Iranian Revolutionary Guards: Terror Within And Abroad
30 January 2018By Majid Sadeghpour
The Daily Caller, February 8, 2018 - "Cold blooded murders", a friend of mine
cried out recently as she recalled gruesome memories from Iran while
reflecting on the newly levied sanctions against Iranian Revolutionary Guards
Corps (IRGC). Encouraged and emboldened, her voice was filled with anger,
determination, and a newfound hope that echoed the braveness of protesters and
dissident university students in Iran of today. Her hope is a reminder that
terror designation on the IRGC pursuant to Executive Order13224 and related
Presidential executive decisions carry a subtle but dual message, affecting
not only Iranian regime's activities abroad but also its enemies within.
Our knowledge of IRGC's past and present terrorist behavior within Iran has
been abstract at best, hindering the development of a practical international
response. The real example alluded to here would perhaps serve as a reminder
of its brutality and inform the way forward.
Recalling a memory from a sleepy Caspian Sea town north of Tehran, she
describes memories from a horrifying mid-summer. As it is a Muslim custom in
preparation for burial, her neighbor was washing their recently executed
daughter's body. Fresh red blood streamed out of the house and onto the
neighborhood pavement, she recalls. "I stood there wondering: Why so much
blood."
Little did she know at the time, as she evokes the memory today, that a
certain part of the young woman's body had been mutilated by IRGC members,
while she was still alive. For those who wonder, the medical term for such
mutilation is Liver Resection. For what crime, one might ask? She was a
beautiful young lady, barely18 years old, and supporter of a dissident group
called Fadayan-e-Khalq, who like the Mojahedin-e-Khalq organization (MEK)
opposed mullah's misogynist and increasingly dictatorial rule. Of the secular
opposition groups of the time, only the MEK remains organized and active
within Iran.
Historical context for such brutality, while beyond the scope of this article,
should be examined for the world to bear witness. In the past four decades,
IRGC's has been responsible for the execution of over 120,000 dissidents,
including some of Iran's brightest minds. From mullah's "cultural revolution"
of 1980-89 to the current wave of executions, to the recent crackdown of
protesters; the revolutionary guard's main goal was and still is to safeguard
the clerical regime against internal threats.
Other intended reasoning may be in play, but the blacklisting of IRGC is
certainly a breath of fresh air for the Iranian people struggling to breathe
amidst an environment of repression. For the first time in 40 years, the
United States and perhaps the international community have edged themselves
closer to recognizing the democratic will of the Iranian people. With every
decisive measure aimed at weakening the clerics and their apparatus of fear,
more pro-democracy chants will be heard in the Iranian streets.
Irrespective of the "moderate", "pragmatic", or "hardline" faces the foxes in
Tehran put forth, Iranians have always known that the carnage in Iraq or
Syria, the devastation in Lebanon, assassination of dissidents, bombing of
embassies, nuclear weapons program, and countless other deeds are perpetrated
by the IRGC.
So, what to do next? Will Iran adapt to fiscal or political pressure from the
West? Will Iranian people rise and overthrow the regime?
However elusive the answers may appear, one thing is for certain: With
protests time and again, Iranian people have welcomed the sanctions because
they hasten regime's demise. As the cost of doing business with Iran/IRGC
increases, mullahs will eventually have to face demands from a much larger
cross-section of the population, which include the middle class. Today then,
coupling comprehensive global banking, arms, and oil sanctions with a
well-placed trust on the enormous democratic potential of the Iranian people
should help unleash their fury against Iran's Ayatollahs.
Admittedly, organization and mobilization of this great force in the present
environment of absolute oppression is no easy task. No one should dream of a
fantasy-laden, soft or velvet revolution in Iran. Armed with the richness of
Iranian natural resources, stone-aged ideological prowess, and an immense
self-awarded righteousness, this regime is the most barbaric mankind has
witnessed in the modern era. However distant it may seem, Iranian people and
not the regime and its many dubious faces have the needed democratic capacity.
In fact, resolving this enigma requires the full capability of the mostly
Muslim, secular, and democratic-minded people of Iran. They and their
resistance are the true antitheses to the darkness of Islamic fundamentalism.
Let us listen then, to the wishes of the Iranian people. Let us attend their
gatherings abroad, support their protest within, and hear the organized voice
their democratic opposition. Such, and not the voice of the self-appointed
"Iran experts" who continue to advocate capitulation to the mullahs, remain
the only way to avoid a calamitous war.
These "experts" have perhaps never seen the IRGC-shed blood paint the
pavements of Iran.
Dr. Majid Sadeghpour is political director of the Organization of Iranian
American Communities.
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