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Washington polticians and the press have cultivated, among Americans, the impression that Iran is a “theocracy” with no democratic institutions. Ignorance grows as the conflict in Iraq escalates, and the Bush administration continuously looks to blame Iran for U.S. failures. Larry Diamond, a scholar at the Hoover Institution who advised the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq (CPA), told the Inter Press Service that the Mahdi Army of young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and other Shi’a militias (which, at the moment are giving Coalition forces a very hard time in Iraq) are being armed and financed by Iran with the aim of imposing “another Iranian-style theocracy.” Diamond’s comments were reiterated by another Coalition Provisional Authority Advisor, Michael Rubin. The story was then echoed by influential New York Times columnists William Safire and David Brooks, further compounding the misinformation. The claim is simply untrue. No official body in Iran is supporting al-Sadr and the idea that al-Sadr could ever dream of imposing an “Iranian-style theocracy” is absurd. Nevertheless, the impression that Iran has nothing even resembling democratic institutions makes the neoconservative claims more believable to many Americans, who know nothing of Iran and who are fearful of Islamic attacks on Western culture.
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