Wampum

Return of the ... One True King (XXI)

Twenty five years ago today a series of operational errors lead to too many aircraft, rotary and fixed wing, in too small an area, in too minimal visibility conditions, caused the deaths of Maj. Richard L. Bakke, USAF, navigator, Maj. Harold L. Lewis Jr., USAF, pilot,, Tech. Sgt. Joel C. Mayo, USAF, flight engineer, Capt. Lyn D. McIntosh, USAF, co-pilot, Charles T. McMillan, USAF, navigator, Sgt. John D. Harvey, USMC, Cpl. George N. Holmes Jr., USMC, and Staff Sgt. Dewey L. Johnson, USMC. The operational errors arose from ordinary error, inter-service rivalries, a profoundly problematic operational plan and a strategy driven by domestic political expedency.

The last time I spoke to him, a former co-worker was making IR beaconing LZ gear for rotary wing units deployed in Iraq that are encountering the same dust conditions.

Between the 1953 overthrow of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, the restoration and years of support for Reza Pahlavi and the SAVAK state police apparatus, and the general trajectory of the CIA in Europe, Africa and Latin America under previous administrations, the Carter administration could have eaten crow, gone through some show trials for intelligence officers attached to the US Embassy in Tehran, and normalized relations with the Islamic Republic. But that would have handed Ronald Reagan the election in November, so a military rescue, rather than a diplomatic rescue, was ordered.

We are surrounded by the debris of those errors today. In London Charles Kennedy (Lib Dems) is campaigning not only on Tony Blair's going into Iraq illegally and on a string of lies, but the risk that Britain could be dragged into a new Middle East war in Iran if Tony Blair is re-elected. Bill Clinton spoke Sunday on a video hookup from New York to a Blair rally in London's Old Vic theater, as if Iraq, and Iran, existed in an alternate universe, and the Bush regime weren't inherently dangerous.

Not even the Big Dog could go to Tehran and rescue the United States from its 444 days of self-imposed blindfolds and day-counts, the odd miracle of Iran-Contra, and the rest of the Reagan / Bush legacy, up to and including NRO provisioning of targeting data for Iraqi use with chemical weapons from 1984 to the April to August 1988 offensive at the Al-Faw peninsula, around Basrah and the Majnoun Islands.

This morning Hashemi Rafsanjani accepted the bitter draught ... "The issue of presidency is among my current preoccupations and although I would like someone else to take up this responsibility, I think I have to take this bitter medicine. I think I have to take this bitter medicine since what I didn't like to happen is apparently occurring." He's referring to the lack of a well-known pragmatic or moderate candidate, and the importance of getting a turn-out at or near the 60% level.

In his remarks a few days ago he said what I've thought was obvious for some time, and not predicated on some slender reed of possession of some trivial inventory of intermediate-range exotic weapons -- "that the US was pressing Iran in a brutal manner as the focal point of the resistance by the Islamic world and regretted that certain foolish people in the region helped the US in this connection ignorant of the fact that they would be most seriously damaged if Iran is harmed." Does that really need decoding?

In other election news, Rafat Bayat, one of 12 women elected to the 7th Majlis, tossed her hat into the ring too. She's testing if being approved as a candidate for the Majlis by the Guardian Council, and elected by her district, is sufficient to meet the Guardian Council's ”rejal” requirement for candidates for presidency.

Ali Larijani also formally tossed his hat in to the ring at a meeting of conservatives last week. He is the former head of the state broadcasting apparatus and for the moment, the rising star of the well-connected conservatives. His numbers were 3.9% in the latest IRNA poll. It is interesting that the rest of the conservatives and young neo-cons haven't folded their tents and gotten with the program.

Mustafa Moeen (Reform) (photo) has a blog link

See also XIX and XIII and X.

update: Mohsen Mehralizadeh just announced. He's an unalligned reformer, and currently vice-chair of an atheletic organization. He'll drop out if the reformers reach a compromise, and he'll stay in if they don't. Not very useful, but he thinks the conservatives won't get their act together, which is interesting.

Mostafa Moeen is messaging on management, productivity and infrastructure.
Mohsen Mehralizadeh is messaging on presidential authority, efficient government and social calm.

Posted by EBW at April 25, 2005 06:49 PM | TrackBack