Now, fast forward to 2011. I get the sinking feeling we are witnessing the repeat of that. Remember the supposed plot by Iran to hire some Mexicans to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. just few weeks ago? And now the IAEA report? Given the headlines in the NATO countries, does it really matter what the real truth is? Patrick Hayes from spiked summed up the sentiment, as expressed in this China Daily opinion column comic, rather well:
In many ways, this produces the worst of both worlds. The West still intervenes, but in a dishonest fashion, using the IAEA and UN weapons inspectors as a neutral, independent-looking Trojan horse with which to intervene in another country’s affairs. From the role of the UN’s weapons-inspection regime in Iraq onwards, it is increasingly evident that ‘weapons inspections’ act as a tool to administer a modern form of colonisation, where disobedient, unruly foreign nations are pushed around by their international superiors.
People in the West forget the fact that Israel posses nuclear weapons. With so much hostility expressed in the Western media towards Iran, it almost seems like these same people are encouraging Iran to build nuclear weapons. How else do they ensure their survival.
Now, let’s suppose the U.S. and Israel launch an attack on Iran within the next few years. What then? With Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya in shambles, does adding a decrepit Iran into the mix make our world a better place?
Is invading a foreign country every two or three years the norm for the United States? Is this the type of future we want for our children? The U.S. has the might to mold our world into a different norm. Each day she squanders in leading towards it is a day lost in opportunity.
On my way to lunch earlier today I heard on the radio an NPR commentator (NPR being one of the most professional media in the U.S. in my opinion) saying something to the effect of “Iran’s identity is based on being anti-American.” If that is not propaganda, I don’t know what is.
Perhaps those were ‘nicer’ words, but how truly different are that from Hitler’s pronouncements to the Germans against the Jews?
melektaus says
The issue of invasion of Iran is about as black and white as it gets in international law. It’s a universal agreement that preventative wars are illegal. Even the promoting of such war by certain politicians may be illegal (such as Evan Bayh did on Fox News). The US shows itself to be one of the most violent societies sin the world. It is almost constantly at war. Within the last ten years it has involved itself in several wars and is responsible for well over a million deaths. It’s no wonder such a society would try to spread propaganda about the deficiencies of other countries like China to avert the world’s gaze towards its own actions. What’s sad is that its propaganda system is so effective that their worldwide deflection of blame campaign has actually worked in many countries.
pug_ster says
It is just plain crazy to assume that even if today Iran has some kind of nuke weapon, they are going to use it. Can’t blame on Iran being paranoid considering that 2 of its neighbors were occupied in the last 10 years and the West and Israel are painting a target on Iran and might use Nuclear weapons as a deterrent. A war on Iran would drag Israel’s neighbors to war.
zack says
a declining superpower is especially dangerous when it’s only card to play is the military option; America today can’t compete economically with the rest of the world, and its innovative edge is fast being eroded; so whilst she still has it, those in the leadership in Washington will do what they can to ensure the 21st Century becomes a New American Century.
Reminds me of back during the Suez crisis, when the declining superpowers-the British and French attacked Egypt at Israel’s insistence, the US threatened to pull the plug on funding the British and French economies which effectively made the British lose face and reconsider. This was regarded as the pivotal point of the decline of the British Empire.
pug_ster says
@zack
I don’t agree. The Suez crisis is just the epilogue of the British Empire and America is nowhere at that point yet. I think the America is at the point approaching to the beginning of the end of the Empire, probably just about the time just before WWI for the British Empire.
silentvoice says
@pug_ster #2
Yep, and Iran is going to take the lesson of Gaddafi to heart, that being it does not pay to dismantle your nuclear program. Only the possession of a bomb can deter western aggression.
In some ways the West’s incursions into the Middle East is reminiscent of the Opium and Boxer wars. It’s the same old story of the strong preying on the weak.
jimmy says
The west will eventually attack Iran … and also Syria, north Korea, Cuba, and even Russia and China. Do
not forget what the west was doing just 100 years ago. Read http://www.scribd.com/doc/71306554 for
details. Thank you
Charles Liu says
Well, let’s hope China moves down the “enemy list” and become less targeted.
zack says
@Charles Liu
the best way to “move down the enemy list” is to make attacking China or crossing China so unthinkable that to even plan for an invasion of China is recipe for national suicide and extinction.
The only thing The West respects about China is its power and its clout; once that’s gone, they’d have about as much respect for a non western, non democratic country as the Catholic Church had towards european pagans during the middle ages.
pug_ster says
Looks like the thug nation Israel team up with terrorists to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists.
http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/08/10354553-israel-teams-with-terror-group-to-kill-irans-nuclear-scientists-us-officials-tell-nbc-news