It Could Not Be Better For the Iranian Leadership if Khomeini Were Still Here

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Jan 9, 2013 at 18:16

Hoover Fellow Sofaer's approach to dealing with the sublimated activities of Iran's war machine may have some interesting associations with the tactics formerly used abroad in facing the agenda of the ancient Soviet Union, but the ayatollahs' attitude towards world domination under the premise of Shari'a law appears to have a disconnect with the former Cold War antagonisms of the super powers of those times; and the terrorist shadow government agencies like the IRGC in these present circumstances do not share the former compunctions. Indeed, attempting to make those connections would be difficult in light of the inability to force Iran into sanction compliance like other rogue agencies, since the Iranian leadership displays little if any reluctance to press an agenda of domination that once was seen in the Soviet Union.

The Iranian religious leadership are not in the business of empire-building as in the same sense that the Soviet Union was in its lifetime. With the Soviets, it could be seen that protection of assets was paramount during many of the Cold War encounters, something that does not seem to affect the Iranian leadership as one might suppose. Even as it is seen that the Russian CIS is attempting to maintain its influences in the Middle East and are willing to go to certain lengths to do so, it is still about protection of assets and influences. Even at that, ideologically, there is enough of a disparity in the mentality between Iran's march to war and the West's ineffective efforts in averting hostilities simply due to the Russian presence that it is actually covering a fact that a war time stance is already in effect and all that is going on now is tactical posturing before open hostilities with all comers commences.

Iran is the catalyst; Iranian operations are the tool. In the background, the Russians are a recognized power that at this moment plays to the Iranian leadership's ambitions, immediately in the Syrian theater; but later it is likely to expand as the Iranian leadership begin their own escalation as their confidence to exert world-class power is secured. In the course of such events, the rest of the world (the United States especially) is being pulled into a greater act of reluctant participation and its ability to be the moderator as it might have been under previous administrations is now seriously under question, if for one reason: the potential deterioration of its relationship with Israel. If the security of Israel cannot be guaranteed, then the security of the region cannot be guaranteed and that is what the leadership of Iran is promoting with its activities as being pressed by the IRGC.

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