank, that 25 mile CEP had a lot to do with it too. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-28 5:52:20 PM |
| #9 I saw a picture book of the damage done to Nurenburg while I was there in 97 (Germans have a fetish for pictures of WW2 leveled cities because Lubick was selling postcards showing their city on fire). It looks like we pretty much took out nearly everything along the flight path as we tried to whack the rail lines. The Cathedral, Castle, and Duras House were all pretty much spared (the main historical stuff) but I think it was more through luck since the city had pretty extensive damage all around and we weren't actually targetting the city. |
| Posted by: Yank 2004-08-28 4:49:49 PM |
| #8 One cannot neglect the possibility that these remarks are meant purely for domestic consumption. To the extent that the religious authorities in Iran must rely on terrorizing their populace to remain in power, they may be worried that U.S. victories could inspire a homegrown overthrow of the Iranian regime. By painting the U.S. retreat as a victory for Iraq's hardliners, such attempted overthrows will be less likely. |
| Posted by: Curt Simon 2004-08-28 2:10:29 PM |
| #7 It was the AFP photographers who brought in the beer. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-08-28 12:28:20 PM |
| #6 beer cans... in a Mosque? But, that's not possible: Muslims don't drink. I can't believe that a great Holy Man such as al-Sadr and his men could have been responsible. (/sarcasm) |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-08-28 10:19:17 AM |
| #5 Just wait until the next enormous batch of Iranian pilgrims visits the mosque to discover it is unharmed, despite every building around it being reduced to rubble. The US pulled the same "trick" in Germany in WWII, of leveling a town *except* for any old church, cathedral or historical edifice: even the damn Nuremburg stadium. To this day, Germans are still grateful to the US for this, and the older ones still thank Americans for it. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-08-28 10:11:18 AM |
| #4 Lets see... Main-line Shia forced into the arms of the Government? CHeck. Ayatollah asking for National Guard and National Police to protect the city and shrines? Check. Army Decimated? Check. Leadership captured stealing things from the Mosque? Check. Mosque filled with excrement and beer cans? Check. Charnel house of Taliban style executions? Check. Movement exposed as a gang of thugs? Check. Leader Exposed as a fraud? Check. If thats defeat, then we need a few more and Iraq will be pacified. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-08-28 3:35:26 AM |
| #3 SH, the enemy media have been telling them that our objective was to destroy or desecrate the mosque of ali. We have failed to do so, so we are defeated in their minds. This is a classic strawman ploy, common in American fifth column media reporting during the Vietnam war and still current in Eurabian media. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2004-08-28 3:00:49 AM |
| #2 What, exactly, did they think was our objective in the engagement? |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-08-28 2:45:11 AM |
| #1 Well there you have it; Sadr's forces got a nice little trimming courtesy of the U.S. Armed Forces, and somehow, the mullah brain thinks it's a victory for him/defeat for us. The question is, does the Muslim at large actually buy this nonsense? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-08-28 2:30:11 AM |