HILLARY CLINTON WARNS REVOLUTIONARY GUARD TAKING OVER IRAN

Hillary says, Iran is becoming a Military Dictatorship.

From the Associated Press:

DOHA, Qatar – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that Iran is becoming a military dictatorship, a new U.S. accusation in the midst of rising tensions with Iran over its nuclear ambitions and crack down on anti-government protesters.

Speaking to Arab students at Carnegie Mellon's Doha campus, Clinton said Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps appears to have gained so much power that it effectively is supplanting the government.

"Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship," she said. "That is our view."

Last week the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it was freezing the assets in U.S. jurisdictions of a Revolutionary Guard general and four subsidiaries of a previously penalized construction company he runs because of their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction.

The Revolutionary Guard has long been a pillar of Iran's regime as a force separate from the ordinary armed forces. The Guard now has a hand in every critical area, including missile development, oil resources, dam building, road construction, telecommunications and nuclear technology.

It also has absorbed the paramilitary Basij as a full-fledged part of its command structure — giving the militia greater funding and a stronger presence in Iran's internal politics.

It will be interesting to see, in the coming days, if the Obama Administration tries to distance themselves from Hillary's statement. I believe they will.

I think this is another example of Hillary portraying herself to the right of Obama as a prelude to a run against him in 2012.

By the way, Ahmadinejad was with the Basij militia as a young man.

The Basij is a division of the Revolutionary Guard.

It would seem to me this development would mean Ahmadinejad would have more power and the Mullahs would have less.

The Mullahs have a tremendous amount of wealth stored up from having ruled Iran for 31 year.

Wealth is a stabilizing force, generally. It makes people more Conservative, less likely to rock the boat.

It would seem to me anything that gives Ahmadinejad more power, and the Mullahs less, is a bad thing.