Iranian wind in Iraq

The result appears to be a contest between the U.S. and Iran in regard to their respective influence over Iraqi Shiites. So the U.S. has warned Tehran not to interfere in Iraqi Shiite affairs or stir up anti-U.S. unrest. It has been claimed that Iran pumped thousands of trained, well-armed guerrilla fighters through Basra and Al Amara into the Najef and Karbala regions to mingle with the pilgrims and manipulate the mood of the crowds from within.

After years of war between Iraq, under governance of the secular Ba’ath Party, and Islamic Iran the situation in Iraq couldn’t be more convenient for Iran to show its influence on Iraqi Shiites. So that first signal setting the stage for an Islamic regime in Iraq has shown itself in Karbala. Thousands of Shiites walking toward Karbala have demanded an Islamic state to replace the Saddam regime overthrown by the U.S., whose aim seems to have been to bring about a moderate Islam in the Middle East. However, banners carried by the Shiite pilgrims to Karbala showed the mood with messages such as "The Americans must leave", "No foreign rule for Iraq. We want an Islamic state."

According to U.S. statements, a free general election will be held in Iraq to form a government in Baghdad. In such a general election it is a foregone conclusion that Iraqi Shiites, 60 percent of the Iraqi population of 23 million, under influence of Iran will quite democratically take over the government in Iraq.

However much the United States may declare that the new government to be established in Iraq would respect Islam and would not be like the theocratic religious regime in Iran, it’s not very difficult to say that the system after the Saddam regime will be an Islamic regime when one looks at the current situation. Of course, this Islamic regime would be dominated by Shiites establishing a pro-Iranian, anti-American government. So it is also a foregone conclusion that the U.S.’s efforts to put a government with a commitment to democracy and moderate Islam will end in there being a regime such as the one in Iran, one of U.S. President George W. Bush’s axis of evil enemies and one that has had deep rifts with the U.S. for years.

Furthermore, the instalment of a pro-American regime in Baghdad is extremely dangerous. It will be a direct threat to the Ayatollahs in Tehran and the Ba’ath regime in Damascus. In this spectacle, it is quite clear that most Iraqi Shiites are under the influence of an Iran governed by mollahs. Mass anti-American protests continue to break out in every city.

The future of Iraq should be shaped by the hands of the Iraqis, not by foreign hands from abroad. The U.S., however much it may be focused on oil fields, has created a free atmosphere in Iraq with its unjustified military action against Iraq. It cannot interfere with the installment of a regime that would be formed through free general elections in the name of democracy; even the direction of the regime to be formed is obvious. Given this, one has to understand that the U.S. saved Iraqis from the hands of Saddam Hussein and is about to surrender it to an Iran governed by mollahs.