Despite President Barack Obama’s persistent claims that the United States is not meddling in the post-election furore in Iran, the administration is moving forward with plans to subsidize Iranian dissident groups to the tune of $20 million in the form of USAID grants.
The program is not new, and the solicitation for the grant applications actually came under the Bush Administration. But with the deadline for submissions just four days away, the administration has a convenient excuse to subsidize opposition and dissident groups under the guise of promoting “the rule of law” in Iran.
The White House and the State Department both defended the program, insisting it did not run counter to the administration’s pretense of neutrality. The administration declined to provide details of exactly which opposition figures it had been funding, however, citing “security concerns.”
There is considerable criticism for this program, not just from the perspective of getting the US involved in the internal affairs of Iran, but also for the taint it places on various opposition groups and NGOs, whether they received any of the grant money or not.
I am trying to imagine another country, say France, England, Spain, Italy, China, or…Iran, setting aside $20 million to generate regime change in the US by funding dissidents and disruption of services and getting away with such a thing. We do it, why shouldn't they?
Iran’s regime is complex. Regardless of the complexity, since it follows the medieval laws that are incompatible with the modern side of the society, it is, in future, bound to disappear as a government.
Harsh rhetorics of G.W.Bush solidified the Iranian regime. For example, whenever he was telling his audience, (Iran should not be allowed to gain the “knowledge” for nuclear fuel cycle), scores of anti-government people were shifting side, joining to the government’s side.
This twenty mil is going to have the same effect. Iranians, in the last 150 years, have been tasting the painful malignancy of the foreign interventions. Now, for some Iranians, Obama’s Cairo Message is proving to be a deception. If so, the regime going to be solidified further.
Is this what the administration wants? Eric Margolis thinks this is what Israelis want….amazing !!.
If we are taxed to support regime change in Iran, we certainly should be told who in Iran is receiving our tax dollars. Of course, how can we expect to be given this information when the US politicians have not told us the principal reason for regime change in Iran. It cannot be Israel's disapproval of Iranian nuclear power or weapons — after all US citizens have lived with Russian nuclear weapons aimed toward the US for 40 years. If "mutual assured destruction" is allowed to prevail in the Middle East, both Iran and Israel will be safe. There should be no US support for nuclear hegenomy by any power in the Middle East.