Iran hedged its bets and lost. By turning a blind eye to this week’s violent assault on the British embassy, which had the distinct odor of spin, the regime plowed right over the edge of an already teetering tipping point.
Outrage over the behavior of the international community and its endless war-drumming rhetoric and sanctions is understandable. Acting like a bull in a china shop is not. All things considered, both sides on this equation are behaving like spoiled children who exhibit no end to their temper tantrums because no one is getting their way. Russian and China are actually sounding like the only rational voices. Nevertheless, the problem is all these children masquerading as international leaders and diplomats have deadly means of coercion.
Let’s face it though, no one is innocent here. The Iranian government for its part is playing with fire while the U.S., Israel and the west keep stoking the ashes daring Iran to put it out. The bottom line here is that all of the above want Iran to end their nuclear program because they are terrified Iran is making weapons. To date there is excessive speculation, but nothing has been proven. Problem is this: it’s like the pot calling the kettle black.
The very countries calling on Iran to scrap their nuclear program are armed to the teeth with their own nuclear weapons. The United States, the United Kingdom, France and Israel are all nuclear powers. Germany, the Netherlands and the rest of the NATO countries are “sharers” of nukes kindly supplied to them by the US. Together they could destroy all of mankind ensuring that no life will exist on this planet for, lets say, the next several million millenniums.
In an effort to move toward a non-nuclear world, which is a no-brainer, most countries have signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), by which they all basically try to promote the use of nuclear materials for peaceful purposes while halting the proliferation of nuclear materials for weapons. Iran is a member of this treaty. Israel is not. In fact, the most vociferous instigator of pummeling Iran and sanctioning it until it shrivels is the one country that refuses to admit they have nuclear weapons of their own or sign the NPT. And, might I add, no one is talking about bombing them. Israel, India, and Pakistan, for that matter, all have nuclear weapons and don’t get sanctioned, but get just about all the military support they want from U.S. and the west. Talk about double standards.
No wonder Iran thinks turning their backs on a bunch of thugs climbing embassy walls and tearing up papers is OK. They and the whole world are confused as to who gets to do what, when and where. Apparently they just didn’t get the memo that a state’s freedom ironically depends on submissiveness, subservience, and, giving up sovereignty not fighting the west’s status quo.
Iran has been through this before. Britain wanted all its oil without sharing the proceeds. Like most people who get their resources stolen, they decided to end that zero sum deal. However, instead of saying — gee you’re right, we should pay you for your oil — Britain, with the help of the American CIA, decided to conduct a good old fashioned game of “regime change” overthrowing Iran’s one and only democratically elected leader. In came the Shah, followed by the Mullahs, and here we are sanctioning the crap out of a country we all helped create. We will never learn.
So now everyone is mad because Iran wants to be part of the worldwide international club of “do as I say, not as I do.”
Really, what’s the difference if Iran has British, French or German embassies in Tehran? They don’t seem to be making any difference in the grand scheme of things. The back and forth rhetoric hasn’t changed in decades. There is no progress in helping the Iranian regime see that they’re atrocious behavior must change. These diplomats haven’t been able to build better relations, find out anything about Iran’s nuclear program or help improve Western relations and move non-nuclear negotiations forward. Only Turkey and Brazil could do that and the Americans ignored them anyway.
And what if Iran has nuclear weapons, really? Does anyone really think they’ll use them before the rest of us? Personally, I’m more concerned about Pakistan, who has no leadership, and the fact that Israel and India get U.S. support in their nuclear ambitions without any accountability at all.
At this point, everyone should just calm down and take the marbles they haven’t already lost and go home. Until the world’s wayward diplomats realize that to get anything done, one has to compromise, be consistent and at least try to be fair, nothing is ever going to change. Putting a nuclear free zone across the region would have been a brilliant start, but, of course, no one wants to give up their precious, and extraordinarily lethal, toys. They just don’t want anyone else to have them.
Since that is really the case, I suggest we all get used to a nuclear world that, like it or not and due to all the stubbornness, will include Iran. As the world turns, I’m sure this will all lead to another endless and senseless war, which I’ll remind you — none of the “deciders” will be the ones to fight.
First published in HuffingtonPost.com.
AUTHOR
Patricia DeGennaro is an adjunct professor at New York University’s Department of Politics and a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York. Her projects focus on improving civil-military cooperation and a developing a comprehensive US foreign policy.
