Letters March 2005
Twisted and untrueIn response to Arshavez M's "Mujahedin-e Khalq's devolution": I read this piece (Mujahedin-e Khalq's devolution) which was filled with flaws, half-truths and disinformation and still can't see what the author was trying to say except to express his displeasure that the MEK, as he calls them, might overthrow the Mullah's regime with the backing of the Americans. I am not a fan of the "MEK" either and personally I do not think they are an answer to the aspirations and hopes of the Iranian people. I too regard Mujahedin as a cult and very undemocratic as a political party/force/group. Having said these there are a few points I would like to mention which in my opinion were twisted and untrue: - The author is blaming the MEK for getting financial and military backing from Saddam Hossien and then later he is pissed with the Americans for backing them after the fall of Saddam. They appear to be, based on authors writing, a well liked bunch who every body wants to help while the author likes nothing less than total destruction of the MEK and loves to see the Mullahs remain in power. - He claims that "the MEK assisted Iraq's ground forces in critical infantry offensives during the eight year long Iran-Iraq war". The fact of the matter is that Mujahedin were amongst the first group of people who voluntarily went to the front to fight in the war against the Iraqi aggression until they themselves became targets of the Iranian regime while fighting the Iraqis. Secondly, Mujahedin as such went to Iraq in 1985 and formed the so called National Liberation Army (NLA) a year later in 1986 and started their own military campaign against the military bases of the Iranian regime. Note that during this time and long before it, the Iraqis had not organized any military offensive against the Iranian forces and actually it was the Iranian regime who "organized", if you could call these massacres as organized warfare, various offensives in which thousands of innocent, young Iranians were killed. So the claim of Mujahedin helping the Iraqis in their offensives is simply not true and in fact a lie since they weren't even in Iraq then as an army and there weren't any Iraqi offensives during the time they were. This fact about the Iraqi offensives can be easily checked by going through the journals of Iran-Iraq war. The Iraqi military received news of the offensives long before they were to happen from the Americans and other western governments. - "Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards", if this quotation is indeed true then let's put it in its right context: after the invasion of Kuwait by the Iraqis and the war that followed, various groups tried to topple the Saddam regime, for good reasons too. The Iranian regime tried to take advantage of this chaotic situation and destroy Mujahedin once and for all, so it sent it's Revolutionary guards to spearhead attacks on the Mujahedin camps and bases with the help of their local lackeys and agents in the form of Kurds and Shi'ite groups. What would you do? Let them destroy you or would you fight back with all your might? I think many would do the latter. You can not blame them for defending themselves as much as you might hate them. Now the events during that episode have been twisted by the Iranian regime as a proof of Mujahedin crushing Kurds and Shi'ite on behalf of Saddam Hossein. These were not decent, freedom loving Kurds or Shi'ites, they were on the payroll of the IRI on a mission to destroy Mujahedin. - The author seems very naive! What organization in their right mind in raising funds would tell its prospective donors that it is collecting funds in order to use them in military operations? Our friend appears to be very unfamiliar with the mechanism of raising funds for such purposes. Many of the present day organizations around the world (MEK, PLO, IRA, PKK ∑..) are more like business ventures and have investments in various sectors of the economy in order to raise funds. PKK is for example is highly suspected of running a large portion of the drug trafficking in Germany in order to raise funds for its campaigns. In short, you can't blame them for using front organizations for raising money. Collecting money on the streets is just a very small fraction of the funds an organization needs in order to manage the costs of its daily running. Main purpose of the exercise is to keep the morale of the supporters outside of Iraq high in thinking that they are doing something very useful which is not lesser in value than being actually on the front line with a gun in you hand. They are told that without their help there would be no guns to hold or bullets to fire. - Mujahedin were a victim of Clinton administration trying to woo the Iranian regime. The Iranian regime has always held Mujahedin as its most serious internal threat. So it is not uncommon that the Iranian regime in their dealings with other countries before giving them lucrative deals always asks for political favours and usually restricting the activities of Mojahedin is at the top of their demands list. So do not take this terrorist mark very seriously and expect it to be removed anytime that suites them. - We have always complained that Iranians abroad do not know how to use the means and ways available to them in order to become a political force which wields some influence like the Jews in the USA. Well according to the author here we have an Iranian organization who can mobilize hundreds of members of Congress and the Senate in their defense. Not a bad thing, maybe other groups and organizations can learn from them! - The operation "eternal Light" was not carried out in the Khorramshar region but in Kermanshah province in Mehran and Eslamabad areas. Iran and Iraq had agreed a cease-fire and a date set. It was obvious that Saddam would not let Mujahedin carry out any offensives after that date. So the "ever vigilant" leader, Rajavi, realized that this is his only chance and he went for it. Mujahedin supporters were brought from around the world and given few hours of combat training. Some had not had the time to fire a single shot before the offensive started. Not an exactly top notch fighting force and many would have guessed the outcome. Over 1400 combatants on the Mujahedin side were killed and many captured or executed later. - While Mujahedin have lost the attraction they had 15-20 years ago in absorbing people into their ranks and many people have left the organization disgusted by the way it was run, the authors claim that "those who remain are the ones who joined the Mujahedin-e Khalq at the very outset of its creation during the 1960's" is funny to say the least. Let's suppose that these people were about 20 years old when they joined Mujahedin in say 1965. That means that the fighters have an average age of about 60 years. WOW, our author is afraid of a group of old men and women overthrowing his beloved regime? - The author then criticizes the equipment Mujahedin use. While the Mullah's regime does not have any better equipment, it is worth mentioning that Iranian regime will not be toppled by sheer military force. An uprising, a revolution will overthrow it so weaponry and its modernity does not have much significance. For an occupying force military superiority is a must but a popular uprising does not necessarily need sophisticated weapons. Mujahedin have always claimed that they would topple this regime by leading the uprising in an organized manner. This claim of theirs is also as funny as some of our author's claims. After all Iranian people won't be fooled anymore by empty promises and one of the reasons for this regime staying in power for as much as it has is the fact that they have not found an alternative for it yet, thanks to the track record of the opposition! - The author seems to think that nuclear capabilities are a matter of national pride. Well, I have nothing against nuclear power plants but this regime still does not feel stable after 26 years and sees nuclear weapons as the only way it can get America off its back. The day this regime develops the nuclear bomb you can say goodbye to any hopes of democracy and progress in Iran. They feel they can do anything they want and nobody would be able to touch them. Imagine the effect of the threat that the Mullahs might fire a couple of rockets armed with nuclear warheads towards the oilfields of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq and make them unusable for hundreds of years. World economy would come to a standstill. In my opinion America is not so much worried about the mullahs attacking Israel, but the threat they pose to the oilfields in the middle-east is intolerable! The Mullahs would use the nuclear bombs if they see their existence in danger. So as a patriot I do not, under any circumstances, want to see the Iranian regime developing nuclear capabilities. These were some the many flaws and lies in the authors article. I still do not see what was the author's point of writing such an article except the fear some recent articles have produced in the supporters of the regime that the US is going to use the Mujahedin in a bid to change the regime in Iran. Well rest assured, if the Americans ever did that you can be sure that the power would not be transferred to a bunch of old, tired and cultist bunch.
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