Iran

The hysteria being whipped up about Iran is stunning. I wonder whether mot Americans have spent any critical time thinking about what is really going on in the Middle East. Maureen Dowd, in the New York Times talks about the issues: ‘Fruitbat’ at Bat

The Bush regime wants to demonize Iran. That much is clear. We are told relentlessly that Iran is led by an evil government whose objectives are to support terrorism, de-stabilize the Middle East, and threaten Israel.

Let’s look at those claims:

Yes Iran seems to support local terrorists. They are clearly the source of weaponry for Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza. They also train and help some of the largest Shiite groups in Iraq. So, since America opposes the aims of those groups Iran is hostile to our policy. The problem is that American policy has helped create these exact groups. There would be no Iranian influence in Iraq if we hadn’t invaded the place and then given [yes Bush signed off on it!] the Interior Ministry job to an Iranian trained Shiite who immediately recruited his own, Iranian sympathizing, supporters to be the bulk of the Iraqi police. Duh! Guess we couldn’t have seen that one coming!

As for Hezbollah and Hamas: they are inextricably linked with the Palestinian versus Israeli issue. By being so completely and ardently anti-Arab America has aided in the growth of these two groups. We created the space for anybody hostile to our policies to gain credibility and support among the “Arab in the street”. the more we shout about Hamas or Hezbollah, the less credence we have with the Arab and Moslem population: we are simply seen as the poodle of Israel. Conversely anyone seen as helping what the locals see as “liberation” fighters gains instant credibility. For fifty years America has supported Israel blindly, and the cost is the enormous hatred of anything American in the Moslem world.

Lastly: the threat to Israel. This is an extension of the last argument. Except it now has a nuclear twist: the Americans are hysterical about the possibility of Iran getting a nuclear weapon. Draconian images are conjured up: that weapon may find its way to American shores in the hands of a terrorist.

Or not.

A cold look at the region suggests otherwise. Israel has a nuclear bomb. America worked to get Israel an exemption from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. So any self-respecting Moslem can see what American policy is: it’s fine and dandy for Israel to have the power to obliterate Iran, but it is an act of terrorism for Iran to want to defend itself by getting that same power. No wonder everyone over there hates us. That’s about as blatant pandering as you can get.

Thinks about it this way: if China had some missiles pointing at us here in New York, do you think we’d be screaming to get our own weapons to fight back? And what do you think we’d be thinking of someone who called us a rogue evil state for wanting to do that?

And another thing: the ridiculous, hysterical, and utterly biased outrage in the media over the trip to New York of the Iranian President is the best and loudest proclamation of American anti-Moslem bias. Yes he sounds like a very nasty person and he clearly an outrageous position on a ton of issues, but he is a head of state: he has the legal right to be here in New York because the United Nations is here. More to the point he has the right to go anywhere in a 25 mile radius of the UN building at will. So it is pathetic that some people say he should be allowed here. Through all the years of the Cold War America hosted Soviet presidents without any such hysteria. The Soviet’s open policy was to try to destroy America. Despite that diplomacy went on and civility was the order of the day. Contrast that with the treatment meted out this week to the Iranian president. And the difference between the two situations?

One word: Israel.

Its OK to entertain heads of state who want to obliterate America. It’s not OK to entertain those who want to obliterate Israel.

No wonder American policy is so off track in the Middle East. There’s just a little bias there and it has the nasty habit of stopping us getting a policy in place that works in American interests rather than in Israeli interests.

And just for those who need to ask: those two sets of interests are definitely not the same.