The head of this snake is in Iran 

By Ali Sina  

In an article titled Mullahs of Iran are paymasters of terror, US military analysts Lieutenant-General Thomas McInerney and Major-General Paul Vallely (both retired) accused the Mullahs of Iran of meddling in Iraq and tying to destabilize Iraq and achieve strategic dominance in the Middle East and Central Asia . They recognized that Iran is behind the cleric Al Sadr and that the standoff in Najaf was orchestrated by them.      

The generals wrote:
“ Iran 's strategic ambitions and its prominence in global terrorism are nothing new.

Despite the hopes of many governments, the widespread popular unrest and internal power struggles of the late 1990s did not result in a more democratic, less aggressive Iran . Instead, the mullahs dropped any pretence of adhering to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, issued apocalyptic warnings about the revenge they would exact should Israel attack Iran 's nuclear facilities and accelerated their ballistic missile program.”  

They stated that according to Israeli intelligence the Mullahs are preparing their Palestinian proxies to seize power in a post Yasser Arafat era. And blaming the Mullahs for the spread of the international terrorism they wrote:

“In Iraq , Iran aims to replicate its successes in Lebanon . Since Iraq 's liberation, Iran has provided weapons, money and personnel to militant Shiite groups - including al-Sadr's - with the apparent goal of establishing an Iraqi version of Hezbollah that, in time, would establish de facto Iranian control over Shiite Iraq. Despite his setback in Najaf, al-Sadr almost certainly will continue to do his masters' bidding.”  

Increasingly the American government and their military analysts are realizing that the problems of Iraq and International terrorism are in great part rooted in Iran and until the problem of Iran is not resolved the situation in Iraq has little hope to be resolved.    

The Generals recommended “It is imperative that the US immediately and forcefully check Iran , inside and outside of Iraq .” And suggested: “the Iraqi interim government should immediately break relations with Tehran , citing Iran 's support of anti-government subversion and secure its borders against Iranian infiltration.”  

Ironically in Najaf religious ceremonies, there are more Iranians than Iraqis. Recently several boxes of ammunitions were confiscated that had labels in Farsi. This clearly proves that they originated from Iran . McInerney and Vallely suggested that “until its security situation improves, Iraq must deny entry to Iranian pilgrims.”  

But these are all temporary measure. We have to shift our attention from band aid kind of solutions to real cure. The generals acknowledged:  

“Of course, the best way to end the threat posed by Iran is to end the mullahs' rule of Iran . To that end, the US and other countries also must revive democratic opposition groups in Iran through both overt aid and covert support. They also should create the nucleus of an armed resistance movement by removing the Iranian exile group, the Mujahideen-e-Khalq from the US State Department's list of terrorist organisations. It's time to rearm its 4000 trained fighters.”  

Although Iranians have denounced violence in principle and for the last twenty five years tried to bring change to Iran peacefully and even tried in vain to work within and reform the present regime, it is clear that the Mullahs, like their other Islamic terrorist allies understand one language and that is force. They came to power through terrorism and will not go away unless they are forced to. Mujahedeen-e-Khalq should be unlisted as a terrorist organization and its members should be welcomed to join the rest of Iranians in their struggle against axis of evil. The regrettable mass arrest of the French government of this group was in fact to appease the Mullahs and sign favorable contracts. USA must support the armed resistance in Iran and help the formation of a provisional government to oversee the struggle. To avoid later struggle for power and a civil war, all the resistance must come under the leadership of a provisional government that is not allied to any political faction and is comprised of all the opposition forces. The armed resistance should be trained to take over the cities of Iran with backing of the US military force but more than anything else win the confidence of the Iranians disaffected with the regime so they join the army of liberation. The key here is that Iranians should be in charge of the liberation of their country and not the Americans.  

Thanks to the Iranian Mullahs the war in Iraq has become a nightmare. The war against the Mullahs will be much easier. Iran is the last powerful axis of evil in the region. After the fall of the Mullahs, no other country will finance terrorism. Also once the Mullahs are attacked they will shift their war into defensive mode and Iraq will have a better chance to gain stability.  

McInerney and Vallely conclude that Iraq ’s success depends on the resolution of Iranian problem. At this point America is fighting a defensive war in Iraq . Defensive wars are losing wars. America must take the lead once again and launch an offensive war against international Islamic terrorism. The head of this snake is in Tehran .  

This war is against Islamic terrorism. Afghanistan and Iraq were just two battles of this war. If we stop now we lose. The war must continue and now the next battle must be fought in Iran . The good news is that in this battle the Iranians are willing to be the foot soldiers. This would be the most definitive and may be the last major battle against terrorism. But unlike Afghanistan and Iraq , it would be swift and requires little effort on the part of America .