written by Ron Paul<\/p>\n
Back in the 2008 presidential race, I explained to then-candidate Rudy Giuliani the concept of \u201cblowback.\u201d Years of US meddling and military occupation of parts of the Middle East motivated a group of terrorists to carry out attacks against the United States on 9\/11. They didn\u2019t do it because we are so rich and so free, as the neocons would have us believe. They came over here because we had been killing Muslims \u201cover there\u201d for decades.<\/p>\n
How do we know this? Well, they told us. Osama bin Laden made it clear why al-Qaeda sought to attack the US. They didn\u2019t like the US taking sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict and they didn\u2019t like US troops on their holy land.<\/p>\n
Why believe a terrorist, some responded. As I explained to Giuliani ten years ago, the concept of \u201cblowback\u201d is well-known in the US intelligence community and particularly by the CIA.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, it is clear that Giuliani never really understood what I was trying to tell him. Like the rest of the neocons, he either doesn\u2019t get it or doesn\u2019t want to get it. In a recent speech to the MeK \u2013 a violent Islamist-Marxist cult that spent two decades on the US terror watch list \u2013 Giuliani promised that the Trump Administration had made \u201cregime change\u201d a priority for Iran. He even told the members of that organization \u2013 an organization that has killed dozens of Americans \u2013 that Trump would put them in charge of Iran!<\/p>\n
Giuliani shares with numerous other neocons like John Bolton a strong relationship with this group. In fact, both Giuliani and Bolton have been on the payroll of the MeK and have received tens of thousands of dollars to speak to their followers. This is another example of how foreign lobbies and special interest groups maintain an iron grip on our foreign policy.<\/p>\n
Does anyone really think Iran will be better off if Trump puts a bunch of \u201cformer\u201d terrorists in charge of the country? How did that work in Libya?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to dismiss the bombastic Giuliani as he speaks to his financial benefactors in the MeK. Unfortunately, however, Giuliani\u2019s claims were confirmed late last week, when the Washington Free Beacon published a three-page policy paper being circulated among National Security Council officials containing plans to spark regime change in Iran.<\/p>\n
The paper suggests that the US focus on Iran\u2019s many ethnic minority groups to spark unrest and an eventual overthrow of the government. This is virtually the same road map that the US has followed in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and so on. The results have been unmitigated disaster after disaster.<\/p>\n
Unleashing terrorists on Iran to overthrow its government is not only illegal and immoral: it\u2019s also incredibly stupid. We know from 9\/11 that blowback is real, even if Giuliani and the neocons refuse to understand it. Iran does not threaten the United States. Unlike Washington\u2019s Arab allies in the region, Iran actually holds reasonably democratic elections and has a Western-oriented, educated, and very young population.<\/p>\n
Why not open up to Iran with massive amounts of trade and other contacts? Does anyone (except for the neocons) really believe it is better to unleash terrorists on a population than to engage them in trade and travel? We need to worry about blowback from President Trump\u2019s fully-neoconized Middle East policy! That\u2019s the real threat!<\/p>\n