Robert Baer: “U.S. and Iran Share an Equal Monopoly on Violence”
IPS/omidmemarian.com / Omid Memarian
27-Jan-2009 (4 comments)

"..attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. Is Israel walking this path? No. I think that there is a military veto in attacking Iran. It’s just not possible.  IPS: Why is that impossible? Well, for one thing, we know there will be an Iranian reaction in the Gulf. Iran will not be attacked like Hamas and just respond locally. It will respond internationally. It has no choice. This is their deterrence power. In Iran, it is very important to understand a lot of lessons.If you look on the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] website, you see the lessons they learned from the Iran-Iraq War. These wars are wars of attrition; they go on forever. You just can’t win them, especially against the United States. So they have developed secondary asymmetrical warfare ability, guerilla warfare, which is very effective.  You know some of the best minds in Iran went into the Pasdaran [Revolutionary Guards], and they weren’t necessarily fanatics. In a sense, they were much more nationalists. And in my experience, these people in the Pasdaran, in the operational level, are probably the most capable, intelligent/guerilla force/political thinkers in the Middle East, including Israel and Jordan. And they knew exactly what they were doing. And they do not clearly fit in to any political definitions in Iran.

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News Goffer

robert baer on obama israel & iran

by News Goffer on Tue Jan 27, 2009 01:50 PM PST

Interesting read.


Balatarin
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smhb: Are you an official

by savam (not verified) on Wed Jan 28, 2009 01:52 PM PST

smhb: Are you an official spokesperson of IRI? You seem to have inside information about IRGC and Iranianian officials.


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smhb

Robert Baer

by smhb on Wed Jan 28, 2009 10:16 AM PST

He is not a scholar nor was he an analyst at the CIA like Graham Fuller who has a very interesting book on the psychology of Iran's foreign policy.

However, RB has on the ground experience in the middle east and understands the issues, actors, forces and the american policies since he had to deal with them as an agent of the CIA.  

He is realistic about the limits of the empire and what it can achieve through brute force and he has also reached the conclusion that the continuation of the present course of action will only hasten the demise of the empire.


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Very interesting interview.

by Mehrnaz (not verified) on Wed Jan 28, 2009 02:40 AM PST

Very interesting interview. Refreshing that in relation to Hamas and Hezbollah, the usual colonialist crap that they are terrorists etc, does not appear. He speaks intelligently and respectfully of a resistance movement.


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