Brigadier General Yadollah Javani, an advisor to the Iranian Leader’s representative at the IRGC, has written an article on the Persian-language Basirat website, expounding on the reasons behind Washington’s recent verbal attacks on the IRGC. The full text of the analytical piece follows.
US’ Strategic Defeats in Recent Years
The track record of the United States, as a country which claims to be the superior power and leader of the world, is one of an empire with major and strategic mistakes which is collapsing. Following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, the US has been seeking to dominate the world and assume the leadership and international management of the globe. US strategists believe that full domination over the Middle East holds the key to assuming leadership of the world. Since the bloc’s collapse, Washington has implemented costly plans to secure its domination over the Middle East.
“The Greater Middle East” and “The New Middle East” were the names of US plans to achieve its objectives. Washington’s measures to put the plans into effect included a military buildup in West Asia under the guise of fighting terrorism, the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, Israel’s wars against the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, as well as Palestinian resistance groups, and launching proxy wars via ISIS and other terrorist groups. Nevertheless, contrary to Washington’s belief and estimations, all those plans failed.
During his election campaign, US President Donald Trump put America’s war spending in the region at $6 trillion. He said the White House had spent that amount on wars in the Middle East, but to no avail. He said the money could have been used to build the United States again. Indubitably, those who gave the thumbs up to such huge amount of spending on wars in the region knew well what long-term advantages domination over the Middle East, as a sine quo non for dominance over the world, would have for the United States.
Now, by sustaining material and human losses in Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the US has suffered a strategic defeat. In addition to Washington’s failures, US allies in the region (the Israeli regime and tribal rules such as the Al Saud) are beset by strategic predicaments and shaky situations, an issue which cannot be tolerated by Washington, has infuriated US authorities and made them desperate.
The failure of the United States’ Middle East policies, after spending so much money and suffering losses, is tantamount to the failure of the Americans’ 21st century policies which they had devised to secure domination over the world under the “new world order” name.
IRGC, Key Contributor to Failure of US Policies in Mideast
The Americans’ anger with the IRGC has a key reason, and that is they regard the IRGC as the main contributor to Washington’s failures in West Asia, especially in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. From the Americans’ standpoint, the resistance front in the region is under Iran’s command, and the IRGC assisted by Iran’s allies in the region has scuppered all of Washington’s schemes. The Americans blame the IRGC for all their failures and major losses in the region. Former US President Barack Obama had announced that the US had spent around $ 2 trillion in Iraq. In spite of that, Iraq is under Iran’s influence now. Iran’s strategic leverage in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the occupied [Palestinian] territories, and other countries such as Yemen, is a major source of concern for the White House. The Americans’ are of the conviction that Iran’s stabilizing its influence in the region will sound the death knell for the presence of the West, particularly the US, in the Middle East. The West, especially the US, sees the IRGC as the main entity strengthening Iran’s position in the region.
IRGC, Key Contributor to Order in West Asia (Middle East)
The Americans believed they would be able to dominate the strategic Middle East for dozens of years by regulating the regional order and arrangements within the “Greater Middle East” or the “New Middle East” framework at a huge cost. They thought they could manage the world in this way. However, they are seeing that the IRGC is creating the regional order! The Americans were seeking to implement the “Greater Middle East” or the “New Middle East” plans in order to rein in, weaken and deal a blow to Iran. However, that did not happen. Furthermore, the IRGC has safeguarded the 1979 Islamic Revolution and put Iran in a superior position in the region.
The Americans believe Iran is promoting its policies in the region via the IRGC. The US Foreign Relations Committee said in an analytical report recently that the IRGC has made headlines in recent years. It says the IRGC has been introduced by domestic and foreign media as the most important military force in the Middle East as well as economic entrepreneurs in Iran. According to the report, the IRGC, as an ideological and loyal entity, is regarded as the most important force to protect the Islamic Republic of Iran’s establishment. Moreover, said the report, the IRGC’s Quds force plays a prominent role in Iran’s politics and the Middle East’s order.
In the eyes of the Americans, the only powerful force that can overcome them in the Middle East is the IRGC. The council’s report says the IRGC is at the forefront of countering the US in the Middle East, adding the US is exhausted in the region. The report says Iranians celebrated the arrest of US sailors in the Persian Gulf in January, and that rear admiral Fadavi warned the US that the IRGC has the necessary power to counter the US.
The US has introduced the IRGC as a terrorist organization, and, by slapping sanctions on it, tries to ratchet up economic pressure on the Iranian nation. The Americans believe the sanctions will chip away at the IRGC and its popular support in Iran. But unlike what they think, the bans will further consolidate unity among Iranians and increase the IRGC’s popularity in the country and in the whole region. The glorious funeral procession held for Iranian military advisor Mohsen Hojaji [who was decapitated by ISIS terrorists] showed the IRGC enjoys a high status among Iranian people. Comments made by Iranian officials nowadays bear witness to the backing for the IRGC.