Why
This Axis?
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
12 July, 2006
Countercurrents.org
It
is extraordinary to what lengths this Administration will go to halt
Iran’s progress. Its paranoia at Iran becoming independent lends
one to believe that Iran is a far greater adversary than common sense
dictates. A developing nation striving to meet the energy demands of
70 million.
Yet, Mr. Bush, having violated
Article III of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in which he offered civilian
nuclear aid to India in exchange for its vote against Iran, is now bribing
the Russians into a lucrative nuclear energy accord in exchange for
not vetoing the sanctions resolution against Iran.
Given that the American’s
biggest fear is the Chinese expansion of their military, one must question
what they will be tempted with? Although they have been offered nuclear
technology for building plants, China is a hungry cub that will demand
far more.
Sanctions, a war declaration
on the Iranian people – for we are being denied our inalienable
right, robbed of the chance for progress and advancement into the twenty-first
century, shackles threateningly dangling in front of us; yet it is said
that history never repeats itself, while we are being forced to relive
it, the perpetrators stubbornly refusing to learn from it.
These perpetrators also know
that sanctions will prove to be ineffective – and a full scale
war will ensue; A war that will leave its mark on several countries.
India dug her own grave when
she betrayed Iran. The Bill that is required of India to sign in exchange
for nuclear cooperation with the US would include not only isolation
but support of sanctions on Iran. This would include the gas pipeline
from Iran to Pakistan and India. Nothing could be more accurate than
these words spoken by Homi J. Bhabha, father of India’s nuclear
energy, now betrayed by the ambitious politicians in India:
Knowledge is perhaps the
most important possession of Man. It is the accumulated knowledge of
centuries which differentiates modern Man from his ancestor in the dawn
of civilization.[1]
“All the basic discoveries
upon which atomic energy is based were made before the second world
war by scientists of many nations working in free and full collaboration.
The war put an end to this free exchange of knowledge, and most of the
technical developments concerning atomic energy were made subsequently
by a few nations, each working in isolation behind a wall of secrecy.”
(1955 – United Nations Presidential speech).
Yet, by condemning Iran and
paving the way for sanctions, the first steps to war, a war in which
the US has reiterated its options are on the table, including nuclear
bunker busters, India would pay heavily for her decision. The Union
of Concerned Scientists report that the kind of bunker-buster the administration
wants to use on Iran’s nuclear facilities, would only penetrate
a few feet into the ground, too shallow to contain the massive radiation
fallout that could spread over 1000 miles. If the US dropped a single
1.2 kiloton bomb on Isfahan, the kind it is planning on using, 3 million
people will be killed within 2 weeks of the explosion around Isfahan,
and 35 million people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India will be at
high risk of cancer due to radiation.
Should Russia fall in the
same trap, it would have to forgo its chances of climbing the superpower
platform once again. Or perhaps be obliged to deal with retaliatory
measures if the winds shift and they have to deal with the radiation.
Why the collective punishment?
Why focus on Iran when clearly there is more danger facing the United
States from the Korean Peninsula?
The main thrust of their
argument for denying the Iranian nation of their lawful and legal right
to a peaceful energy program, which the Americans promoted during the
Shah’s regime, is the ‘intelligence’ claiming Iran
to be a state sponsor of terrorists. Frankly, it is hard to give credit
to ‘intelligence’ these days even with all the groundbreaking
methods are being applied.
As the death toll piles up
to ‘defend our freedom’ and ‘establish democracy’
in the Middle-East, we see our own democracy erode. No doubt American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is unusually burdened fighting for our
constitutional rights. Hardly have we had a chance to recover from the
last shocking revelation of the unlawful NSA eavesdropping spy scandal
before it comes to light that for the past five years, the Bush Administration
has been secretly tracking international money transactions as a part
of its ‘war on terror”.
Yet in spite of its sophistication,
its groundbreaking and lawbreaking efforts, this administration has
failed to track down the money that feeds the Mojahedeen-e Khalg (MEK)
in Iraq; and the transactions the terrorist group make here in the United
States. The Iraqi fiasco, the invasion of a sovereign nation based on
‘poor’ intelligence which demanded that we attack Iraq otherwise
their weapons of mass destruction would destroy us, has left me with
no faith in the CIA, FBI, or any other ‘intelligence’, but
I thought with a Czar, Negroponte at that, things would be shaken up.
One must surely wonder how our finest who can handpick 400-500 ‘terrorists’
among untold hundreds of thousands and retain them for years in Gitmo,
cannot trace money back and forth between 4000 terrorists (who are given
‘protected persons status’) under their very noses. This
lack of intelligence gathering is incomprehensible – dismal at
best.
Yet they maintain with certainty
that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorists when they have had no ties
with Iran for over 25 years. Secretary Rumsfeld highlighted the poor
intelligence gathering when he claimed: “"The absence of
evidence does not necessarily mean evidence of absence."!
The European parliamentarians,
who follow this Administration so sheepishly, ought to be apprehensive
about replacement candidates proposed for Iran, the Mojahedeen-e Khalg
(MEK) – a group who will never be welcomed in Iran. They have
not objected to the leader of the MEK terrorist group, Maryam Rajavi,
holding a press conference in their parliament house. It is extraordinary
that a terrorist leader should be allowed to roam around free, yet alone
set foot in the parliament house of a society of democracies who throw
stones at Iran.
Perhaps the answer lies within
the walls of the US Congress where the Israeli Prime Minister made his
case…)[2][3]
“Mr. Speaker, Mr.
Vice President, allow me to turn to another dark and gathering storm
casting its shadow over the world.
OLMERT: Iran, the world's
leading sponsor of terror and a notorious violator of fundamental human
rights, stands on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. With these
weapons, the security of the entire world is put in jeopardy.
We deeply appreciate
America's leadership on this issue and the strong bipartisan conviction
that a nuclear-armed Iran is an intolerable threat to the peace and
security of the world.
(APPLAUSE)
It cannot be permitted
to materialize.”
(APPLAUSE)
This Congress has proven
its conviction by initiating the Iran Freedom and Support Act. We applaud
these efforts.
(APPLAUSE)
A nuclear Iran means
a terrorist state could achieve the primary mission for which terrorists
live and die: the mass destruction of innocent human life.
This challenge, which
I believe is the test of our time, is one the West cannot afford to
fail.
The radical Iranian regime
has declared the United States its enemy. The president believes it
is his religious duty and his destiny to lead his country in a violent
conflict against the infidels. With pride, he denies the Jewish Holocaust
and speaks brazenly, calling to wipe Israel off the map.
For us, this is an existential
threat, a threat to which we cannot consent.
But it is not Israel's
threat alone. It is a threat to all those committed to stability in
the Middle East and the well-being of the world at large.
OLMERT: Mr. Speaker,
Mr. Vice President, our moment is now. History will judge our generation
by the actions we take now, by our willingness to stand up for peace
and security and freedom, and by our courage to do what is right.
The international community
will be measured not by its intentions but by its results.
(APPLAUSE)
The international community
will be judged by its ability to convince nations and peoples to turn
their backs on hatred and zealotry.
If we don't take Iran's
bellicose rhetoric seriously now, we will be forced to take its nuclear
aggression seriously later.
And so they obeyed…
To classify Iran as the world’s
foremost sponsors of terrorists, what is really meant is Iranian support
for militant groups opposed to Israel. And yet we are witnessing what
Israel is capable of. The reality of it is, Iran has not committed acts
of terrorism whereas the West is openly supporting terrorist organizations
and states, foremost Israel with 2-300 nuclear bombs.
Like any other nation who
has signed onto the NPT, Iran deserves to continue with its peaceful
nuclear program and not have to go to war to defend its inalienable
right. Let us hope that when it comes to the Russians and the Chinese,
unlike the Indians, greed and folly are improbable bedfellows; not only
for Iran’s sake but for the sake of peace in the area and beyond.
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
has studied in Iran, the UK, France, Australia and the US. She obtained
her Bachelors Degree in International Relations from the University
of Southern California, Los Angeles, and she is currently pursuing a
Masters Degree in Political Science at the University of Utah concentrating
in Middle East Studies. She has done extensive research on US foreign
policy towards Iran and Iran’s nuclear program.