The Road to Esfahan

The Road to Esfahan

By Larry Beinhart

Created Apr 2 2008 - 7:40pm

I'm in Shiraz, on the way to Esfahan.

It's good to get out of gray, smoggy Tehran, one of the least photogenic

cities in the world, where black is the new black, from the hejabs on down.

One of the attractions of Shiraz is the tomb of Hafez, a Persian poet from

the 14th Century. It's thronged at night. Iranians bring flowers, then stand

or kneel beside the sarcophagous and recite his poems. My personal reaction

is, this is how writers should always be treated.

Iranians are among the most gracious and hospitable people I've ever met.

The question, of course, is whether we should bomb these people?

In America today, we tend to see things in Manichaean terms. That is, we

divide things into absolute opposites, light and dark, good and evil, us and

them.

We could, if we went back far enough, blame that on them. The word

Manichaean refers to the Persian prophet Mani (from around 250 AD). The

whole notion of good and evil, with man in the middle, having to make a

choice, then rewarded and condemned in an after life, goes back to an even

earlier Persian prophet, Zoroaster, from around 1,000 BC. Those ideas

entered Judaism during the Babylonian exile and the liberation of the Jews

by Cyrus the Great of Persia, and from there, into Christianity.

There are still Zoroastrians and Jews in modern day Persia, the Islamic

Republic of Iran.

These are people with a rich and varied history. A very humanistic history.

The question is, why should we bomb these people?

The answer is that they are part of the Axis of Evil!

Iranians are somewhat confused by that designation.

The United States was attacked on September 11, 2001 by a ragged group of

conspirators called Al Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, headquartered in

Afghanistan, where they were protected and nurtured by the Taliban. The

Taliban were, and are, fanatical, fundamentalist Sunnis. They're the ones

who put women in burkhas, those full body coverings, and veils, required men

to be bearded, banned all music, television, movies, photographs, statues,

stuffed animals and dolls.

The Taliban came to power in 1996. They were supported by Pakistan, Saudi

Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

They were opposed by the Northern Alliance. The Northern Alliance was

supported by Russia, India and, most of all, by Iran.

The United States was neutral from 1996 to 2001. After 9/11, we demanded

that Afghanistan's Taliban government hand over Osama bin Laden. When they

refused, we entered the war, primarily with air power, in support of the

Northern Alliance.

"American links with the Northern Alliance were fragmentary ... Afghan

opposition groups [were] suspicious of the United States. Tehran's mediation

proved essential ... Iran also provided intelligence ... agreed to rescue

American pilots ... allowed some 165,000 tons of US food aid to traverse its

territory ... [after the fighting] Iran was instrumental in crafting the

interim Afghan government."

Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic, by Ray Takeyh

Iran's president Khatami said, "Afghanistan provides the two regimes [the US

and Iran] with a perfect opportunity to improve relations."

The Bush Administration embraced the people who had given the Taliban and Al

Qaeda safe haven (Pakistan) and money (Saudi Arabia and the Emirates) and

declared Iran, who aided us in our war against the Taliban, as part of the

Axis of Evil.

The question is, shouldn't we bomb them because, in addition to being one of

the two remaining parts of the Axis of Evil, they are part of the

Islamo-Fascist Alliance to rule the world?

We moved on from the pleasures of Shirz, to Esfahan which is a treasure. A

miracle.

In the 16th Century, when Shah Abbas I made it the capital of the Safavid

dynasty, it was probably the greatest city in the world. It has been

designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, along the Great Wall of China,

the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal, and the historic center of St.

Petersburg.

There, we connected with a group of twenty and thirty-something Iranians,

all of whom spoke excellent English, and went out to dinner with them. They

were students, medical professionals, and small business people, four men

and three women. Because we were in public the women wore the required

headscarves, but managed to make them fashion accessories. They constantly

adjusted them with graceful gestures that drew attention to their beauty and

femininity. It is worth pointing out that while women in Iran are not as

free as in America or Western Europe, they have more freedom and participate

more fully in public life than in the rest of the Islamic World.

The conversation was lively and fluid and touched on politics, world

affairs, the regime, America, religion and even disbelief.

In the first ten minutes of almost any conversation with an Iranian they

will point out that they are not Arabs, they're Persians. They may even say

that they don't like Arabs, or, more emphatically, "I hate f king Arabs."

They liked Americans. They didn't like the regime. They didn't think they

could do anything about the current government.

The question is, shouldn't we bomb them to help good people like that? Won't

bombing them make them blame their leaders for forcing us to attack them, so

they will rise up and change the regime?

A lot of people dislike the regime. And with good cause.

At times it seemed that this was a country where everybody went to prison.

Everyone who thought, wrote, had opinions, was political, who had property

that could be taken - save for fervent supporters of the regime - had gone

to prison. Or worse, been tortured and executed.

People who had lovers, who danced, possessed illegal music, stood up for

academic freedom, were members of minority religions, clergy who didn't

support Khomenie's radical re-interpretation of Shia'a Islam, were arrested,

harassed, beaten, thrown out of windows, lost their jobs and careers, and

went to prison.

The country also has inflation, unemployment, underemployment, and low

wages. Heroin addiction is widespread and growing. Opium use is routine,

even, according to gossip on the street, in the highest levels of

government. Corruption is rampant and everyone knows it.

However, even their opponents gave the regime credit for certain things.

Making Iran self-sufficient. Keeping a country of Persians, Kurds,

Turkomans, Azerbaijanis, Pashtuns and Arabs together in spite of the

centripetal forces of ethnic and tribal loyalties. It's a safe place.

There's very little street crime. There are no car bombings. No terrorist

incidents. No kidnappings.

An underlying thread became clear through all these conversations. The

number one hot button political issue in Iran is standing up to foreign

powers.

Their history, since Alexander the Great invaded and burned Persepolis, is

one of being invaded, threatened, exploited and subverted by outsiders. As

for the 20th Century, the British exploited their natural resources, then

the United States overthrew their democracy and put a compliant king in

charge, and as soon as he was deposed they were invaded by Saddam Hussein.

He received support from America and other Western nations. That war lasted

eight years and Iran had somewhere between 750,000 and 1,000,000 casualties.

The notion that bombing Iran will make the people overthrow the Supreme

Leader and the Council of Guardians makes as much sense as imaging that a

new 9/11 will make the American people thank Al Qaeda for their inspiration,

then rise up and overthrow our president and senate with a government more

receptive to Islamic ways.

There is one real argument. It is that if Iran gets nuclear weapons they

will use them. Specifically on Israel.

Iran is, ultimately, ruled by the Supreme Leader. He is deemed to be

infallible. In 2003 he issued a fatwa, a ruling of holy law, against the

development and use of nuclear weapons. This is when, according to the US

National Intelligence Estimate, Iran stopped such developments.

Iran claims it only wants nuclear energy. Countries that produce nuclear

energy include Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, South

Africa, Czech Republic, Mexico and Brazil. At least 56 countries have

nuclear research reactors.

So the argument goes back to intentions. That Iran is more dangerous than

Russia, more of enemy than China, more unstable than Pakistan, more warlike

than Israel, and more likely to have aggressive leaders who will launch a

pre-emptive war than the United States.

If they had nuclear weapons and used them, especially if they used them

aggressively, as a first strike, then Israel and the United States would

retaliate with far more force and effectively destroy Iran. What we are

likely to have in reality, is the sort of mutual stand-off we had with the

Soviet Union for fifty years.

In addition to Esfahan's astonishing beauty, its historical value, its

vibrant culture, arts, and crafts, it is home to a nuclear research reactor

and it's where uranium is processed toward producing nuclear fuel.

If Iran is bombed, Esfahan will undoubtedly be a target. One of hundreds.

Those lovely people that I had dinner with will likely die. If not them,

their parents, children, brothers and sisters. The student of English who

sat and talked to me about Hafez for two hours. The man who makes the

hand-printed table clothes in the bazaar. The mason working on the

reconstruction of the great mosque.

I like to think that America can somehow overcome what's happened these last

seven years. The unprovoked invasion of another country, the embrace of

torture, the assault on civil liberties, the looting of our own economy, the

failure to rescue the people of New Orleans and to rebuild it. Somehow.

But bombing Iran because they posture and provoke on the world stage, will

be a disaster that we won't live down. We might try to say it's something

that our leaders did, we had no part in it, we could not stop them. If

that's true, and it may be true, that's sadder still.

_______

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their

spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their

government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are

suffering deeply in spirit,

and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public

debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have

patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning

back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at

stake."

-Thomas Jefferson