By Paul Craig Roberts
[Paul Craig Roberts served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny
of Good Intentions.]
Mired in interminable conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, the
Bush
administration is moving toward initiating two more wars, one
with Iran and
one with North Korea. With no US troops available, the Bush
administration
is revamping US war doctrine to allow for "preventative
nuclear attack." In
short, the Bush administration is planning to make the US the
first country
in history to initiate war with nuclear weapons. The Pentagon
document,
"Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations," calls for
the use of nuclear
weapons against non-nuclear adversaries in order "to ensure
success of US
and multinational operations."
In the case of Iran and Iraq, the Bush administration is using
diplomacy not
for diplomatic purposes of reaching agreements, but in order
to set the two
countries up for nuclear attack. In the case of Iran, the Bush
administration's plan is now obvious. The Bush administration
is leveling
false charges against Iran, just as it did against Iraq, of
conspiring to
make nuclear weapons. These charges are known to be false by
the Bush
administration and by the entire world.
For the past two years the International Atomic Energy Agency
has had
unfettered access to inspect Iran for any sign of a nuclear
weapons program.
The head of the IAEA has announced that there is no sign of
a weapons
program. The Bush administration nevertheless insists that Iran
is making
weapons, but can produce no evidence. As in the case of Iraq,
the Bush
administration substitutes allegations for facts.
Gordon Prather, an expert on the subject, has reported the
straight facts in
fine detail. Readers can become familiar with them by consulting
his archive
at Antiwar.com.
By bullying the 35 members of the IAEA, the Bush administration
last week
managed to get 22 votes that could lead to the referral of Iran
to the UN
Security Council. The Bush administration will now lobby for
the referral.
Once it has the referral, even if the Security Council does
not act on it,
the Bush administration can use it as an excuse to attack Iran.
The Bush
administration knows that few Americans have any knowledge of
international
law and procedures and will simply believe whatever President
Bush says. The
highly concentrated US media is a proven walkover for the war-mongering
Bush
administration.
As Dr. Prather has shown, Iran has gone beyond compliance to
propose that
new additional safeguards be established to monitor its nuclear
energy
program. The bad intentions are on the part of the Bush administration.
The Bush administration's plan is to create Iranian intransigence
in place
of cooperation by forcing the Iranian government to stand up
to the bullying
by reducing its cooperation. The goal of the Bush administration
is to
attack Iran, not to create cooperative relationships.
Needless to say, Iranians are angry at the Bush administration's
manipulation of the IAEA members. Last Wednesday protesters
in Tehran
attacked the British embassy, which serves as a proxy for the
non-existent
US embassy, and legislation was introduced that, if it passes,
will scale
back Iran's cooperation with the IAEA. Iran has also threatened
to cut off
oil deliveries to some of the countries that caved in to US
pressure,
thereby permitting the US to increase tensions and escalate
the conflict.
The Bush administration is betting that it can demonize Iran
the way it did
Iraq. As both Congress and the American public have failed to
hold Bush
accountable for deceiving them about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction,
the
administration assumes that its tactics will work a second time.
However, a nuclear attack on Iran would leave the Bush administration
isolated. The US would instantly become a pariah nation, loathed
and hated
everywhere else.
Moreover, it would leave our battered troops in Iraq in a perilous
situation. The only reason our army in Iraq has not been destroyed
is that
the Shi'ites, who comprise the vast majority of the population,
have not
taken up arms against us, expecting the US to turn over Iraq
to them. As the
Iraqi Shi'ites are allied with the Iranians, who also are Shi'ite,
the US
cannot attack Iran without destroying its position in Iraq.
The Bush administration, filled with hubris and delusion, is
too stupid to
know this.
The American people need to ask themselves why of all the countries
in the
world, only the US and Israel believe that it is imperative
to attack Iran.
If Iran is such a threat to the world, why isn't Russia, for
example,
concerned and ready to invade?
Americans need to ask themselves the same question about North
Korea. Why is
the US, half a world away, so concerned about North Korea? If
North Korea is
such a threat, would not China, sitting on its border, know
it? Wouldn't
Japan know it? South Korea? Wouldn't some other country besides
the US see
the problem and take action? According to the Voice of America
(August 11,
2005), "Senior South Korean officials on Thursday defended
what they say is
North Korea's 'natural right' to pursue civilian nuclear power.
The move may
cause friction with the United States, which has expressed firm
opposition
to the North having any nuclear facilities whatsoever."
If the US doesn't want other countries to develop nuclear weapons,
the US
must stop bombing, invading and threatening invasions and nuclear
attacks.
How does President Bush serve the cause of peace by making countries
paranoid by declaring them to be our enemies.
For there to be peace, the US must drop its belligerent role.
The proper
function of diplomacy is to build trust by drawing countries
into economic
and cultural relationships, not to isolate them for attack.
It is past time
for the US to give up its quarter century feud with Iran. US
interference in
Iranian internal affairs was the source of the feud. We need
to acknowledge
it and get over it.
The Korean war ended a half century ago. Isn't it time the
US acknowledged
the war's end and signed a treaty with North Korea? The Korean
war was
essentially a war between the US and China. It was Chinese troops
that
prevented American victory. Yet we are getting on with China,
a much greater
potential threat to the US than North Korea or Iran could ever
be.
By creating instability in the Middle East, the US undermines
Israel's
security. As a few thousand Iraqi insurgents have proven, American
armies
are not going to be able to sit over the oil in the Middle East.
If we can't
produce enough valuable goods or maintain a strong currency,
we won't have
access to the oil. There is no possibility whatsoever of the
US pushing
around powers like China, India, or Russia.
Bush's hubris makes him unrealistic. He greatly overestimates
America's
power. Congress and the American people must find a way to supply
the
judgment that is missing in the executive branch.
There would be no terrorism if the US would stop interfering
in the internal
affairs of Middle Eastern countries and if Israel stopped stealing
the West
Bank from the Palestinians. The Bush administration knows this,
and that is
why the administration spreads the propagandistic lie that "they"
(Muslims)
hate us and our way of life. This lie is the excuse for American
aggression.
---
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