politics

Iran's nuclear program...look in the mirror

The United States and major European countries, including France, Great Britain and Germany are concerned about the probable reactivation of Iran’s nuclear development program.

While the Middle Eastern country professes to rejuvenate its stagnant nuclear program for energy use only, wary observers expect the program—championed by a leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with strong religious grounding, a keen political sense and some interesting perceptions--will yield weapons of mass destruction in addition to any ancillary power benefits.

While weighing United Nations’ options to deal with the pending crisis, perhaps, an opportune time arrives to shade the view from a different angle.

When the rest of the world looks at the contemporary United States, most do not see the same picture we so gladly portray of ourselves.

The world sees a nation that bombed houses in Pakistan, killing innocent women and children (killing an innocent man is any better?) in pursuit of alleged al-Queda operatives. And, hears three prominent senators unabashedly justify the CIA raid.

The world sees a nation that has, according to historian William Blum, bombed more than 25 different countries since the end of World War II. John Stockwell, former CIA station chief for the Angola Task Force, in a speech in the 1980’s, estimated that since 1947, the CIA is responsible for the deaths of more than six million people, in unannounced, unofficial wars against people of the Third World.

The world sees a nation that invaded a sovereign nation—Iraq—with varying, evolving justifications, the first time the U.S. invaded another nation without being attacked. The web site iraqbodycount.com estimates that between 28,088 and 31,676 civilians have been killed since the invasion begin in 2003.

The world sees a nation developing bunker-busting nuclear weapons and not reducing its arsenal of nuclear devices yet trying to stem the expansion in other countries.

The world sees a country that seeks ways to permit torture of prisoners--Abu Ghraib in Cuba serves as exhibit A-- and allegedly maintains secret gulags in eastern Europe to escape the watchful eye of U.S. law regarding prisoner treatment.

The world sees a nation that is no longer a signatory to the International Criminal Court in the Hauge. And, a nation that passed the American Servicemen's Protection Act (ASPA), which not only bars any U.S. cooperation with the International Criminal Court, but also bars U.S. military aid to other countries unless they agree to shield U.S. troops on their territory from ICC prosecution. The law also bans U.S. troops from taking part in United Nation peacekeeping operations unless the UN Security Council explicitly exempts them from possible prosecution.

The world sees a country that consumes more than 25% of the world’s energy while housing only 4% of its population yet refuses to seriously address its seemingly insatiable consumption appetite via either increased fuel efficiency or decreased use. In 2004, according to the Energy Information Administration, the United States consumed 20.5 million barrels of oil each day—more than the next five nations (China, Japan, Germany, Russia and India) combined.

The world sees a country that declines to sign the Kyoto Protocol and command the lead on curbing harmful carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions despite a growing body of scientific evidence citing such discharges as the primary human influence in global warming.

The world sees a nation that refuses to significantly restrain its gasoline consumption through either collective choice or government incentive. Iran controls more than 4 million barrels of daily exported oil and bears access to a body of water where more than half of the world’s oil supply passes through on a daily basis.

The world hears one of America’s most influential preachers call for the removal of a popular, elected leader (“I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.”) of a South American nation with insufficient outrage expressed by U.S. leaders. Congressional hearings in the 1970s, documenting numerous CIA attempts to kill Cuban president Fidel Castro and U.S. interference in the politics of several other Latin American countries, led then-President Gerald Ford to sign a bill to forbid the assassination of world leaders.

"A few Western states ... have nuclear arsenals, they have chemical weapons,” says Ahmadinejad. “They have microbiological weapons. And every year they establish tens of new nuclear power plants. Now they are criticizing the Iranian nation ... because they think that they are powerful."
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Framed by the United States’ energy appetite, accusations of interference in affairs of other nations and record of military adventures, any wonder Iran feels the need and the political leverage to revive its nuclear program?

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posted by dq @ 10:39 AM