Implacable Enemy? Really?
I have to be honest here. I just don't see where Iran is such an awful player in the game of global geopolitics. I mean, sure, people keep repeating the same tropes, but why don't they ever offer any specifics?1. Iran is meddling in the affairs of her neighbors. Well, yeah, she is. Pretty much everybody does. The US "meddles" in the affairs of most Latin American governments, and if you want to honestly try to take the position the US hasn't meddled in Cuban affairs over the last five decades I'm sorry, I'm just going to laugh at you. And when it comes to meddling in the affairs of Iran's neighbors, wouldn't you say a massive military invasion and occupation that toppled the previous government of Iraq would qualify as meddling? For that matter, we don't seem to have a terrible problem with Israel's serial meddling in pretty much ALL the middle eastern nations.
2. Sponsoring terrorist organizations. Well, yeah, that would be bad. But then it turns out that they're talking about Hezbollah, part of the coalition government in Lebanon, and Hamas, the elected leadership of the Palestinians in Gaza, a group trying to resist an illegal occupation. And it's at least a little disingenuous that Iran has a problem with a Kurdish separatist organization generally classified as a terrorist organization, and THAT group is sponsored by - wait for it - the United States.
3. Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. Ah, yes. The BIG one. And people from Dick Cheney to Bill Kristol state with certainty that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, so it must be true, right? Ok, sure, Ali Khamenei says they aren't developing weapons. The US intelligence services says they aren't developing weapons. The IAEA says there is absolutely no evidence that they are developing weapons. Iran is a signatory to the NPT and has agreed to the implementation of the "Additional Protocols" allowing International monitoring of fissile materials. And the very important point that the only nation ever to use nuclear weapons on another in anger is the United States.
4. There's the whole "wants to see Israel wiped off the map" meme. Outside of the US, it is well known, and has been widely acknowledged that this is a mis-translation quotation of
Ayatollah Khomeini in a speech made by Ahmedinajad in October of 2005. Only a dishonest press with an agenda would continue to claim that Ahmedinajad was actually calling for an Iran/Israel war. Unfortunately, that is what we seem to have in America.
So it mostly just seems as if America collectively has decided it needs a big, bad dangerous enemy in order to justify doing things that would otherwise be beyond the pale. Now, obviously we can't choose Russia or China, for they have powerful militaries with a global reach and could actually hurt us if acted aggressively toward them. So what we need is to select a much weaker enemy and imbue them with some vast imaginary power to do us great, even existential harm, such as secret terrorist armies with nuclear weapons. Sure, North Korea under Kim Jong Il and Venezuela under Hugo Chavez are inviting targets, and it's not like we haven't spent a fair amount of effort demonizing them too, but it's Iran, with her vast oil reserves and implacable opposition to Israel that we find the easiest and most convenient to hate.
So Obama and Biden and Clinton might be a breath of fresh air compared to Bush/Cheney, but they have adopted the same bellicose rhetoric toward Iran as their predecessors, so don't be surprised if events spiral out of control and we find ourselves in another, much bloodier, Mideast war.
So it mostly just seems as if America collectively has decided it needs a big, bad dangerous enemy in order to justify doing things that would otherwise be beyond the pale. Now, obviously we can't choose Russia or China, for they have powerful militaries with a global reach and could actually hurt us if acted aggressively toward them. So what we need is to select a much weaker enemy and imbue them with some vast imaginary power to do us great, even existential harm, such as secret terrorist armies with nuclear weapons. Sure, North Korea under Kim Jong Il and Venezuela under Hugo Chavez are inviting targets, and it's not like we haven't spent a fair amount of effort demonizing them too, but it's Iran, with her vast oil reserves and implacable opposition to Israel that we find the easiest and most convenient to hate.
So Obama and Biden and Clinton might be a breath of fresh air compared to Bush/Cheney, but they have adopted the same bellicose rhetoric toward Iran as their predecessors, so don't be surprised if events spiral out of control and we find ourselves in another, much bloodier, Mideast war.
posted by mikey @ 11:51 AM
2 Comments:
wouldn't you say a massive military invasion and occupation that toppled the previous government of Iraq would qualify as meddling?
And Afghanistan. We knocked off not one, but two of the states bordering Iran. Combine that with our airbases in the various neighboring 'stans, and I think that all adds up to a pretty good case of meddling...
Re: the quote about "wiping Israel off the map" - whether it's a mistranslation or not, I am so tired of people cherry picking a phrase or a word here and there and using it as the foundation of a huge, soaring edifice of policy. Or presumption. "He said 'this' X number of years ago, so that means that now and forever he believes 'that' and will never change nor alter. Therefore our policy will always be...."
It's the same kind of stupid thinking that, on a smaller scale, has some people utterly convinced that Michelle Obama hates America because of the way she phrased her words.
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