The US And Iran:
Questions That
Still Need To Be Answered
By Am Johl
02 February, 2005
Countercurrents.org
Recently,
investigative journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in the New Yorker that
the Bush Administration had authorized the Pentagon to send commando
forces to the Middle East with a special focus on Iran in order to carry
out reconnaisance missions on potential military targets. Hersh alleged
the Bush Administration had chosen this route to carry out these activities
rather than the CIA for the purposes of shielding the operation and
to stop it from being brought before Congress. The Pentagon has since
stated that the story is full of inaccuracies but has not elaborated
on the specifics.
If Hersh's probing
is correct, and many believe that it is, many now see the early propaganda
campaign beginning for what could turn out to be strategic military
strikes carried out by US forces. Iran has been on the American radar
since Bush's Axis of Evil speech in 2002. Diplomatic relations between
the two countries have been severed since 1979 when 444 American were
held hostage in Iran.
The issue of Iran's
development of nuclear weapons has reached the UN Security Council several
times while the European Union and some its member states are currently
attempting to avoid an altercation. The International Atomic Energy
Agency is also monitoring Iran's compliance with international agreements.
Germany, France and Britain have negotiated an agreement which would
have Iran voluntarily suspend uranium enrichment for economic incentives
and other aid related to power generation. American concerns are centered
around twenty disputed centrifuges and the terms of their usage.
With the Bush Administration's
penchant for unilateralism, there will no doubt be an escalation of
tensions between the US and Iran over the next eighteen months.
During the lead
up to the US Presidential election in 2004, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon made public comments related to possible Israeli involvement
in pre-emptive strikes on Iranian targets similar to the ones which
Israel made against Iraq in the early eighties to thwart their development
of nuclearweapons.
Is the US ready
to engage in another war? Will there be a draft? How will the Iraqi
situation bear on the US's willingness to begin an altercation in Iran?
Is it inevitable? Are there Republicans within the Senate, the House
of Representatives and those within Bush's inner circle that can thwart
such aggressive, unilateral behaviour?
These are very basic
questions that will need to be answered in the coming months.