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War clouds over Mideast
Comment
Linda Heard
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin was re cently quoted as saying, “No
one can seriously think that Iran would dare attack the US. Instead
of pushing Iran into a corner, it would be far more sensible to
think together how to help Iran become more predictable and
transparent”. Finally, a voice of reason amid a cacophony of
belligerence!
Indeed, the way Iran is being treated by the so-called
“international community” a euphemism for nations hanging onto the
coattails of Uncle Sam, does little except provide fodder for
hard-liners and their incendiary rhetoric. As long as Iran is under
siege it will lock down rather than open up.
I’m reminded of the competition between the sun and the wind that
saw a man pulling his coat around him. Both boasted that they would
be the one to force the man to remove his coat. The wind whipped up
a gale but the man simply held on tightly to the garment. Then the
sun shone brightly and you know what happened next.
Iran is being demonized for a purpose. The deliberately orchestrated
hype and fear mongering obscures the reality. There is no evidence
that Iran is working toward the production of nuclear weapons as a
US National Intelligence Estimate clearly stated and far from
threatening its neighbors it is going out of its way to extend the
hand of friendship to all except Israel, which, by the way,
President Ahmadinejad did not advocate wiping off the map. His words
were mistranslated and the Western media shirked its duty to correct
the mistake.
The fact is Iran remains the last obstacle to America’s complete
domination of this region. If Washington could force Iran to do its
bidding its hegemonic ambitions in this part of the world including
control over its resources would be attained. This, my friends, is
the bottom line. This is why Iraq was invaded and occupied and this
is why Iran is being groomed to go the same way.
Weakening Iran is just another phase of the neoconservative New
Middle East itinerary, which has nothing to do with spreading
freedom and democracy and all to do with increasing US power and
that of its regional satellite Israel. If you look at it from the
American/Israeli perspective, a defanged Iran might translate into a
compliant Shiite population, and the eventual demise of Hezbollah
and Hamas due to a lack of funding and weapons.
But this truth isn’t palatable to most ordinary people and flies in
the face of international law. So, just as the US contrived to come
up with a pretext — or rather a series of pretexts — to invade Iraq,
it has had to find excuses to sanction Tehran, perhaps as a prelude
to military action.
Indeed, a military assault on Iran looks ever more likely. Now that
the nuclear weapons pretext has been shelved, US officials have
changed tack and are now accusing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard of
supplying Iraqi Shiite militias with weapons, cash and training with
which to attack US forces. They say Iran is using surrogates to wage
a de facto war on the US. Gen. David Petraeus and US Ambassador to
Iraq Ryan Crocker are expected to reinforce this message to Congress
today; not that President Bush requires approval from lawmakers to
launch strikes on Iran.
The Daily Telegraph has quoted “a Whitehall assessment” to the
effect “a strong statement” from Gen. Petraeus “about Iran’s
intervention in Iraq could set the stage for a US attack on Iranian
military facilities”. Indicators that there may be a looming
conflagration include the recent resignation of head of CENTCOM Adm.
William Fallon, who famously said “there will be no attack on Iran
on my watch”.
Then came the botched attack by the Iraqi military backed up by the
US on pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Basra, which defeated the
purpose of eradicating hostile entities by, instead, bringing them
together to expose the feebleness of the Iraqi Army whose members
deserted or switched sides in large numbers.
At the same time, Israel is engaged in a five-day homeland security
exercise that, according to Ha’aretz will “include a simulated
missile attack on civilian areas — some missiles with chemical
warheads”. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has urged his army
to remain alert, while Hezbollah believes the emergency drill is a
precursor to a new war.
The Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert is trying hard to allay Lebanese and
Syrian suspicions but when it comes to Iran he has made his position
clear. He says he is absolutely certain Iran is seeking nuclear
weapons and has called for a “concerted world action” to prevent it
from attaining such “nonconventional capacity”.
Another piece of the puzzle may be found in the presence of US
warships off the coast of Lebanon, while, according to reports, the
USS Abraham Lincoln strike force is heading for the Gulf along with
a US nuclear submarine. It’s also worth noting that Vice President
Dick Cheney and Defense Minister Robert Gates have recently been
touring the region and holding discussions with its leaders.
Countries here are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea on
this issue. Most moderate predominately Sunni states fear the
unencumbered rise of Iran that would empower Shiite populations and
result in a power play. But at the same time, they don’t want
another war on their doorstep in which they will be coerced to take
sides for when the dust settles Iran will still be their neighbor
and memories in this part of the world tend to be long. The mistrust
between Sunnis and Shiites engendered by the occupation of Iraq has
tragically fueled this divide, which plays right into the hands of
the US and Israel.
A visiting alien might wonder why Muslim nations sharing the same
turf and seas and with so much in common can’t get together
preferring instead to allow a foreign power to set their
neighborhood alight to further its geopolitical interests with
virtually no risk to itself. On second thoughts, one doesn’t have to
be an extraterrestrial to be shocked at the ridiculousness of that.
— Arab News
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