|
Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.meforum.org/article/1990
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Are No Rogue Outfit
[Middle East Quarterly] Michael Rubin - Even a cursory look at the structure and personnel of the Iranian government and its history of involvement in terrorism and insurgency demonstrate that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Qods Force are in fact the opposite of rogues - they are deliberate creations of the Islamic Republic's government, are tightly controlled by the government, and exist to serve the government's policy objectives in Iran and abroad. Many of the Islamic Republic's current leadership - at least the nonclerical portion - spent their formative years at the front serving with the Revolutionary Guards. Both the IRGC and its elite Qods Force represent the core of the Iranian state and enjoy the full support of its all-powerful supreme leader. The writer is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.