Two years ago the Commandant of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that the United States had failed to stop their exportation of Islamic revolution:
The Commandant of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) declared that Iran was exporting its Islamic revolution to other Muslim countries including Iraq which would inevitably bring about the downfall of the United States in the Middle East, state dailies reported on Monday.
~~~Safavi said that the U.S. had failed to prevent Tehran from exporting its Islamic revolution to other countries in the region. “Following the victory of the [1979] Islamic revolution, America tried with all its might to contain the Iranian people’s Islamic revolution inside the geographical borders of Iran and to thwart the export of the revolution. But, the activities in Lebanon, Palestine, and present-day Iraq, as well as Islamic and freedom-seeking nations of the world proved the opposite”.
And now the United States has finally decided to declare the IRGC a terrorist group:
The United States has decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group’s business operations and finances.
The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran’s nuclear program, officials said.
The designation of the Revolutionary Guard will be made under Executive Order 13224, which President Bush signed two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to obstruct terrorist funding. It authorizes the United States to identify individuals, businesses, charities and extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities. The Revolutionary Guard would be the first national military branch included on the list, U.S. officials said — a highly unusual move because it is part of a government, rather than a typical non-state terrorist organization.
The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that "provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists."
I read this as more of a financial coup then anything else. The ability to find and freeze their assets will help immensely. Of course our liberal MSM couldn’t help but complain about the move. Just as they complained about Reagan as he fought the Russians as being too "confrontational," now Bush is being too…..confrontational:
The administration’s move could hurt diplomatic efforts, some analysts said. "It would greatly complicate our efforts to solve the nuclear issue," said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear proliferation expert at the Center for American Progress. "It would tie an end to Iran’s nuclear program to an end to its support of allies in Hezbollah and Hamas. The only way you could get a nuclear deal is as part of a grand bargain, which at this point is completely out of reach."
Such sanctions can only work alongside diplomatic efforts, Cirincione added. "Sanctions can serve as a prod but they have very rarely forced a country to capitulate or collapse," he said. "All of us want to back Iran into a corner but we want to give them a way out, too. [The designation] will convince many in Iran’s elite that there’s no point in talking with us and that the only thing that will satisfy us is regime change."
Cirincione faulty logic is quite apparent in his quotes huh? Solve the nuclear issue? We’ve been negotiating with them for years with nothing to show for it. Should we wait do as Bush’ predecessors did and wait 13 years before we actually get tough?
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Joseph Cirincione is a great speaker, but a poor “expert.” Just last week I watched a History Channel show with him on it where he said that the North Koreans would never even test their long range missiles let alone actually build a nuclear weapon. Great mind
U.S. Moving Against Revolutionary Guard Followup.
So here we have a regime that has been, and still is, providing weapons that are killing our troops and civilians in other countries such as Israel. Some how the left makes them out as victims.