On Karim Sajadpour's 'The Costs of Iran’s Political Pageantry'

It's sad to see how many exiled Iranian 'experts' have exchanged their objectivity and independent sense of truth with a pro-American bias. Although, when you live in the U.S. and want to work in a think-tank, even a democrat-leaning one, it would be very self-destructive to do otherwise.

I've been following Karim Sajadpour since he was an expert with International Crisis Group and have usually found his analysis from a rather objective and independent point of view.

But his recent column in the Washington Post's PostGlobal, titled 'The Costs of Iran’s Political Pageantry' suggests he has departed from his previous perspective and now very clearly sees the world from an American point of view rather than an objective, independent one.

I hope it has nothing to do with his new job as an analyst at the American Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The following is a comment under his column that I think has done a valid and brief critique of Sajadpour's piece:

Mr. Sadjadpour is making a commentary not from an objective, non biased point of view, but rather from a very Pro-American / Pro-British point of view, and therefore he negates the possible informative aspect of this article in to no more than "spin" and propaganda, which is no different than the behavior of some of the Iranian elements which he attempts to scrutinize and show criticism towards.

His article is also intentionally misleading towards the true dynamics of these current events in attempt to make something appear to be one thing when it is something else all together.

In one line Sadjadpour says: "After all, Iran publicly humiliated its long-time nemesis Britain", and though this statement is true, as technically speaking Britain came out of this with the short end of the stick and Iran has acquired some well deserved points for its proficiency in nonconventional diplomacy, the fact of the matter is that Sadjadpour attempts to mislead us all when he states "Tehran may feel like it has chastened the Europeans to think twice before working in concert with the U.S. . . "

The "Europeans"? Granted the U.K. is a member of the European Union, but Britain does not represent European interests in the Middle East, nor have the "Europeans" as a collective been affected in any significant way by the recent events between Iran and the U.K., events which has definitely affected Britain.

If Iran was trying to convey a message to anyone, it's message was to the United States, The United Kingdom and Israel and more importantly a message to it's Arab neighbors. Yet to say that this issue was between "Europe" and Iran in any direct or indirect manner, or that there is some sort of ongoing political tension between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Europe is purely BOVINE EXCREMENT as they might say.

It appears to be an ongoing pattern for the western world to both misrepresent the truths of what is occurring in the Middle East and at the same time to underestimate both Western and Local Middle Eastern capabilities to confront the issues and tensions which seem to perpetually stir in the region.

Both the United States and the U.K. have made very critical and significant mistakes and miscalculations when dealing with both the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, two nations which did not even come close to the capabilities of Iran currently possesses in way of Martial philosophy and stratagem. If the United States and the U.K. are finding it difficult to manage and contain Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran would only turn out to be the greatest and most long lasting mistake that the U.S. could ever make if it decided to initiate an open and actual conflict the the Islamic Republic.

Sadjadpour highly criticizes Iran for double standards, yet fails to own up to the double standards of both the United States and Great Britain.

There are no innocent players in this game. The United States and The U.K. are no less oppressive than Iran, and I would venture to say though that Iran might end up the more justified in the long run.

Iran may not emerge out of this as "The Winner" in the long run, but neither will it become the "loser" either. The only ones who will fail to succeed and suffer loss in this continuing SNAFU will be the United States and the United Kingdom, two nations which seem to never learn from their previous historical mistakes.