30 — Vanguard, FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019
When your enemy fights your battles IN an unprecedented and meaningless step, the United States President Donald Trump this Monday, designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organisation. It is like designating the American Marines Corps a terrorist organisation. Some of the implications are that economic and travel sanctions would be imposed on the corps, and organisations that maintain ties with it, will be sanctioned. But this does not appear logical because the entire Iran is already under comprehensive American sanctions. So Trump’s hope that his latest <strong>action</strong> “will significantly expand the scope and scale of our (American) maximum pressure on the Iranian regime” appears misplaced. Iran immediately retaliated by designating America as a state sponsor of terrorism, and all American forces in the Middle East, as terrorists. That means that in any battle both armies meet, the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, will not apply as the soldiers of either country will be considered combatant terrorists. The possibility of this happening is very high because both countries have their armies in Syria fighting the Islamic State, ISIS, terrorists, and both have their soldiers stationed in Iraq where they support the same government. Currently, the US has 5,800 troops in Iraq while Iran has an unknown number of soldiers and an estimated 150,000 pro-Iranian militia forces, especially under the Popular Mobilisation Forces, PMF. These pro-Iranian forces have been integrated into the official Iraqi forces. Apart from Shiites accounting for about two thirds of the Iraqi population and the government being mainly Shiite and pro-Iran, Iraq is also the main importer of Iranian goods. Trump’s move on the eve of the Israeli elections might appear to be an attempt to give a boost to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election efforts, but it appears more of an impotent act. America has staked a lot to tackle the Iranians, including going against the rest of the world over the nuclear weapons deal, but Iran appears to be gaining in strength. The irony is that Iran’s growing strength is mainly a result of American miscalculations and sacrifices, including in American lives! For instance, following the February 11,1979 Iranian Revolution that brought to an end the reign of the pro-American Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, President Sadam Hussein of Iraq had on September 22, 1980, in a pro- American move, invaded Iran. He hoped to overrun a country he thought was in chaos. That war lasted eight years with 500,000 killed and over that number injured. In invading Iraq in 2003 under false pretenses, and overthrowing Sadam, America forgot the sacrifices of Sadam in invading Iran. It also might not have thought through its <strong>action</strong>s which could only end in the majority Shiite populace taking over Iran. This came to pass. So in reality, the winner of the Americo-European invasion of Iraq, was Iran. America is not likely to get international support even of its NATO allies in designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, a terrorist organisation When the Americo-European alliance with the Gulf States established, trained and bankrolled the Islamic State, ISIS, to overthrow the pro-Iranian Syrian government, it did not immediately realise that it was giving birth to a monster. After encouraging European and American Muslim fighters to join ISIS, America turned round to fight ISIS. In the process, it strengthened the pro-Iranian Iraqi government and contributed in defeating the ISIS. Ultimately, victory in Iraq and Syria, is victory for Iran. Qatar was a close ally of the US. It Vanguard, FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019—31 Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com is also host to the largest American military base in the Middle East: the Al Udeid Air Base. In June 2017, things began to fall apart for the tiny country when a coalition of Gulf and African Muslim countries, including Jordan and Senegal, severed diplomatic ties with it. Qatar was falsely accused of aiding terrorism. In 2018, four of the countries: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirate, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a land, sea and air embargo on Qatar with the intent of suffocating it. Running out of food, with imports declining by 40 percent and tourism drying up, a hapless Qatar cried for assistance from big brother America, but the Trump government not only turned its back, but also supported the four countries. Qatar’s cries that the embargo and stifling conditions violated international laws, fell on deaf ears. A suffocating Qatar cried out to other countries for help. Iran wasted no time offering Qatar a breather, including opening its airspace to Qatar Air and its shipping routes to the besieged country. Qatar embraced Iran and restored full diplomatic relations. So Iran is a net beneficiary of the embargo on Qatar. Turkey was an ally of the Americans in the Syrian Civil War. It supported rebels against the Syrian government which was allied to Iran. It went so far as deliberately using its American F-16 jet fighter on November 24, 2015 to shoot down a Russian Suhhoi Su-24 attack aircraft over Syrian airspace. But Russia and Iran warmed up to Turkey and won it over to the Syrian government side. Today, the Turks are in alliance with the Russian, Iranian and Syrian governments and are resisting American pressures to drop their decision to purchase Russian S-400 air-defense missiles. Now, Iran’s b<strong>orders</strong> with Turkey can be said to be safe and it is a beneficiary of the on-going Turkey-US spat. The American withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Peace Deal, its renewed sanctions and threats against Iran, have given the latter the excuse to resume its nuclear race. The contemporary American-Iran ‘wars’ began when the American Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, in 1953 organised the coup which overthrew Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq. In its ‘The Battle for Iran’ documents, published on its archive's website under freedom of information laws, the CIA confessed: "The military coup that overthrew Mosaddeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of US foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government." The Mosaddeq government had nationalised the British Anglo- Iranian Oil Company, BP, and Britain appealed to the Eisenhower administration for assistance. It obliged with the coup, codenamed TPAJAX by the CIA and Operation Boot by Britain's MI6. America is not likely to get international support even of its NATO allies in designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, a terrorist organisation. Also, its insistence that all other countries and organisations, including businesses must join its sanctions against Iran, would not win it much friends. For instance, it has just forced the Standard Chartered Bank to part with $1billion fine for allegedly violating sanctions against Iran and its allies. The American foreign policy resembles a nursery school rhyme which sounds like: My enemy is your enemy. My enemy must be your enemy. My enemy shall be your enemy. If my enemy is not your enemy. Then you are my enemy. Imo people and the Ihedioha hysteria By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye SINCE Mr. Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, emerged the winner of the governorship election held recently in Imo State, all sorts of people who are able to get themselves interviewed by reporters have been filling our ears with rambling tales about how a new “messiah” had emerged to liberate Imo people from the hands of their “oppressors” and “exploiters” and usher them into a glorious era of limitless happiness. As a citizen of Imo State who has closely observed several governors enter and leave the Imo Government House, I find the whole absurd drama so revolting. If only Mr. Ihedioha would spare some moments and reflect, he would realise that there is nothing new about the drab performance that these characters are staging today; nor is it peculiar to Imo State. We saw it during the tenure of Achike Udenwa. At that time, my newspaper articles always told Udenwa the truth I thought he should hear for the benefit of our state. Indeed, it was clear to me that after he had exhausted his tenure and left, Imo State would still be there for all of us whether left in a good or bad state. My loyalty, therefore, was to my state and not to any governor. When in 2007 (12 years ago), Ikedi Ohakim became the governor, the noise was even louder. And Ohakim himself was such a fantastic and charming orator. Shortly after he was sworn in, he came to Lagos and gathered a select few of senior journalists and reeled out a very wonderful, if not tantalising, programme for Imo State. I could not help being impressed. When I introduced myself, he screamed that each time he read my articles, he always thought I was “one very old veteran journalist” because of the quality of my thoughts. Like many other people that have met me, he didn’t realise that he had been fooled by my youthful look. I am not as young as several of them think. Soon, Ohakim’s popularity plummeted so badly. He must have been very surprised when I was driven by my enduring loyalty to the state to become very critical of his administration. When it became clear to him that his second term bid might be aborted by Mr. Rochas Okorocha of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, he boasted that no one could take the office of the governor from him. This may have enraged the people the more because their determination to boot him out received additional fuel. When he eventually fell and you listened to some of the same people that had praised him to high heavens only a couple of years earlier, you wondered at the kind of terrible mindset some human beings carried about with them. Well, age is still on Ohakim’s side, and he appears to have been sufficiently sobered by his humbling experience at the polls; may be, if he gets another opportunity (which he has sought with amazing zeal since he left office), he might post a more edifying performance. Rochas Okorocha was the most praised of them all. It was as if the long-awaited “messiah” had finally arrived. He also wowed the people by paying the arrears of salaries and pensions accumulated under his predecessor, opened countless roads that almost completely eliminated the gridlocks that egregiously distinguished Owerri at that time. People going to the airport could easily bypass the town and access Aba Road to head straight to the airport with little or no stress. Stories had it that he often walked on the streets with modest security and market women and poor artisans rushed unrestrained to embrace him, shake his hands and even offer him cold water which he received from their hands. But soon, the roads began to wear off betraying substandard work. He then compounded his problems by joining the All Progressives Congress, APC, a party that held no appeal to Imo people given its anti-people policies; he, however, fought really hard to ensure its victory. After the arrival of CHANGE, the Imo became so broke that he could no longer pay salaries and even when he paid them, he chose whatever percentage that suited him to dish out to the workers each month. As a public service worker you could not say what your salary would be at the end of the month. Soon, he reduced the number of work days and asked the impoverished civil servants to devote Thursday and Friday for farm work, not bothering if they had the funds to undertake such an endeavour. Even when he created the office of the Commissioner for Happiness and put his lovely sister in charge of it, the people still could not be appeased. As governor, Emeka Ihedioha should confront headlong the problem of civil servants, especially, teachers and pensioners and clear their arrears of salaries Although he had managed to get reelected, he was no longer the “man of the people”. He soon compounded his predicament further by his ill-advised decision to install a certain young man, his daughter’s spouse, to succeed him as governor. Quite a number of Imo people took the insult personally. That opened the door wider to many conflicts and increased the number of his bitter antagonists both within and outside his party. While his anointed candidate failed woefully, his own senatorial bid is still imperiled. Even his position in his party has become shaky. Since it was clear that the APC had no chances in Imo, APGA, which naturally should have taken the governorship seat, miscalculated so badly. They offered Imo people a hard-sell (some say at the mischievous instigation of the presidency). The next natural choice for Imo people was then Mr. Ihedioha of the PDP. There is serious doubt today among many informed minds that the result of the election would have been the same if APGA had fielded somebody like Mr. Frank Nneji, Ihedioha’s kinsman, as its governorship candidate for Imo State. I have gone all this way to help Ihedioha to appreciate the peculiar circumstances that threw the governorship mandate on his lap. I have not seen Ihedioha address any crowd, but I would be highly surprised to witness him manifest an ability to charm a crowd. It would, therefore, be very unhelpful if he allows any sycophant to lull him into the false belief that Imo people had suddenly seen in him an ability and charisma they were unable to see the previous time. This realisation would now make his work more enormous but not impossible. He should go all out to win the people’s confidence (which, if he must tell himself the truth, is very low at the moment) and prove to them that they had grossly misjudged him by not voting him in earlier. Already, he appears to have taken the first unappetising step by the unwieldy crowd he published as members of his Transition Committee. The list looks like a village meeting. He needs to work hard to correct the unsavoury signal this first step has already sent out. As governor, Emeka Ihedioha should confront headlong the problem of civil servants, especially, teachers and pensioners and clear their arrears of salaries. Also, and very importantly, he would be missing it if he begins immediately to build new roads. Rather, he should solidify the ones constructed by Okorocha, especially, in the state capital, reopen the adjoining streets closed by the open gutters of newly reconstructed roads to enable the free-flow of traffic in Owerri, and clear the mountains of refuse everywhere to give the state a facelift. • Ejinkeonye, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Lagos
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