Is Grass Really Greener on the Other Side of the Bridge in Iran?

To tell you the truth despite all the bonhomie and camaraderie shown during the Shah era, I was not comfortable any time the friendly despot appeared on our television screens.

That was because one of our erstwhile neighbors and a friend of my father was an engineer who helped to erect the first refinery in Abadan.

Unfortunately, the tidings he brought from the hinterland of Iran were not that comforting. He knew from his interactions with the rural folk around Abadan that they no longer supported the Shah and wished him dead.

Even the fact that Shah divorced his wife to marry an American was small comfort though it might have been fodder for yellow journalists and gossip publishers.

All this, despite the widely held belief that the Shah's secret service and his henchmen were experts and that the reports sent by our own intelligence were of sterling quality.

Not surprisingly, nobody in this country had any hint that the ground of popular support for the Shah was giving way.

That shows how far out of touch with reality our intelligence collection was. The Shah's marrying an American, the President's dining with the Royal Couple or our States Secretary's watching belly dancing in the Royal Tent doesn't mean our confidential information gatherers should stand in attention at all these dignitarial functions clapping for their bosses.

It was their duty to venture out into the interior of Iran and seek the truth out. That would have kept the Shah alive if he was willing to hear our timely suggestions or we even could have found a friendly alternative regime in place.

This also shows it is high time for we Americans and our Presidents to instill courage in our Intelligence agents to tell us only the truth and nothing but the truth. Not just what we want to hear and what is sonorous to our ears. Such lies may boost our egos back home but will ultimately result in external friends being killed or replaced by their enemies and by extension, by our enemies.

There are many matters in the global arena which need not be savory to us Americans. Our intelligence gatherers at no time should be discouraged to tell us those facts however unsavory they may sound to us. Then only we can formulate the correct response to happenings in this world.

Inventing excuses and whitewashes will only worsen the situation, whatever be the temporary reprieve. But that is just fooling ourselves.

Why I am writing this now and what this has to do with the present stalemate in Iran? Because plain facts are being ignored for populist priorities:

1. Ahmadinejad is a "known" sworn enemy. We know more than enough about this guy to formulate appropriate responses - be it military or diplomacy.

2. Mussavi, though an enemy of our enemy, is not our "known" friend.

Despite all the deserved sympathy we have for the dead and the suffering in Iran, the media has not conveniently told the people in this country one cardinal fact about this new guy:

"Mir Hussein Mussavi is the political father of Iran's nuclear program!"

That is gross cover-up by the media. To expect the man who started it all as prime minister then to stop uranium enrichment now is a grave mistake. It was and is his trump card.

You Tube, twitter and other socializing portals cannot stop the enrichment of uranium in Iran, however savvy they may appear. Nor can they assure that Mir Hussein Mussavi, political father of Iran's bomb will forget about it once he attains power.

Sorry folks. I can write a thousand lies that is pleasing to American ears. But such hollow excuses and pleasing whitewashes have only harmed this country.

If you derive immense pleasures by insulting your President as a coward, let it be. But ground realities not revealed by our media will be haunting the President if he acts the "courageous" way you propose out of misinformation or ignorance.

As a father, I too was moved by the way Neda Soltan's life ebbed away in her martyrdom for the cause of democracy in Iran. But I am not beguiling myself into believing that Mussavi will suddenly become a Dalai Lama and forget his nukes once he becomes the President of Iran.

Because, the enemy of your enemy in this case is not your friend unless some miracle happens!!!!

To tell you the truth, Islamic countries are not yet ripe for democracy. Their tribal hierarchies make it difficult for them to become democracies in one day. So the change should be gradual, slow and steady!