In retrospect one can readily see the inevitability of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard being declared a ‘terrorist’ organisation by the Bush administration; it was just a matter of time. It is, however, a major turning point for Bush and his administration inasmuch that this is the first time that a legitimate armed force of a sovereign state has been declared a terrorist organisation. Since the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is part of Iran’s armed forces answerable to and receiving its orders from the sovereign government of Iran, it is as good as declaring that the sovereign state of Iran itself is a ‘terrorist’ organisation.
Once finalised and taking effect, this decision will become of historic importance. Apart from the immediate repercussions for Iran and the Middle East, there are other ramifications. If the US can unilaterally and effectively declare Iran to be ‘terrorist’ state simply because it suits their geo-political position then there is no reason why Iran could not do the same.
The US has taken this step ostensibly because of Iran’s alleged involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The problem for the Americans here is; if that is the case, then by their own definition, US and allied troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are themselves ‘terrorists’ belonging to terrorist organisations and, applying the same logic as the US are to Iran, their respective governments are, therefore, also ‘terrorist’ organisations. It works two ways.
To a large extent the same logic applies also to the situation in Palestine. The democratically elected government of Palestine, Hamas, is an organisation that has been declared ‘terrorist’ simply because it is defending itself against Israeli expansionism. The reality is that, while occasionally Palestinian fighters are able to get through into Israel to counter-attack in an effort to deter Israeli aggression, it is Israeli ‘Defence Forces’ that are ruthlessly and indiscriminately killing innocent Palestinian civilians and extra-judicially murdering Palestinian forces that are defending the Palestinian people and resisting Israeli aggression on Palestinian lands. If Palestinian fighters are deemed to be ‘terrorists’ because they go in to Israel to deter the Israelis from further aggression against the Palestinians, then those IDF forces on Palestinian territory, and attacking Palestinian territory from the air and via artillery, may also be considered ‘terrorists’.
Until now, the term ‘terrorists’ had some meaning, albeit one that was abused for the purposes of rhetoric and propaganda. Now, however, it has taken on a new meaning; one that now actually is far closer to identifying who the real terrorists are in this world. Bush has opened the floodgates of nation-states being able to call each other ‘terrorists’ by now including sovereign governments as organisations that can constitute a ‘terrorist’ organisation. But, in redefining who or what can now be considered ‘terrorists’, Bush has also opened the door for the peoples of the world to also make their own decisions about which sovereign nations they consider are terrorist and which are not.
Given this new definition of the term ‘terrorists’, people can now determine who the real terrorists are in the Middle East and Central Asia seeing as how it is the US and their allies and the Israelis that are on dirt that doesn’t belong to them.