Mousavi's ugly past

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Tuesday, June 23, 2009 - 6:05 PM Share

This is an interesting turn of events: Back in the 1980s, according to Jeff Stein in CQ, Iranian opposition leader Mousavi played a key role in the Beirut terror campaign that hit the U.S. embassy and the Marine barracks.

Mikey aka DaSkinnyBlackMan in Iraq/Flickr

EXPLORE:MIDDLE EAST, IRAN, LEBANON, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

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TYRTAIOS

3:55 AM ET

June 24, 2009

Yep, it brightened my day

Yep, it brightened my day when Imad Mughniyah was killed back in Feb 2008, in a car bomb blast, which brightened his day, if only briefly - poetic justice, eh? I can't imagine who might have had a hand in this?

This guy Mousavi has American blood all-over his hands.

I've not quite figured-out why everyone thought Mousavi was someone "we could do business with." A leopard doesn't change its spots.

WALKING WOUNDED

7:34 PM ET

June 24, 2009

I only know what I read

on Mousavi, and am nobody's idea of a follower of the Nazarene. But I was brought up to appreciate the idea of redemption, Saul the sanhedron's nazi becoming Paul the Apostle.

Take a look at David bin Jesse's career arc. Insurgent bandit, sacking undefended border villages, before taking the crown and running most of the old king's relatives out.

If I was a marine, I don't know whether I'd be angrier at the '84 truck-bombers, or the suits, stars and admirals that limited post security arrangements so far below local standards, in a combat zone. But maybe I'm being unfair. How many times was the gate at Balad hit, before they got an M1 locked on the driveway?

TYRTAIOS

8:10 PM ET

June 24, 2009

"Fight those who believe not

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the last day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

I am the messanger and I seek my Jizya, and will forgive only when Mousavi submits to me.

WALKING WOUNDED

12:16 AM ET

June 25, 2009

I respect the sentiment

And I'm glad I'm not under that particular fatwa.

I still say REMF's are nearly as likely to to get a young man kilt, as happened with the husband of bin Jesse's mistress.

How went the Greasy Grass vision quest?

TYRTAIOS

5:26 AM ET

June 26, 2009

Yellow Hand & Buffalo Bill

We're back Wounded Soldier, and will be on our way to the Black Hills where I hope to have a "trans-vision." : - )

It is commonly thought that the loss of Custer and his men at the Little Bighorn knocked the cavalry back so hard that they did nothing for quite a while - not the case. Terry and Gibbon didn't immediately give chase to the Lakota and Cheyenne, but were only waiting for reinforcements.

General Crook was quickly re-supplied and sent into the field again, with an officer by the name of Colonel Wesley Merrit, commanding the 5th Cavalry.

However, before meeting up with Crook, Merrit, had a battle of his own with the Cheyenne at Warbonnet Creek on 17 July, and outwitted the Cheyenne.

It is is here Yellow Hand came forward and challenged Merrit’s chief scout Buffalo Bill Cody to a one-on-one, and in the knife fight that followed, Cody killed Yellow Hand and the Cheyenne quickly returned to the reservation.

This skirmish became known as “The first scalp for Custer”.

BRENT SCALES

6:12 AM ET

June 24, 2009

One among many

We deal with many leaders or nominal leaders of governments that directly or indirectly have American blood on their hands. I think the real question in this case is: Could Mousavi be someone who on the outset appears to be more of the same but in the long run can make changes that lead to great upheavals in a society a' la Gorbachev.

TYRTAIOS

4:48 PM ET

June 24, 2009

Of course yours is the

Of course yours is the pragmatic and correct approach to our statesmanship as it shapes foreign policy - I acknowlege that.

And I also say a certain man, "should bear his shield straight at the foremost ranks and make his heart a thing full of hate, and hold back the flying spirits of death as dear as he holds the flash of the sun." - Tyrtaios

AUGUST WEST

6:35 PM ET

June 25, 2009

Quite right

We've dealt unhesitatingly with others having as much blood on their hands. If we can deal with the Israeli leaders who blew up the King David Hotel, massacred 100+ innocent Palestinian civilians at Dier Yassin, and killed 34 American service personnel in the deliberate Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, we can deal with Mousavi. Mousavi is in their league, and should be accorded the same respect, or lack thereof, as those who masterminded the attacks listed above.

MARCOS EL MALO

9:48 PM ET

June 29, 2009

Along Similar Lines

Mahmoud Abbas, while not one of the plotters of the terrorist attack on the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, was the guy who signed the checks. He didn't pull any triggers and he didn't direct the actions of those that did, but his hands still have Israeli blood on them. Yet the Israelis are willing to overlook this, even giving him a friendly nickname (Abu Mazen).

However, whatever blood Mousavi has on his hands and whether or not it is forgivable or ignorable is, at the moment, irrelevant, as is the question of whether he would be more or less reasonable than Ahmadinejad. He's not leading Iran, so we won't be negotiating with him.

BRENT SCALES

6:53 PM ET

June 24, 2009

Don't get me wrong

While my approach might be termed pragmatic, please do not mistake it for a "forgive and forget" attitude. If you are taking your name from the Spartans, I believe they often had to make pragmatic deals to maintain their precarious position in their corner of the world. the trick is to not hold an Alcibiades too closely to your heart.