New US focus on Iran could signal another Cold War/More from Trita Parsi

"WASHINGTON: Provocative words by US President George W Bush and a fresh American military build-up in the Persian Gulf seem to mark a US new focus on Iran that could signal another Cold War or even a deadly confrontation.

As the USS Stennis aircraft carrier began its journey to the Gulf on Tuesday, top administration officials travelling in the region defended the increased US presence there as the only way to impress on Iran that the four-year war in Iraq has not made America vulnerable. Sending a second carrier to the Gulf for the first time since 2003 and positioning a Patriot missile battalion in the region mark a broader US stand in the Middle East at a time when diplomatic efforts with countries such as Iran and Syria have stalled. It also puts US policy at odds with the bipartisan Iraq Study Group’s recommendation that the administration should reach out to Iran and Syria to bring more regional support to Iraq.

Trita Parsi, an Iranian-born author and Middle East scholar, said the strategy will lead to an endless balance-of-power game that will drain American resources and undermine the US position in the region.

“If we think that we, in the long term, can keep a country like Iran constrained and contained, then we’re asking for a fight,” said Parsi, who is president of the National Iranian American Council. “Iran is a major power in that region. You cannot contain it without having a confrontation.”

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The tragedy, it seems, is not only that the country on the brink of implosion, and complete cultural and economic collapse, was the mecca and paradigm of Eastern-Western relations as well as a beacon of light and hope for prosperity and progressiveness in the Middle East. But also that that same country today, has become the mecca and paradigm of Anti-Western sentiment and a beacon of darkness and fear in the hearts of millions of innocent and oppressed peoples.

It seems everytime I read the news, America's war on terror inches closer and closer to the borders of Iran while the Mullah's war of terror seems to spread further and further into the heart of the Middle East and the international community. One may be naturally inclined to feel war is in enevitable and that they can only stand by and watch, wondering what will happen next, and where this shouldn't be true, it is.

The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), who's motto is to "promote Iranian-American participation in all areas of American civil life," has claimed to be the voice of the Iranian-American nation. But apparently, America hasn't heard anything, because all the NIAC has said, is to leave Iran alone. The NIAC has done good things for Iranian-American community locally, within the US, but is a poor force in establishing a "dialogue of nations" or for that matter, a table of solutions. As our only representative force for Iranians as a body in American government/congress, we expect much more, but dont have the luxury of the turning our backs either. Even if the represenative force for Iranians, is the represenative force for the Islamic Republic as well...

We are in a very tricky predicament, and at a very sensitive time in our history. Unfortunately, it seems that we have trapped ourselves into a corner, and keep coming back to the same conclusion. We protest voting in Iran, but don't want Ahmadinejad or any mullah. We push for no diplomacy from America, but we oppose US aggression on Iran. It's not working, none of it is working, because what were really saying, is we want it ALL gone. We want revolution. We want America to retreat and we want the IRI destroyed, and neither are happening. Things are getting worse and as America sinks into a deficit, Iran continues to sink into the Dark Ages. We are losing from both sides and I just can't comprehend why or how things are continuing down a path with no answers, and no immediate solutions.

Subconsciously, I keep imagining that this is all a dream, a temporary surreality that need only to be shaken to emerge from it's slumber and return to the majesty of it's true palpability. The irony, however, is that this is not far from the truth. The soul of Iran is in a slumber, hibernating somewhere beneath the footsteps of the nation. And it does need to be shaken, to awaken and reclaim it's children once more to repel these foreign invaders from our land.

Where's our Rostam now, our Ferdowsi?