“One word in one speech changed history.”
Ende der Neunziger machte Khatami wie gesagt von sich reden. Auch Clinton war nicht nur ein Schwernöter wie Kennedy, sondern wurde ähnlich dynamisch für Neues wahrgenommen. Allerdings können im Iran, wie auch in den USA die Präsidenten nur zwei Legislaturperioden regieren, anders als in Deutschland theoretisch bis zum Tod, wie im Vatikan. Nach Clinton kam Bush. Soweit, so gut. Warum nicht? Dann kam der Anschlag auf das WTC. In Krisensituationen sieht man oft, was jemand drauf hat. Bei Bush brachte es seine Unfähigkeit zum Vorschein, gepaart mit Hardcore-Ratgebern aus der Neoconszene.
Die Administrationen von Clinton und Khatami hatten sich über Kooperationen im Jugoslawienkrieg soweit angenähert, daß sogar unter dem US-Nachfolger Bush militärischen Kooperationen möglich waren. In Afghanistan gegen die Taliban.
2001 uprising in Herat
The plan, organized by General Franks and General Safavi, was for Iranian Special Forces to discreetly enter the city and form an insurrection against the Taliban. This sudden event was to coincide with the entrance of Ismail Khan’s band of Northern Alliance militia members into the city. Meanwhile, a team of U.S. Special Forces and CIA agents would oversee the operation in Tehran alongside Iranian military intelligence.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_uprising_in_Herat
Beobachter, wie auch Verantwortliche in den USA und im Iran waren froher Erwartung, ob das Steigerungsfähig war. Jedenfalls die "Reformorientieren", darunter offenbar sogar Generäle der Revolutionsgarden. Es wurde Zeit, die USA und der Iran waren im Kalten Krieg Modus, seit mehr als 20 Jahren.
Im Rahmen von wikeleaks gibt es u.a. dazu Dokumente. Was war schief gelaufen? US- und iranische Spezialkommandos kämpfen Seite an Seite? Und kurz danach machte es den Anschein, als das diese beiden Staaten quartalsmäßig an einen Krieg vorbeischrammten. Bush in seiner unendlichen Weisheit - gut beraten von Chaney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, dem Enterprise-Institute - kappte das schlagartig und setzte den Iran auf die sogenannte "Achse des Bösen". In den folgenden Dokumenten wird klar, wie kalt die US-Diplomaten und auch die iranische Seite davon in Afghanistan erwischt wurden. Von Kooperationspartner im Kampf wurden von heute auf morgen Feinde. Durch ein Wort. In den folgenden 15 Jahren hatte dies massive Folgen für das Verhältnis der USA zum Iran und für die Region. Interessant ist, daß seinerzeit der Iran eine ähnliche Rolle hatte, wie jetzt zusammen mit Russland in Syrien.
CIA Director Says US Screwed Up On Iran After 9/11
(...)The interesting thing about this is that Iran was prepared to play a similar role in Iraq and Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 only instead of aiding Russia, Tehran was prepared to support the US in the battle against the Taliban and subsequently against Saddam. Predictably, American incompetence screwed the pooch when
George Bush, presumably unaware of the realities on the ground, named Iran as a member of his infamous “Axis Of Evil.” Consider the following account from The New Yorker:
In the chaotic days after the attacks of September 11th, Ryan Crocker, then a senior State Department official, flew discreetly to Geneva to meet a group of Iranian diplomats. “I’d fly out on a Friday and then back on Sunday, so nobody in the office knew where I’d been,” Crocker told me. “We’d stay up all night in those meetings.” It seemed clear to Crocker that the Iranians were answering to Suleimani, whom they referred to as “Haji Qassem,” and that they were eager to help the United States destroy their mutual enemy, the Taliban.
Before the bombing began, Crocker sensed that the Iranians were growing impatient with the Bush Administration, thinking that it was taking too long to attack the Taliban. At a meeting in early October, 2001, the lead Iranian negotiator stood up and slammed a sheaf of papers on the table. “If you guys don’t stop building these fairy-tale governments in the sky, and actually start doing some shooting on the ground, none of this is ever going to happen!” he shouted. “When you’re ready to talk about serious fighting, you know where to find me.”
The coöperation between the two countries lasted through the initial phase of the war. At one point, the lead negotiator handed Crocker a map detailing the disposition of Taliban forces. “Here’s our advice: hit them here first, and then hit them over here. And here’s the logic.” Stunned, Crocker asked, “Can I take notes?” The negotiator replied, “You can keep the map.”
The good will didn’t last. In January, 2002, Crocker, who was by then the deputy chief of the American Embassy in Kabul, was awakened one night by aides, who told him that President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union Address, had named Iran as part of an “Axis of Evil.” Like many senior diplomats, Crocker was caught off guard. He saw the negotiator the next day at the U.N. compound in Kabul, and he was furious. “You completely damaged me,” Crocker recalled him saying. “Suleimani is in a tearing rage. He feels compromised.” The negotiator told Crocker that, at great political risk, Suleimani had been contemplating a complete reëvaluation of the United States, saying, “Maybe it’s time to rethink our relationship with the Americans.” The Axis of Evil speech brought the meetings to an end. Reformers inside the government, who had advocated a rapprochement with the United States, were put on the defensive. Recalling that time, Crocker shook his head. “We were just that close,” he said. “One word in one speech changed history.”
(...)
According to James Dobbins, the Bush Administration’s first U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Iranian diplomats made important contributions to the success of U.N. sponsored negotiations that resulted in the inauguration of the Karzai Government in Kabul. But unlike the foreign ministers of other nations involved in those negotiations, Iran’s foreign minister did not receive a personal note of thanks from his U.S. counterpart, despite, according to Dobbins, the fact that he “may have been the most helpful.”
In other words, Iran played a major role in helping the US fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda and was probably more than willing to engage with Washington in Iraq as well, but the US couldn't even be bothered to send Tehran a thank you note and on top of that, The White House branded the Iranians "evil" even as they were providing the Pentagon with critical intelligence in Afghanistan.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-2 ... -after-911
Was wäre geschehen, wenn die USA und der Iran beginnend mit ihrer Zusammenarbeit, der zum Sturz der Taliban führte in der Region weiter gemacht hätten? Jetzt fängt man praktisch bei Null wieder an. Nur, jetzt sind nicht die USA an der Seite Irans (geringfügig im Irak), sondern jetzt sind die Russen dort.