Unsettling News for the MeK - Home Will Never Be The Same

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Feb 28, 2012 at 16:05

The unsettling of the MeK is going to be one of the more tragic results of an unfinished business the United States left behind in Iraq, yet another unfinished 'police action' on the American record. A 'police action,' one might ask? Look at it: did it not cease being a war with the capture of Saddam Hussein, capturing the flag, so to speak?

But there is the contravening question: did/does the United States owe a duty to the MeK? Was the 'protected status' authored by the U. S. or the Iraqi government and who was/is the guarantor of the protection? If it is the U. S., then another addendum to the failure of leaving an unsettled Iraq is looming. If Iraq was the host, then we can presume by the underlying capricious nature of the government that the MeK is exquisitely justified in their anxieties, for loss of 'protected status' bears with it the loss of hope of expunging its ambiguous history as seen by Iran.

Members of the MeK are displaced persons at minimum, their plight bearing some resemblance however little, to the 'Palestinian' one, the primary difference being, they are Iranian. Based on the observation that their 'welcome' in Iraq is being considered for termination, they will become personas non grata, not being able to be allowed refugee statues where they are, nor will be allowed refugee status elsewhere that is not their true home. Is this not third world status like that of refugees in Africa?

Before someone makes this the basis of an argument for 'Palestinian' rights, remember that MeK members, if Iranians by national identity, they are Iranians in exile from an established state. No such state existed for the 'Palestinian.'

Now, maybe to make this observation in fairness, the ruling elite of Iran do have an idea of being exiles themselves, having fled Iran during the reign of the shah. In a revolution worthy of the Bolsheviks, they achieved power and have exerted it successfully since. Does anyone not think the Iranian revolution is not successful-posture this in the mind-how is it they have yet to be dislodged from their perch of defiance?

And thus, the dilemma of the MeK, another local problem gone global that has the United Nations baffled as much as anyone else about what to do. Maybe the MeK should take up residence in Paris and wait for the Iranian revolution to falter like the ayatollahs did with the shah; then move right back in. Naa; the French didn't like the ayatollahs either. Why would they do that again?

For the MeK, the unfortunate quip, 'you can never go home again,' is all too true. It remains to be seen if the MeK gets any better treatment than a Sudanese refugee.

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