Iran in Latin America!?!?-It's true. Frank Gaffney says so.

[laststeamtrain]

From Jim Lobe's blog:http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/?p=88

Remember when Ronald Reagan warned more than 20 years ago that Soviet- and Cuban-backed revolutionaries were just “two days’ driving time from Harlingen, Texas?” Well, the folks at Commentary, now under the editorship of John Podhoretz, are busy raising a similar specter, only it’s Iran this time.

Check out this week’s post by the incredibly prolific Gordon Chang entitled “Iran in Latin America,” in the magazine’s online blog, ‘Contentions,’ in which he recounts the various strategic inroads by Tehran among Washington’s Latin neighbors, particularly in the Andes and, most recently, Nicaragua, whose president, Reagan (and Elliott Abrams) nemesis Daniel Ortega, hosted the director of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Ezzatollah Zarghami, just last Sunday! According to one of Chang’s sources, Bill Samii, currently with the Center for Naval Analyses, “Iran is trying to create a geopolitical balance with the United States,” presumably by forging ties with friendly states in what used to be called America’s “soft underbelly” or “backyard.” As additional evidence of Iranian penetration, Chang cites a recent feature article from Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast that ran in the Hearst newspapers. Among other things, it suggests — with the help of a former senior FBI official — that Iran’s embassy in Managua could become a base for terrorist operations against the U.S. In fairness, the article also quoted Peter Rodman, Rumsfeld’s assistant secretary for international security affairs as pooh-poohing such a scenario.)
“There is nothing left to the Monroe Doctrine.,” lamented Chang, suggesting that the Bush administration is “abandon Latin America to Iran and that country’s terrorist allies…” To meet the threat, however, Chang was somewhat restrained in his policy advice, calling for the quick ratification of the various free-trade agreements with Latin American countries (currently Panama and Colombia) that are now languishing in Congress.
Not so, another ‘Contentions’ contributor, David Hazony, who suggested that stronger measures were necessary to deal with Iran’s inroads in the hemisphere in a follow-up post titled “Cold War II.” “Iran is replicating the Soviet Union’s efforts to build global power and confront the United States on multiple fronts,” he wrote.

“…herefore the proper response by the West is, as with the cold war. to confront and rollback Iran at every turn. Nor is it reasonable to respond that Iran is much smaller and weaker than was the USSR, and therefore should not be taken so seriously; It is through these methods that Iran becomes stronger and more powerful over time. The proper response to determined, implacable enemies (no matter how unpopular this may sound during election season) is to defeat them, especially when they are relatively weak, rather than waiting for them to become intolerably menacing.”

None of this particularly new; Frank Gaffney has been warning about the Ahmadinejad-Chavez-Ortega axis in apocalyptic terms since before the Sandinista leader reclaimed the Nicaraguan presidency last year. But, nonetheless, the neo-conservative compulsion to see in the visit of an Iranian broadcasting executive to one of the hemisphere’s poorest nations (and made much poorer as a result of Abrams’ efforts 20 years ago) a harbinger of an existential threat on a par with the Soviet Union is truly a sight to behold.

[Postman]

1. Just like the Sandinista's were going to invade Harlingen , Texas

This isn't the "home of the free" it's the "home of the scared shitless"

[eridani]

2. Or the Home of the Well-Armed Bedwetters n/t

[MisterP]

7. don't worry, Roger Staubach will drive them back to Cuba n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Well he does have a point (surprise?)

The monroe doctrine IS dead... long live whatever comes next.

And any... read this again, ANY empire that abandons its backyard is due to come crashing down soon.

Now as to Iran... BULLOCKS. (now anybody wants to speak about oh China?)

[JackRiddler]

4. True...

This is a sort of final state of denial. Latin America is exiting the empire's orbit, piece by piece, and U.S. power is already powerless in many of the countries. The foreign capital is coming from Asia and Europe, especially China. And the imperial propagandists are so unable to deal with the reality of decline they prefer to spin moronic fantasies about the Iranian bogeyman -- not a set of MiGs in Nicaragua but a TV executive! Ohmigod!

[mitchtv]

5. TheMonroe Doctrine has been dead

since the Malvinas, at least

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Sort off. bear in mind we assisted OUR NATO Ally

with the supply chain...

And for most (not that I mind the reference by the way) they will get it if we call it by the british name (falklands)

[MADem]

8. Ahmahdinejad is not the equal of the others, though. The whole thesis is silly.

The Midget Mayor of Teheran does not even have authority over the Iranian Armed Forces. He's a figurehead, a puppet of the Supreme Leader and Guardian Council. They don't want to dirty their religious hearts with the fetid smell of politics, so they use a front man as their spokesmodel.

Ahmahdinejad would be like the kindergartener at the junior high dance--or, as they say on Sesame Street "One of these things doesn't go with the others, see if you can guess which one!"