Opinion Editorials, January 2012

The US Policy Towards Iran at Crossroads:

From Perpetual Animosity to Insanity

By Mahboob A Khawaja

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, January 18, 2012
 
 
“We, as Americans, need to ask ourselves what all this is about? Why is our government so provocative toward Islam, Russia, China, Iran?  What purpose, whose purpose is being served? Certainly not ours …………Where do we go from here? If not to nuclear destruction, Americans must wake up.” (Paul Craig Roberts (“the Next War on Washington’s Agenda.” OpenEdnews: 01/12/2012)
 
It is unthinkable and irrational stance that if Iran develops the nuclear know-how and capacity and that it could threaten anyone in the region or beyond. We live in an age of actions-reactions and nuclear reprisals - no one would like to be candidate for the first strike to ensure self-destruction, and those who possess the nuclear capability know it well, understand its disastrous consequences to use the nuclear weapons. Nothing will survive on the planet as it is no longer 1945 or situations like Hiroshima-Nagasaki. The global community is informed, mature and vigilant, and no single nation can dare to use such weapons unilaterally and defy the dire consequences of self annihilation and destruction. American leadership knows it well too. So what is this all fuss about? What is this nonsense of nuclear weapons development in Iran? Imagine, if the Shah, the absolute king of Iran was alive and buying the weapons from the US, would America move to strangle Iran? No, certainly NO. Isn’t this another myth of the continued bogus War on Terrorism raged on the false pretext of the WMD in Iraq?
 
 
Concerned scholars point out that the United States perpetual animosity will usher a new era of rigorous insanity to maintain its war economy, viability of the political-military-industrial complexes controlled by the Zionist interests to ensure American illusory hegemony over the rest of the global community. Many wonder,  why should America cross over the conflicting time zones and violate international undertakings of civility and peaceful co-existence to instigate another insane warmongering action after the decade old failures in Iraq and Afghanistan extended onward to Pakistan - the bogus War on Terrorism - killing of almost three million innocent Iraqis, millions or so human beings displaced or crushed by the advanced war machines in Afghanistan and many thousands deliberately killed by illegal drone attacks in neighboring Waziristan tribal province of Pakistan. The American endured wide range of human, political and material losses because of the wrong THINKING, wrong ACTIONS, insane leadership and dubious performance of the former Bush administration. What did America gain out of these savagery acts of inhumanity?  Those floating above the normal mindset must be abnormal – insane – irresponsible, utterly individualistic paranoid to make such move on behalf of the people who elected them and now want to distance themselves from these acts of barbarity – man killing man for fun- enjoyment good weekend games – pissing on human corps - the US way of fighting the infidels that could not be done elsewhere except the mountainous region of Afghanistan and barbed and much destroyed Iraq.
 
World affairs are a complex discipline and often require serious and impartial mindset to see the issues objectively, rationally and dispassionately. The US Obama administration is repeating the blunders of the Bush era - acting like immature kids who get mad while playing with toys – behaving like the sadistic Razor King we read in European history who broiled his enemies and enjoyed witnessing live killings.  Strangely, Obama lied about prospective change and opening up a dialogue with Iran. This was a fiction, not a fact of policy shift to get elected. Often change bring hopes and optimism for something different – an escape from the cruel obsession of the few to something more conducive to human nature. But you can only expect this from rational beings having fullest sense of moral, intellectual and professional accountability to the society that bestows legitimacy to their role and official standing, certainly not from those who appear to have lost all basic norms of morality and civilization.  Julia Dalton (“Is Obama the Trojan Horse, A Psychopath, A Bad Boyfriend or all Three?” OpenEdNews: 1/07/2012) a strong former supporter of Obama suspects that President Obama is more of a psychopath and a Trojan horse than being an author of Audacity of Hope, and imaginative manipulator  of “Yes We Can” to win the elections. Julia explains the rationale:
 
 
 
“I voted for this guy too.  I fell for his smooth talk, cool demeanor and wide-open smile.  I've always been a sucker for tall dark and handsome but if he wasn't lying then he's lying now and I for one am mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore……………..
Obama hates truth tellers such as Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and whistleblowers like Bradley Manning who's been held in detention for almost two years for, according to Obama, exposing state secrets aka a horrendous war crime.  That is if Manning is the alleged leaker who gave the "Collateral Murder" video to WikiLeaks showing 12 civilians murdered by American soldiers.  What is the difference between the "Collateral Murder" war atrocity and the 1970 My Lai Massacre and the Court-Martial of Captain Ernest L. Medina? What is the difference between the Pentagon Papers and Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning? I mean isn't this evidence we're now living in a corporate/fascist/ military/police state?”

After the atrocities of the 2nd World War, the allied forces captured and tried many Nazis for crimes against humanity. Now, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Tony Blair and many others have been identified as involved in crimes against humanity in setting up the Abu Ghraib prison, Gunatanomobay, Belgram Prison and killing of millions of innocent civilians men, women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan. On June 28, 2005 at the Berlin Strategic Seminar (“America's Indispensable Role in Securing the Future of Civilization” Executive Intelligence Review: 7/8/2005) American intellectual Lyndon LaRouche offered the following observations about President Bush and Cheney’s insanity to make them unfit for the policy making and leadership office:
 
“Now, the United States Constitution provides for impeachment. The intrinsic basis for impeachment, is not conviction for some crime. That is not sufficient basis for impeachment, because the question of the Presidency of the United States is the question of an institution, not of a person. But, if the person who occupies that institution is clinically insane, or is otherwise incompetent to serve, that is sufficient grounds for a charge of impeachment and for his removal from office. On the other hand, we have a Vice President, who is not necessarily a psychopath, but is a sociopath. The man must be removed from office. What we have now, as a result of the actions and continuing actions in the Senate, we have a bloc, being exerted by the U.S. Senate, against the dangers intrinsic in the incumbency of these two creatures, and the people who control them. And therefore, if the world is to be saved, these two creatures must be kept under control and removed from office—not four years or three years from now, but in the immediate future.”
 
 
Why did Obama not take action to bring all these culprits to justice?  Could Obama be having similar characteristics and features with Bush and Cheney?  If so, should the Norwegian Nobel Committee not revoke the Peace Prize given to Obama without performance and accountability. Julia Dalton points out her concern:
 

”Under his watch not one member of the Bush Administration has been held accountable for leading us into wars built on false evidence and lies; not one banker has been held accountable for the fraud and corruption that brought down the global economy.  And the final nail in the coffin, Mr. Slim Shady signed the NDAA bill on New Year's Eve while most American's sipped champagne and sang Auld Lang Syne…. .  The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) makes America the battlefield and allows indefinite detention of U.S. citizens suspected of "terrorist" leanings without due process.”
 
 
Julia Dalton finds it a fact of life that Obama is a wrong guy to occupy the post of president of the US:
 
“I know it's hard to admit you made a mistake.  I get it.  You really believed this guy was "the one" and he is the one for the 1%: Wall Street, the too big to fail banks, the military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex, big oil, big pharma, i.e. the corporate fascist state he's so gingerly locking into place…………And, therefore, I feel it's my duty to do an intervention.  For those of you still deluding yourselves, who still can't face reality I suggest therapy or better yet maybe pick up a copy of "He's just Not That into You."
 
Nothing is going to last unto eternity- for sure; Obama faces many limitations and overburden too, the pinch of self-exalted individualistic opportunitism, so common amongst all the political contenders of public goodness, civility and humanity. They all pretend like the puppets do, politicians are no different a specie but the same kind. Julia Dalton thinks so:
 
 
“The Obama brand is collapsing just as the Bush brand before him became so craven even the most deluded had to recognize the fraud that had been perpetrated upon the American people”
 
 
Paul Craig Roberts (“the Next War on Washington’s Agenda.” OpenEdnews: 01/12/2012) spells out the ingrained political cynicism governing the Washington’s based military-industrial complex of which Mr. Obama is the latest willing participatory leader:
 
“Only the blind do not see that the US government is preparing to attack Iran. According to Professor Michel Chossudovsky, "Active war preparations directed against Iran (with the involvement of Israel and NATO) were initiated in May 2003."  The global community is well aware that nuclear capability is not a one way street of insanity but it certainly carries risk of reaction and immediate reprisals from other nuclear powers to respond to situations of political conflicts and primary national interests. It is no longer a status-quo of 1945 that the US administration can bomb Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) without any challenge and military repercussions.
 
 
Paul Craig Roberts pinpoints the rhetoric of the same kind as the neoconservatives used to invade and occupy Iraq:
 
“It could not be more obvious that Washington's war preparations against Iran have nothing to do with deterring Iran from a nuclear weapon. So, what are the war preparations about... … Iran represents no threat unless attacked, Washington's war preparations signal Washington's intention to attack Iran.”
 
 
There are ample hard facts available at this time that the Islamic Republic of Iran does not pose any challenge or military threat to the US interests and its allies in Western Europe or elsewhere in the Middle East region. The IAEA first-hand reports and inspections have clarified:
 
“As the International Atomic Energy Agency's reports from its inspectors on the ground in Iran have made clear for years, there is no evidence that Iran has diverted any enriched uranium from its nuclear energy program. The shrill hype coming from Washington and from the neoconservative media is groundless. it is the same level of lie as Washington's claim that Saddam Hussein in Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Every US soldier who died in that war died in behalf of a lie.”
 
 
You wonder, what is this all fuss about?  What triggers the American strategic mind to launch psychological and military stunts and propaganda campaigns against Iran?  One reason is that if the US-Iran were having a dialogue, this situation could not have developed to a boiling scenario of war. Another fact is widely known that if Iranian were buying the weapons and military hardware from the US as did the Shah, American would have sheltered the Iranian ambitions and weak points. But there are clear indicators that Israeli interest is the primary motivating factor being pursued by the Washington’s military and industrial complex - the institution that governs the global warmongering discipline and increased need of weaponry production to keep the mankind indulged in mutual fear and hatred for conflict-making and conflict-keeping games.  Paul Craig Roberts cites three major reasons for the US pursuit of current insane game against Iran:
 
“One is the neoconservative ideology, adopted by the US government that calls for the US to use its superior military and economic position to achieve world hegemony. This goal appeals to American hubris and to the power and profit that it serves….A second factor is Israel's desire to eliminate all support for the Palestinians and for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Israel's goal is to seize all of Palestine and the water resources of southern Lebanon. Eliminating Iran removes all obstacles to Israel's expansion…..
A third factor is to deter or slow China's rise as a military and economic power by controlling China's access to energy. It was China's oil investments in eastern Libya that led to the sudden move against Libya by the US and its NATO puppets, and it is China's oil investments elsewhere in Africa that resulted in the Bush regime's creation of the United States Africa Command, designed to counter China's economic influence with US military influence. China has significant energy investments in Iran, and a substantial percentage of China's oil imports are from Iran. Depriving China of independent access to oil is Washington's way of restraining and boxing in China.”
 
However, it is all the US political maneuvering to counteract to China’s growing influence and credibility across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. After the two big failures and its drastic human consequences in Iraq and Afghanistan, America is faced with a credibility issue as nobody takes it seriously as a superpower – a morally and financially bankrupt nation - as someone a reliable friend in global mutual relationships.
Paul Craig Roberts helps us to understand the proper context:
 
“When you get right down to it, Washington's tough talk is nothing but a silly pointless provocation of Washington's largest creditor. What if Washington's idiocy causes China to worry that Washington and its UK and European puppets will seize its bank balances and refuse to honor China's holdings of $1 trillion in US Treasury bonds? Will China pull its balances from the weak US, UK, and European banks? Will China decide to strike first, not with nuclear weapons, but by selling its $1 trillion in Treasury bonds all at once?”
 
 
It is unthinkable and irrational stance that if Iran develops the nuclear know-how and capacity and that it could threaten anyone in the region or beyond. We live in an age of actions-reactions and nuclear reprisals - no one would like to be candidate for the first strike to ensure self-destruction, and those who possess the nuclear capability know it well, understand its disastrous consequences to use the nuclear weapons. Nothing will survive on the planet as it is no longer 1945 or situations like Hiroshima-Nagasaki. The global community is informed, mature and vigilant, and no single nation can dare to use such weapons unilaterally and defy the dire consequences of self annihilation and destruction. American leadership knows it well too. So what is this all fuss about? What is this nonsense of nuclear weapons development in Iran? Imagine, if the Shah, the absolute king of Iran was alive and buying the weapons from the US, would America move to strangle Iran? No, certainly NO. Isn’t this another myth of the continued bogus War on Terrorism raged on the false pretext of the WMD in Iraq?
 
 
If the mankind was looking towards ethical principles and some rational change to live in peace and harmony after dreadful warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is utterly dismayed and disgusted with the US politicians and policy makers. Time and again, they are proving to be devoid of REASON and any sense of humanity and accountability for their acts. Global politics is not a system of moral principles or intellectual and political values but often a game – a cruel drama - a puppet show often staged to appease the few draculas - a psychopath puzzle of few insane people who had nothing useful to contribute to the mankind except drudgery, deceit, lies and inborn deceptions - the previous net outcome of this THINKING was the bogus War on Terrorism.   Wars are planned, conspired and are the outcome of few cruel monsters - egomaniac mindsets, not of the electoral consensus of the rational beings dreaming of life as a gift from God, progressive in civility and nobility of thoughts and behaviors and being accountable to the rest of the humanity. The Europeans have come to realize these harsh facts after centuries of wide ranging insanity and two major World Wars and killing of millions and millions of fellow Europeans just to maintain racial superiority, marked border posts and obsessed Nationalism. Should the Americans not learn from the annals of the darkest chapters of the modern European history?  Paul Craig Roberts attempts to reflect on this much needed historical Essence of Learning and  the NEED for a Navigational Change:
 
 
“We, as Americans, need to ask ourselves what all this is about? Why is our government so provocative toward Islam, Russia, China, Iran?  What purpose, whose purpose is being served?  Certainly not ours…………Where do we go from here?    If not to nuclear destruction, Americans must wake up. Football games, porn, and shopping malls are one thing. Survival of human life is another. Washington, that is, "representative government," consists only of a few powerful vested interests. These private interests, not the American people, control the US government. That is why nothing that the US government does benefits the American people.”
 
 
 
Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja, an academic with special interests in global peace and security and conflict resolution, and comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of numerous publications in global affairs. His latest book includes: Arabia at Crossroads: Arab People Strive for Freedom, Peace and New Leadership. VDM Publishers, Germany, September 2011.  Comments are welcome: kmahboob@yahoo.com .

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah & ccun.org.

editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org