[Marxism] US-Iraq alliance in Iran?

[Fred Feldman]

Both Walter and Louis are a little off, in my opinion.  Of course, there
have been instances of US-Iranian "collusion"  in Iraq, as Louis pointed
out.

Iran's actions at the time of the invasion not only of  Afghanistan but Iraq
as well, to which Iran put up no obstacles.  From the particular standpoint
the US occupation of  Iraq created both dangers and opportunities.  They
knew that Washington would want to use this as a jumping-off point for
attacking Iran, but they also knew  that Washington was highly unlikely to
find occupying Iraq, let alone attacking Iran, the cakewalk the US rulers
had been led to expect.

ngThe US has been on a war footing toward Iran since  the historic and
highly progressive toppling of the Shah in early 79 - the hostage crisis
late in the year simply brough the confrontation clearly to the surface. The
Iranian revolution represented and represents to this day a blow to US power
in the region that the US hasw not been able to reverse. 

Yet that did not prevent the Iran-Contra dealings in the 1985-6 period (arms
to Iran in exchange for money that was used to finance the Nicaraguan
contras), which took place while Washington and France were strongly backing
the Iraqi war against Iran.

Does such collusion in Iraq take place today?  I have long assumed this,
although it has to be placed in the context of a long-term war drive against
Iran which hit a peak recently but ran into obstacles and is now in a
tactical retreat, although there has been no decisive change yet in the
course toward war.

But Louis proclaims that US imperialism and Iran "have common interests in
seeing a viable quisling government in power."

I think this is absurd frankly.  As I understand it, a quisling government
is one that faithfully reflects the interests of the imperialist occupier. I
cannot imagine what interest Iran's government has in seeing this
established and stabilized in Iraq.  That would really lay the groundwork
for an invasion of Iran.

Nor does Iraq have any reason to favor long-term US occupation of  Iraq,
permanent US military bases.  Fundamentally, the interests of  Iran and the
US conflict in Iraq.  

The Iranian government clearly has an interest in a government that reflects
the Shia majority in Iran, one that would have an actual common interest in
opposing a US invasion of Iran.  They work toward that goal, in ways that
often bring them into conflict with other sections of the Iraqi population
which are today linked to other national-bourgeois sectors.

The US and Iran have fundamentally conflicting, not "common," interests in
Iraq.  Relative to Louis' confident declaration of US-Iranian common
interests in a "Quisling" (which means US-controlled and pro-US government,
including in relation to Iran), Walter's assessment, while I don't fully
agree with it, is far more in synch with reality.

As Walter has often pointed out in his comments on Iran, the Iranian regime
has offered the US a  general settlement of  the differences between the two
countries on the basis, of course, of  giving up the effort to overthrow the
regime that has resulted from the Iranian revolution and recognizing Iran as
having a legitimate voice as a power in the region.  This can be seen as
representing an offer of  Iran of a "common-interests" arrangement  in the
Middle East.  Of course, the price of this for Washington would be to give
up their goal of full and exclusive control of the oil wells and sea lanes.
This would be a historic retreat for the US rulers, and I see no sign that
they are ready yet to accept this as a necessity.

So Iranian-US conflict will continue, and will also continue to be more
central politically in world politics than Iranian-US collusion,let alone
"common interests.

By the way, an Iranian-Venezuela alliance is not a claim by some, but a fact
today. There are probably some "common interests" there, which Louis may be
having trouble seeing because of his increasingly strident stance toward the
Iranian government.

Louis has been giving some ground to Islamic-Republic-phobia, in my opinion,
which cannot be justified by appeals Yoshie's Ahmadinejad-philia.
Fred Feldman