By Mohammad Sarfi

They had plan, but not "real men"

April 19, 2023 - 0:11

TEHRAN- Ayatollah Khamenei, in a meeting with high-ranking military commanders two days ago, referred to the US's violations after the September 11 attacks and their invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, stating that the main target of these attacks on Iran's eastern and western neighbors was the Islamic Republic. 

Some people want to accuse Iran of a conspiracy theory and pretend that the repeated emphasis of the Leader on the necessity of vigilance and decisiveness against the enemy has no relation to reality. But facts cannot be hidden or distorted forever. 

When Saddam's regime was overthrown in 2003, a phrase became popular among Washington's military and political leaders; "boys go to Baghdad, real men go to Tehran." 

Fighting terrorism and dealing with weapons of mass destruction was not a funny excuse anymore. The plan that the Bush administration had in mind went beyond these false claims. They were after redesigning the geopolitics of West Asia.

In an opinion piece in Los Angeles Times in March 2003, Robert Scheer wrote:

 "This is a truly frightening moment in history. Acting as if divinely inspired, Washington is now setting out to violently remake the maps and lives of the people of the world. This is an idea that old colonial powers England and Spain should have long ago discarded, after learning the hard way that people need to make their own histories. Whether this war is short or long, extremely bloody or just bloody, the stark fact is that a barely elected president has made the United States the first colonizer of the 21st century, openly declaring that he plans to reorder the politics, economy and culture of the Muslim world.”

During the sixth parliament )2000-2004) in Iran, the majority of reformist forces were active. 135 of them wrote a detailed letter to the Leader, which became known as the "Cup of Poison" letter. The authors described the threat from the United States as serious and said drinking a cup of poison is the only way to address this threat.

Contrary to what the sixth parliament representatives thought, not only was the cup of poison not drunk, but the US plan to change the geopolitical map of the region ended in Iran's favor. After the attack on Iraq, the US was stuck in a quagmire and could no longer attack any other country. In the next parliamentary elections, many signatories of the letter failed to win a seat in the parliament, and under the reformist government, Iran's nuclear program, which had been suspended on the pretext of preventing war, continued at the order of the Supreme Leader.

The reality is that Americans have always been after striking Iran and have no red lines for themselves in this regard; from the harshest sanctions in history to sabotage, assassination, planning coups, etc. If they do not engage in military action, they have only one reason, and that is that they cannot do such a thing. In fact, they know very well that if they initiate a war, its end is not dependent on them.

In the meeting on Sunday, Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized that the seemingly strong and comprehensive calculations of the enemy are entirely breakable. He said, “Let us not forget this. It is entirely possible for a person to defeat and confront the enemy's calculations. If we use our reason and do not give up and pursue it, all the efforts that the enemy makes are vincible.”

Some consider rationality and resistance against the enemy to be contradictory. This is a line that enemies of the Islamic Republic try to instill in Iranian officials and people, and some repeat it inside the country as well. In this regard, three years ago, the Leader emphasized in one of his speeches that “cowards have no right to bring up the name of rationality. Some people's idea of rationality is fear and fleeing from the enemy.”

After the US attack on Afghanistan and Iraq and serious threats against Tehran, Iran did not surrender and this resistance based on rationality turned the threat into an opportunity. Iran's current influence in the region is incomparable to that time. Iran has become stronger, and America is declining to the point where the top commander of the US army admits that we have lost complete air superiority in West Asia for the first time since World War II, referring to Iran's drone capabilities.

They had plans to attack Iran, but there were "real men" in Iran who defeated this plan. One of them was Martyr General Soleimani, who turned the threat into an opportunity with the help of the borderless combatants of the Quds Force.