Iran: Ethnic suppression: US Marines study suppression of ethnic communities other than the Farsis (Shia) who control Iran

London UK's Financial Times has produced a remarkable lengthy article by Guy Dinmore (Feb23,2k6) on the ethnic situation in Iran. Apparently, the theocratic mullahs (who are overwhelmingly members of the 50% of the Farsi segment of the population) keep a wide diversity of peoples divided, and second-class citizens, in a kind of dhimmitude - despite the fact that only a very small minority of Iranians belong to non-Islamic religions.

Rookmaker Club geostrategic analysis

Different in language and divided between followers of Sunni and Shia Islam, the ethnic minorities have little coherence. At times tensions among themselves are greater than with Tehran. Iran’s strongly centralised government does not release statistics on the ethnic groups that mainly inhabit sensitive border regions with Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Update: Interview with Michael Ledeen on US's Iran Policy

Farsi-speaking Persians who dominate the central government are generally believed to make up a slim majority, followed by Azeris and Kurds in the north and west, Arabs in the oil-rich southwest and Baluch in the southeast.

A patchwork of Turkmen, Christian Armenians and Assyrians, Jews and tribal nomads are among many groups scattered across a country of some 68m people.

The shocker in all these niceties of the Dinmore article is the role of the US Marine Corps intelligence wing in researching the diverse ethnocultural realities "on the ground" in Iran.

A Congress of Iranian exiles last year called for a democratic, federal Iran in place of the present Farsi-controlled unitary mullocracy. But the exiles are still pipe-dreaming that they can obtain this by wholly peaceful means, from the inside with no external allies and no financial support from elsewhere. This is a fantasy among the powerless exiles' would-be leaders, a fantasy about the present holders of total power in Iran , about the pervasive fear of the rest of the population and of many Farsis themselves, and about the lack of indigenous resources. None of the groups seem really to trust one another, and they claim not to want help (rather than see their rival groups using grants from outside the country). In other words, there's an entrenchment of a visionless old-school who refuse to recognize that the USA and the peace of the world constitute interests of their own. Something must be done about the present regime which is not only suppressive more and more of Iranian minorities, but is threatening the entire world with nuclear armaments (which can be used on errant populations in the Iranian homeland as well), is conducting a massive campaign of antiSemitism and antiIsrael propaganda and diplomacy aimed at all Muslim governments in the world, as well as Latin America, South Africa, and other places where antiAmericanism and oil wins friends for Iran's ruling maniacs.

The US Marines are gathering info and analyzing it, in order to develop contingency plans should some unforeseen eventuality require American support for new forces that may emerge in Iran, or require Marines to enter the state territory of a power which has set up its own proxy military in Iraq and is feeding inter-ethnic and inter-denominational terrorists there. I'm referring to Iran kiss-ass Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr whose bloc is a regressive force in the Iraqi parliament. As long as Sadr's sadists have free run in Iraq, there's no reason why US Marines shouldn't go after his sponsors in Iran. Other elements from Iran, and weapons, already are infiltrated over the border into Iraq from Iran, especially along the border area near Basra in the south. The holier-than-thou leaders of the mentioned exile rump- groups are just so precious in their phoney opposition to the present theocrats who oppress each and every one of their minority communities. - Politicarp

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