The Transformation of the 'Smuggler Brothers' and the 'Government with Guns' into a Multi-Purpose Monster

Most commanders of the IRGC and forces close to this institution placed their eggs in the baskets of Ghalibaf and Raisi during the 2017 elections. After failing to secure the executive power, tensions between the IRGC commanders and the Rouhani government have escalated. This tension can be observed in issues such as oil contracts (by giving a one-hour platform on state television to one of the IRGC commanders to criticize the contract with Total), in the issue of smuggling goods, and in various economic activities and the overall role of the IRGC in the country's economy. The IRGC interprets any lack of desired participation or attempts to limit the economic activities of this institution as 'weakening the IRGC.' With this approach, where is the IRGC headed? An Institution with an Insatiable Appetite for Power The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has become the most powerful institution in terms of influence and impact on policies (foreign, economic, cultural, and social) in Iran after the religious bureaucracy. This institution manages nuclear and missile programs, oversees foreign interventions (in the Middle East from Afghanistan to Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and from Bahrain to Yemen through the Quds Force), acts as a repressive organization (IRGC intelligence), sends jamming signals to satellites, protects officials (which is akin to placing their lifespan in the hands of the IRGC), oversees projects worth over a hundred million dollars (Mohammad Ali Jafari, Khabar Online, April 21, 2011), operates the most expensive news agencies and propaganda institutions (such as Fars and Tasnim news agencies and the Owj Institute), and controls a significant portion of public services like mobile telecommunications. The judiciary, Ministry of Intelligence, police force, state radio and television, and the Foundation of the Oppressed are either under the influence of the IRGC or managed by former and current IRGC members. There is no aspect of the country where the IRGC's footprint is not visible, from mosque construction (the IRGC's participation in building 7,700 mosques, IRNA, May 30, 2014) and managing hospitals (including Khatam al-Anbiya) and universities (Imam Hussein University) to running government demonstrations and managing ports, from smuggling goods to appointing ambassadors (such as appointing IRGC Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi, an advisor to Qassem Soleimani, as Iran's ambassador to Iraq), and from housing its retirees in cultural heritage buildings to managing sports in the country. The IRGC has entered the financial market, and it is rare for any large company not to have direct or indirect shares, through which it exerts its influence. The only institutions that have not been entirely occupied by the IRGC are the government and parliament, which also do not act according to the wishes of the IRGC commanders; if they did, IRGC aircraft would fly on the day of the inauguration of a project (the new Tehran airport), or they would face legal repercussions. The goal of engineering elections has been to increase the share of IRGC affiliates in the government (cabinet members, deputy ministers, general managers, governors, and mayors) and parliament. The expansion of the IRGC's influence and control over the country's resources has been relentless. There is not a day that passes without news of this expansion of influence and complaints about it. Alongside encroaching on political power and the economy of the country, the IRGC has also entered cultural and social domains and is currently expanding these areas. Since the clergy and leadership apparatus do not have a strong and reliable base among other segments of society, they are becoming increasingly dependent on this institution for the continuity of governance, and the IRGC, aware of this weakness, has expanded its power and wealth. Occupying the Social Sphere According to a contract between the IRGC and the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, the IRGC is set to enter the provision of dowries for beneficiaries. (Tasnim, November 28, 2016) The IRGC commander, in a display covered by all the propaganda apparatus of the Islamic Republic, donated 49 houses to villagers in the Qaleh Simin area of Islamshahr (Fars and state and semi-state newspapers and websites, January 11, 2017). This ceremony is reminiscent of the assistance that mafia organizations provide to impoverished villagers and urban dwellers alongside their other illegal activities. This is the last step in the IRGC's transformation into a mafia that conventional institutions cannot confront or compete with. If we consider this alongside the IRGC's access to any type of weapon in the country, its involvement in smuggling, including drug trafficking according to some reports, money laundering amounting to billions of dollars, and the suppression of anyone they wish, it reminds us of drug mafias in Latin America, such as Pablo Escobar's mafia in Medellín, Colombia. Escobar, alongside his drug distribution network across the Americas, was also actively involved in social programs and services to the extent that he garnered support from segments of the poor and unemployed. The IRGC presents itself in the social sphere as a fighter for social justice, but in the economic sphere, it is engaged in plundering the country's resources, relying on military and security power. A Mafia Social Contract The IRGC has always operated within the framework of a Castro-style governance method: providing some social services (such as healthcare, education, and sports facilities in some impoverished areas) in exchange for surrendering freedom, life, and democracy, as if these cannot coexist. This method has been pursued more vigorously in Iran as the IRGC has become wealthier and gained access to various resources and shares. The IRGC builds schools in rural areas under the guise of poverty alleviation (Kayhan, July 4, 2017). This activity has been aimed at buying loyalty to the IRGC and making the expansion of its political and economic influence irreversible while reducing opposition to its fattening. In the past year or two, those who oppose the IRGC's sanctions by Western governments argue that hundreds of thousands of employees work for the IRGC and its headquarters and companies, and sanctioning this institution means undermining their livelihoods. The IRGC is precisely expanding its economic influence for this reason, so that those who are unaware of the dangers of this monster's expansion for the economy and politics in Iran can resort to such arguments to avoid weakening it. Over the past four decades, the IRGC has been striving to embody a kind of social contract in Iran: 'Work with us to secure your livelihood; do not work with us, and you will be destroyed.' Cleansing Private Life and Cultural Engineering When the deputy chief of staff of the armed forces speaks about the normative system and family values and the government's manipulation of them, the sirens of totalitarianism and the mafia's interference in people's private lives sound: 'Cultural looseness threatens the family as the core of society.' (ILNA, July 8, 2017) The military personnel who speak of cultural health and social morality are, in fact, defending the constant intervention of a police state in people's private lives. They feel that they have not advanced sufficiently in this area: 'The health of culture and the elevation of social morality face two threats, and if these threats are not urgently addressed, many problems will arise, including widespread passivity in managing the country's culture and the extraordinary and managed efforts of enemies aimed at cultural transformation... According to the teachings of dear Islam, cultural management is a fundamental principle, and any negligence in this regard may have irreparable consequences, and the government is directly responsible for controlling and managing it and must vigorously protect the ideological, intellectual, and behavioral borders of society based on pure Islam and confront and repel incompatible elements.' (Same source) Totalitarian and authoritarian military personnel are not concerned about societal security but rather about social and generational changes: 'Unfortunately, this is not being done today, and this has caused social and generational changes to become uncontrollable, even in other advanced societies.' (Same source) *** Once, IRGC members called each other brothers. Today, the IRGC has become one of the 'big brothers' of the Iranian people. The IRGC pretends to manufacture various weapons itself—while all of them are imported from North Korea, China, and Russia—but what the IRGC has specialized in is managing factories of truth-making, culture-making, justice-making, and spirituality-making.