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Stuck in Bush
30-Oct-2009
While the tone of the Obama administration is different from that of its predecessor, and some of its foreign policies diverge from those of George W. Bush, at their core both administrations subscribe to the same doctrine: Whatever the White House perceives as a threat -- whether it be Iran, North Korea, or the proliferation of long-range missiles -- must be viewed as such by Moscow and Beijing.
In addition, by the evidence available, Barack Obama has not drawn the right conclusion from his predecessor's failed Iran policy. A paradigm of sticks-and-carrots simply is not going to work in the case of the Islamic Republic. Here, a lesson is readily available, if only the Obama White House were willing to consider Iran's recent history. It is unrealistic to expect that a regime which fought Saddam Hussein's Iraq (then backed by the United States) to a standstill in a bloody eight-year war in the 1980s, unaided by any foreign power, and has for 30 years withstood the consequences of U.S.-imposed economic sanctions will be alarmed by Washington's fresh threats of "crippling sanctions."
Most important, the Obama administration is ignoring the altered international order that has emerged in the wake of the global financial crisis triggered by Wall Street's excesses. While its stimulus package, funded by taxpayers and foreign borrowing, has arrested the decline in the nation's gross domestic product, Washington has done little to pull the world economy out of the doldrums. That task -- performed by the U.S. in recent recessions -- has fallen willy-nilly to China. History repeatedly shows that such economic clout sooner or later translates into diplomatic power.
Backed by more than $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, the state-owned Chinese oil corporations have been locking up hydrocarbon resources as far away as Brazil. Not surprisingly, Iran, with the second largest oil as well as gas reserves in the world, looms large in the strategic plans of Beijing. The Chinese want to import Iran's petroleum and natural gas through pipelines across Central Asia, thus circumventing sea routes vulnerable to U.S. naval interdiction. As this is an integral part of China's energy security policy, little wonder that Chinese oil companies have committed an estimated $120 billion dollars -- so far -- to Iran's energy industry.
During a recent meeting with Iran's first vice president, Muhammad Reza Rahimi, in Beijing, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao stressed the importance of cooperation between the two countries when it comes to hydrocarbons and trade (at $29 billion a year, and rising), as well as "greater coordination in international affairs." Little wonder, then, that China has already moved to neutralize any sanctions that the United States -- backed by Britain, France and Germany -- might impose on Iran without United Nations authorization.
Foremost among these would be a ban on the export of gasoline to Iran, whose oil refining capacity falls significantly short of domestic demand. Chinese oil corporations have already started shipping gasoline to Iran to fill the gap caused by a stoppage of supplies from British and Indian companies anticipating Washington's possible move. Between June and August 2009, China signed $8 billion worth of contracts with Iran to help expand two existing Iranian oil refineries to produce more gasoline domestically and to help develop the gigantic South Pars natural gas field. Iran's national oil corporation has also invited its Chinese counterparts to participate in a $42.8 billion project to construct seven oil refineries and a 1,000 mile trans-Iran pipeline that will facilitate pumping petroleum to China.
Tehran and Moscow
When it comes to Russia, Tehran and Moscow have a long history of close relations, going back to Tsarist times. During that period and the subsequent Soviet era, the two states shared the inland Caspian Sea. Now, as two of the five littoral states of the Caspian, Iran and Russia still share a common fluvial border.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, relations between the Islamic Republic and Russia warmed. Defying pressures from both the Clinton and Bush administrations, Russia's state-owned nuclear power company continued building a civilian nuclear power plant near the Iranian port city of Bushehr. It is scheduled to begin generating electricity next year.
As for nuclear threats, the Kremlin's perspective varies from Washington's. It is far more concerned with the actual threat posed by some of Pakistan's estimated 75 nuclear weapons falling into militant Islamist hands than with the theoretical one from Tehran. Significantly, it was during his recent trip to Beijing to conclude ambitious hydrocarbon agreements with China that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, "If we speak about some kind of sanctions [on Iran] now, before we take concrete steps, we will fail to create favorable conditions for negotiations. That is why we consider such talk premature."
The negotiations that Putin mentioned are now ongoing between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the U.S., Britain, China, France, and Russia) as well as Germany. According to Western sources, the agenda of the talks is initially to center on a "freeze for freeze" agreement. Iran would suspend its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for the U.N. Security Council not strengthening its present nominal economic sanctions. If these reports are accurate, then the chances of a major breakthrough may be slim indeed.
At the heart of this issue lies Iran's potential ability to enrich uranium to a level usable as fuel for a nuclear weapon. This, in turn, is linked to the way Iran's leaders view national security. As a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran is, in fact, entitled to enrich uranium. The key point is the degree of enrichment: 5% enriched uranium for use as fuel in an electricity generating plant (called low enriched uranium, LEU); 20% enriched for use as feedstock for producing medical isotopes (categorized as medium enriched uranium, MEU); and 90%-plus for bomb-grade fuel (known as high enriched uranium, HEU).
So far, what Iran has produced at its Natanz nuclear plant is LEU. At the Iran-Six Powers meeting in Geneva on October 1st, Iran agreed in principle to send three-quarters of its present stock of 1,600 kilograms (3,500 pounds) of LEU to Russia to be enriched into MEU and shipped back to its existing Tehran Research Reactor to produce medical isotopes. If this agreement is fleshed out and finalized by all the parties under the aegis of the International Atomic Energy Agency, then the proportion of Iran's LEU with a potential of being turned into HEU would diminish dramatically.
When it comes to the nuclear conundrum, what distinguishes China and Russia from the U.S. is that they have conferred unconditional diplomatic recognition and acceptance on the Islamic Republic of Iran. So their commercial and diplomatic links with Tehran are thriving. Indeed, a sub-structure of pipelines and economic alliances between hydrocarbon-rich Russia, Iran, and energy-hungry China is now being forged. In other words, the foundation is being laid for the emergence of a Russia-Iran-China diplomatic triad in the not-too-distant future, while Washington remains stuck in an old groove of imposing "punishing" sanctions against Tehran for its nuclear program.
Tehran and Washington
There is, of course, a deep and painful legacy of animosity and ill-feeling between the 30-year-old Islamic Republic of Iran and the U.S. Iran was an early victim of Washington's subversive activities when the six-year-old CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Muhammad Mussadiq in 1953. That scar on Iran's body politic has not healed yet. Half a century later, the Iranians watched the Bush administration invade neighboring Iraq and overthrow its president, Saddam Hussein, on trumped-up charges involving his supposed program to produce weapons of mass destruction.
Iran's leaders know that during his second term in office -- as Seymour Hersh revealed in the New Yorker -- Bush authorized a clandestine CIA program with a budget of $400 million to destabilize the Iranian regime. They are also aware that the CIA has focused on stoking disaffection among Sunni ethnic minorities in Shiite-ruled Iran. These include ethnic Arabs in the oil-rich province of Khuzistan adjoining Iraq, and ethnic Baluchis in Sistan-Baluchistan Province abutting the Pakistani province of Baluchistan.
Little wonder that Tehran pointed an accusing finger at the U.S. for the recent assassination of six commanders of its Revolutionary Guard Corps in Sistan-Baluchistan by two suicide bombers belonging to Jundallah (the Army of Allah), an extremist Sunni organization. As yet, there is no sign, overt or covert, that President Obama has canceled or repudiated his predecessor's program to destabilize the Iranian regime.
Insecure regimes seek security in nuclear arms. History shows that joining the nuclear club has, in fact, proven an effective strategy for survival. Israel and North Korea provide striking examples of this.
Unsure of Western military assistance in a conventional war with Arab nations, and of its ability to maintain its traditional armed superiority over its Arab adversaries, Israel's leaders embarked on a nuclear weapons program in the mid-1950s. They succeeded in their project a decade later. Since then Israel has acquired an arsenal of 80 to 200 nuclear weapons.
In the North Korean case, once the country had tested its first atomic bomb in October 2006, the Bush administration softened its stance towards it. In the bargaining that followed, North Korea got its name removed from the State Department's list of nations that support international terrorism. In the on-again-off-again bilateral negotiations that followed, the Pyongyang regime as an official nuclear state has been seeking a guarantee against attack or subversion by the United States.
Without saying so publicly, Iran's leaders want a similar guarantee from the U.S. Conversely, unless Washington ends its clandestine program to destabilize the Iranian state, and caps it with an offer of diplomatic acceptance and normal relations, there is no prospect of Tehran abandoning its right to enrich uranium. On the other hand, the continuation of a policy of destabilization, coupled with ongoing threats of "crippling" sanctions and military strikes (whether by the Pentagon or Israel), can only drive the Iranians toward a nuclear breakout capability.
During George W. Bush's eight-year presidency, the U.S. position in the world underwent a sea change. From the Clinton administration, Bush had inherited a legacy of 92 months of continuous economic prosperity, a budget in surplus, and the transformation of the U.N. Security Council into a handmaiden of the State Department. What he passed on to Barack Obama was the Great Recession in a world where America's popularity had hit rock bottom and its economic strength was visibly ebbing. All this paved the way for the economic and political rise of China, as well as the strengthening of Russia as an energy giant capable of extending its influence in Europe and challenging American dominance in the Middle East.
In this new environment expecting the leaders of Iran, backed by China and Russia, to do the bidding of Washington means placing a bet on the inconceivable.
AUTHOR
Dilip Hiro is the author of Blood of the Earth: The Battle for the World's Vanishing Oil Resources (Nation Books), among other works. His forthcoming book, After Empire: The Birth of a Multipolar World, will be published in January 2010, also by Nation Books. First published in tomdispatch.com.
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ex-programmer: Yes. You're
by vildemose on Fri Nov 06, 2009 05:23 PM PSTex-programmer: Yes. You're right. the early reports were wrong. He is also not dead but in a coma.
vildemose
by ex programmer craig on Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:37 AM PST...another Nidal Hassan with PTSD who will sanp one of these days.
He doesn't have PTSD! He was never even deployed overseas! You don't get PTSD from working as a psychiatrist in Washinton DC! Just wanted to point that out. This guy doesn't have PTSD any more than Charles Manson had PTSD. What I want to know is how he spent so many years working around other military mental health professionals, and nobody noticed there was something seriously wrong with the guy.
Q your clock is ticking... and sooner than you think
by Ali9 Akbar on Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:10 AM PSTHouse Hezbollahi
by Nousha Arzu on Thu Nov 05, 2009 09:18 PM PSTwrites, "Thank You for demonstrating an excellent reason why you are constantly rejected by the Iranian people."
You Hezbos are the most shameless hypocrites. From the look of protests in Iran over the last 5 months, it sure likes like the Iranian people are rejecting you and your despicable Hezbollahi ilk.
It is further despicable that you sit in the lap of freedom and democracy and you wax adoringly about the barbaric and terroristic regime of the IRI. If the IRI is so good, why do you live in the US, Hezbollahi? Why don't you go back to your beloved Islamic Republic? Why are you here, Hezbollahi, if the IRI is such a wonderful entity?
Hypocrite! You're the "lesser lifeform," as that is the technical definition of a Hezbollahi. It's your ilk that tortures, murders and rapes innocent people. You're the animals who takes pleasure in torturing innocent people. People like you are the most despicable creatures on Earth. Good thing is that you're patently unintelligent and utterly predictable (as your comments amply illustrate) and you're approaching your final days destroying Iran.
Where will your family go once we remove your parasitic ilk from power? Venezuela?
LONG LIVE THE GLORY OF KUROSH
LOL~ the frustration is hillarious
by Q on Thu Nov 05, 2009 07:09 AM PSTNousha and Ali Akbar, even though I make it a point to not explain myself to any lesser lifeforms, I feel obliged to laugh at you two. It must be frustrating not having any logic and evidence in your "arguments" but instead attacking the character and where that character lives in sheer desperation!
Thank You for demonstrating an excellent reason why you are constantly rejected by the Iranian people and why no one will give you any power anymore.
Suffice to say, I am here (in the US) and there's nothing you can do about it!
cheers!
And Q
by Nousha Arzu on Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:49 AM PSTSeriously, WHY do you live in California? Why don't hypocrites like you who defend the despicable rapist IRI at every turn LIVE in Iran??????????
You live in the US and you bash this country at every turn and defend the rapist regime in EVERY one of your posts, if not directly, in an underhanded way -- EVERY TIME!!!!!!!!
Sickening with the stench of deceit and hypocracy.
LONG LIVE THE GLORY OF KUROSH
Hey Q....
by Ali Akbar on Wed Nov 04, 2009 08:41 AM PSTIf you're SO IN LOVE with your Hezbollali friend ....
I'll be more than happy to purchase YOU a ONE WAY TICKET TO TEHRAN out of the USA ....
Always remember If you hate the USA so much
DELTA IS READY WHEN YOU ARE!!!....
//www.delta.com/
"iranian dot com should start selling tranqulizers and prozac"
by Mola Nasredeen on Tue Nov 03, 2009 04:11 PM PSTSaid Hazrate shotor.
"Why Hajagha?" I asked him.
"Some of these people need medical/psychological attention and prescription drugs to calm them down, this last Missy in one of them" Said he reading the latest results of Camel Races on iranian dot com.
Wow, that was fast
by Q on Tue Nov 03, 2009 08:53 AM PSTusually, it takes a while before the racist core comes out. With nousha, there's no hiding what this is really about.
At this point in time, your Arabized/Azaris ruling Iran have been in power for 30 years
I live in California, but fossilized Iranians are the same everywhere, NY included. I do always pack my sandals, thanks for asking.
My dear Q
by Nousha Arzu on Tue Nov 03, 2009 02:52 AM PSTJust remember, old sport, the late Shah was in power for 37 years also. At this point in time, your Arabized/Azaris ruling Iran have been in power for 30 years, so they've got nothing on His Majesty in terms of duration (and not to forget is that our turbaned terrorists won the SUPER LOTTO when the Soviet Union collapsed).
Just imagine if the Shah never had to worry about the Soviet menace on our northern borders?
In year 35 of the Shah's rule, no one expected his regime to collapse so percipitously. So, you and your Hezbo free-loaders can dream of another 30 years in power, but the end always comes knocking, and sometimes, it comes knocking with a great sense of surprise ;-)
So, just to be safe, pack an emergency suitcase with shaving utensiles and western clothing so that you can melt into the crowd and not leave a trace when you're forced into exhile. By the way, I rather live in "California" (which I don't, I live in New York), than live in the Hezbo sewer that is your domicile, as in Qom.
Hopefully, and I pray wholeheartedly every night, that one fine glorious morning, Qom will have a wake-up call in the order of Bam. But not to worry, old sport. By then, I'm sure you'll be in Amsterdam or Londonistan enjoying your new life.
Don't forget to pack your sandals, darling! ;-)
LONG LIVE THE GLORY OF KUROSH
nousha: I'm not kidding, you ARE a joke
by Q on Tue Nov 03, 2009 12:06 AM PSTnousha, now I'm laughing out loud!
Nousha, you are a joke, literally going CROSSEYED with hate, a walking cliche of non-factual emotional based bullshit promoted by the fossilized so-called "opposition" for 30 years and cheerled by American/Israeli warmongers, interested in overthrowing the IRI only for their own geostrategic purposes.
The reason I'm laughing is because this line of BS hasn't resulted in anything for 30 years, and the only genuine opposition with true people power remains the one started by the Iranian reform movement, not the blowhard "summer tourists" from California.
Sure, go head and continue the "Iran=Nazi Germany" line, see how far you are in another 30 years. Good luck and thanks for the entertainment!
"To All who are blinded by hatred and anger and can't see clear
by Mola Nasredeen on Mon Nov 02, 2009 10:43 AM PSTly anymore: Sorry, Bush is not the president anymore and President Obama will not attack Iran. Deal with it."
Said Hazrate shotor.
nousha jaan
by shushtari on Mon Nov 02, 2009 08:52 AM PSTagain, thanks for reading my mind!!!!! again, you have so eloquently spoken the truth....
the fat mullahs, who import prostitutes from amsterdam, need a one way ticket to hell....that's our salvation
can't wait for the day of reckoning, when the souls of all those innocent lives will be avenged
javid iran
and again, great job!
Nousha-Arezu: Please make
by vildemose on Mon Nov 02, 2009 07:18 AM PSTNousha-Arezu: Please make your comment to our resident Hizballhi into a blog. I love your vernacular, much more effective in delivering the message.
Thanks again for defending Iran.
AMIR1973
by ex programmer craig on Sun Nov 01, 2009 11:57 PM PSTYou say" "Isn't it amazing how willing people who hate the US so much..." This is the same crap...
That physician in Mosul is a baathist and a Saddam supporter, who made that post about Iranians being responsible while Saddam was ON TRIAL for gassing the Kurds. Which part of that are you not understanding?
Are you kidding me?
by Nousha Arzu on Sat Nov 07, 2009 02:57 AM PSTVildermose -- Thank you very much, I only stated the sad facts.
Craig -- Keep up the good work!
Q: You write: "It's all about showing hatred for the IRI, not what's good for Iran's national rights."
Are you seriously joking? Do you blame me/us for hating the IRI, the very regime that has murdered hundreds of thousands, tortured, raped and stolen so much from us for so long?
Are you kidding me?
The IRI, if you've been locked up in a cave for the last 30 years, is the greatest ENEMY of Iran -- perhaps its greatest enemy EVER, and we've had 'em all (Afghans, Russians, British, Arabs, Mongols, Macedonians, etc.).
The government of Somalia cares more about Iran than the IRI! Zimbabwe has Iran's interest more at heart than the IRI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The IRI is a sadistic, perverted, cash-crazy beast, a gangstership, a MAFIA, a cabal of savages, perverts, rapists and terrorists!!!!!!!
The morally depraved mullahs don't even really care about their beloved Palestinians, whose cause is a tried and true favorite "crisis," one that keeps on giving like a gift from Allah himself, one that can rally their entirely pathetic base when there's nothing else to rally around.
The truth is that the mullahs are in business only for themselves. Our motherland is a "sigheh" (a prostitute) for these turbaned parasites, whose assets they will use and abuse, as in a massive sea of liquid cash, as in black gold, as in oil, until she's dried-up and broken, a shell of her former self.
Are you kidding me???
When has the IRI ever done ANYTHING in Iran's national interest, Iran being the operative world here????? Everything that the IRI has ever done has been for the benefit of the gangsters operating this freak show! If they cared about Iranians, they wouldn't give 10-year-old children keys to Heavan and then send them to the front lines of that bullshit war to walk over mines, so that their insides can get blown to pieces so that some fat, lazy, dirty whore of a mullah in sandles can live a decadent life in Tehran!
Are you kidding me?
Our HOMEGROWN terrorists, the monstrosity that is the IRI, are far more dangerous to Iran, more of a threat to our lives, destiny, and future than any foreign threat, including America and Israel!
Our HOMEGROWN Mafiosos are literally playing with our lives with this nuclear roulette. They can be just as rulthless (Neda, Sohrab and thousands more), if not more lethal than any American or Israeli bombs! Why shouldn't we UBER HATE this barbaric, sadistic, rapist regime????
Are you kidding me???
This barbaric regime massacred over 25,000 political prisoners just in the Summer of 1988 alone!!! They've executed journalists and intellectuals for 30 years! They've tortured innocents, including Zahra Kazami to death, and there are thousands of annonymous Zahra Kazamis in the dark and blasphemous history of the IRI.
Are you kidding me???
Do you blame us for all this blind hatred??? The perverted jackals that rule the Iranian nation couldn't give 2 shits about its welfare and its true national interests (need I mention Iran has the highest per capita of heroin addicts in the world, hundreds of thousands of prostitutes in Tehran alone, a huge percentage of which are married women, obscene inflation, corruption, massive unemployment, etc. Everything that the IRI does -- INCLUDING THE NUCLEAR PROGRAM -- is financed for the benefit of the regime!!!
Case in point: the people of Iran don't need nuclear weapons! They need jobs and hope, as opposed to dope! The mullahs need nuclear weapons so that they can preserve their unholy survival. In every meaningful way, the interests of the people of Iran is diametrically opposed to the interests of the Mullah Mafia ruling Iran.
This nuclear program is not about our national pride, it's not about technological advancement, it's not even about nuclear energy -- this is the biggest scam ever pulled in the history of Iran, and we've been scammed like no other!
We're spending billions upon billions of dollars on a nuclear program that will ONLY benefit the Mafia gangsters ruling Iran and they shamelessly sell it as a cause for patriotism (much like the bullshit, unnecessarily prolonged Iraq war), for the simple reason that nuclear weapons gives the perverts in sandals (mullahs) their Hezbollahi Holy Grail...a life insurance policy, a deterence against any force trying to destory them!
I've said it before and I'll say it again... the GREATEST and most perverse enemy of Iran is the IRI, and this hezbo foot solider has the temerity to knock me for "blindly" hating my country's GREATEST ENEMY!!!
Are you that obtuse or just porroo?
LONG LIVE THE GLORY OF KUROSH
Craig
by AMIR1973 on Sun Nov 01, 2009 07:30 PM PSTProblems with wikipedia
by ex programmer craig on Sun Nov 01, 2009 05:35 PM PSTpartly to blame.[8]
of being partly responsible for the attack.[8]
Both times that wikipedia article says the US pointed the finger at Iran, they say "partly". What exactly does "partly" mean? This is an accuastion of using WMD... how is somebody "partly" responsible for using WMD? Well, I guess we need to find that out, right? And luckily wikepedia refers us to footnote #8. Both times. Which means there is a single source for the claim, right? And what is that? #8?
//www.nytimes.com/2003/01/17/opinion/17iht-ed...
A New York Times op-ed! Well, isn't that special?
Go with the official transcripts, dude! Congress was out to get the Reagan Administration by the late 1980s, and I promise you they weren't white washing anything!
AMIR1973
by ex programmer craig on Sun Nov 01, 2009 05:23 PM PSTYes, that's the same supposed evidence that Dr Truth Teller used to "prove" that Iran not only gassed the Kurds, but accidentally gassed themselves! I spent about 2 days copy-pasting transcripts of actual US late-1980s congressional hearings into his comment section in rebuttal, but he didn't want to hear it! Isn't it amazing how willing people who hate the US so much are willing to latch onto even the most sketchy of US-supplied evidence when it coincides with something they want to believe is true?
He closed his comments for a year after that... and it seems he has gone back and removed that blog post now.
By the way, if you want to dig into this yourself I suggest you look for the congressional transcripts on the internet (they are available) and not use wikipedia.
U.S. government blamed Halabja attack on Iran
by AMIR1973 on Sun Nov 01, 2009 05:08 PM PSTAn investigation into responsibility for the Halabja massacre, by Dr Jean Pascal Zanders, Project Leader of the Chemical and Biological Warfare Project at theStockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) concluded in 2007 that Iraq was the culprit, and not Iran. The U.S. State Department, however, in the immediate aftermath of the incident, took the official position based on examination of available evidence that Iran was partly to blame.[8]
A preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) study at the time reported that it was Iran that was responsible for the attack, an assessment which was used subsequently by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for much of the early 1990s. The CIA's senior political analyst for the Iran-Iraq war, Stephen C. Pelletiere, co-authored an unclassified analysis of the war[21] which contained a brief summary of the DIA study's key points. The CIA altered its position radically in the late 1990s and cited Halabja frequently in its evidence of weapons of mass destructions (WMD) before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Pelletiere claimed that a fact that has not been successfully challenged is that Iraq was not known to have possessed the cyanide-based blood agents determined to have been responsible for the condition of the bodies that were examined[22] and that blue discolorations around the mouths of the victims and in their extremities[23] pointed to Iranian-used gas as the culprit. Some opponents to the Iraq sanctions have cited the DIA report to support their position that Iraq was not responsible for the Halabja attack.
Joost Hiltermann, who was the principal researcher for the Human Rights Watch between 1992-1994, conducted a two-year study of the massacre, including a field investigation in northern Iraq. According to his analysis of thousands of captured Iraqi secret police documents and declassified U.S. government documents, as well as interviews with scores of Kurdish survivors, senior Iraqi defectors and retired U.S. intelligence officers, it is clear that Iraq carried out the attack on Halabja, and that the United States, fully aware of this, accused Iran, Iraq's enemy in a fierce war, of being partly responsible for the attack.[8] This research concluded there were numerous other gas attacks, unquestionably perpetrated against the Kurds by the Iraqi armed forces. According to Hiltermann, the literature on the Iran-Iraq war reflects a number of allegations of chemical weapons use by Iran, but these are "marred by a lack of specificity as to time and place, and the failure to provide any sort of evidence". Hiltermann called these allegations "mere assertions" and added that "no persuasive evidence of the claim that Iran was the primary culprit was ever presented."
Q
by ex programmer craig on Sun Nov 01, 2009 12:44 PM PSTQ, I'm editting this reply because I read your comment again and realized you didn't actually bring anything to the fight. You just editorialized your opinions overtop of your quotes.
If you want to continue this discussion I suggest you take it up with somebody who lives on the other side of the parallel universe from you:
//moslawi.blogspot.com/
That's the blog of a physician who lives in Mosul. A couple of years ago he made a post in which he accused Iranians of gassing themselves, and he used sources like yours to prove it. I'm sure you and he can have some quite lively discussions. If you don't read Arabic, his English is quite good. Though he gets pretty abusive when people disagree with him. But that should be no problem for you.
PS: Doctor Truth Teller felt that some US congressional hearings proved Iranians gassed themselves! I hope you can find that post... it was quite entertaining.
Question for Craig
by Q on Sun Nov 01, 2009 12:43 PM PSTisn't it stupid to always put your foot so deep in your mouth?
The amount of aid Saddam recieved from the US was neglible. The most valuable assitance the US provided Saddam was intel, mostly satellite monitoring and electronic surveillance provided by the US Navy. And that was towards the end of the war
Read and LEARN:
Prolonging the war was phenomenally expensive. Iraq received massive external financial support from the Gulf states, and assistance through loan programs from the U.S. The White House and State Department pressured the Export-Import Bank to provide Iraq with financing, to enhance its credit standing and enable it to obtain loans from other international financial institutions. The U.S. Agriculture Department provided taxpayer-guaranteed loans for purchases of American commodities, to the satisfaction of U.S. grain exporters.
The U.S. restored formal relations with Iraq in November 1984, but the U.S. had begun, several years earlier, to provide it with intelligence and military support (in secret and contrary to this country's official neutrality) in accordance with policy directives from President Ronald Reagan. These were prepared pursuant to his March 1982 National Security Study Memorandum (NSSM 4-82) asking for a review of U.S. policy toward the Middle East.
//www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/
Western (and US) companies involvedin selling Iraq equipment, including chemical weapons ingredients:
//www.laweekly.com/2003-03-27/news/made-in-th...
//www.laweekly.com/2003-03-27/news/made-in-th...
How many times do we have to do this Craig? Why do you always lies so blatantly that any child oould debunk your BS within seconds? Aren't you getting tired of speaking before you think?
Nousha: you make me laugh. YOU are the one who brought up "Zionist pigs" as anyone with a brain can check. But just like a seasoned propagandist you lie through your teeth. the substance of your argument is laughable, and your personal accusations only show your own ignorance.
The lame tired propaganda piece that "Iran prolonged the war" has been debunked many times. It was official US policy to drain both sides. US blocked numerous UN resolutions that could have lead to peace. US blocked UN designation of Iraq as the "aggressor" which would legally be required to enforce any kind of FANTASY Arab raparitions. I don't understand why otherwise smart Iranians pretend like taking the Propaganda words of the US allies in the region (Arab countries) was supposed to be worth the toilet paper it was printed on.
Actually I do know the answer. The answer is to blame IRI for everything, and to stop thinking. People like this don't care about Iranians. It's all about showing hatred for the IRI, not what's good for Iran's national rights.
If the US left Afghanistan
by vildemose on Sun Nov 01, 2009 09:04 AM PSTIf the US left Afghanistan and Iraq, the organic balance of power will restore itself and will take care of the Isalmist Republic of Rapists and their hezbollahi stooges.
I think Obama is finally ready to leave Afghanistan and Iraq.
Why else would
by vildemose on Sun Nov 01, 2009 09:01 AM PSTWhy else would they continue fighting Iraq, who was as Hezbollahi Q says, aided by all the world powers (including the 2 super-powers) unless they were hellbent on destroying Iranian society from within?
The mullahs had no dellusions of victory. They just wanted to murder and extinguish an entire generation so that they could rule Iran, unfettered by any homegrown threats.
And they very successfully accomplished this goal, as they rejected every peace offer by the Arab countries helping Saddam. As Mr. Hiro knows very well, Saudi Arabia in 1982 was going to give Iran $80 billion dollars in war reparations so long as Iran agreed to a cease fire (and this is when all Iraqi soliders had been expelled from Iranian soil), but the mad mulllah Khomeini rejected the offer and claimed that Iran would not stop fighting untill it captured Karbala. And Khoramshahr still remains in ruins! From 1982-1988, some 600,000 Iranians were killed in that screwed-up mullah war UNNECESSARILY!!!
This is the best and most commonsensical analysis I have ever read regarding the intentional massacre of Iranian kid soldiers by the vampiric Khomeinist and Hizbollahis.
Thank you. These words should be inscribed in stone.
Jondoalla has not denied having contact with Americans
by Mola Nasredeen on Sun Nov 01, 2009 08:16 AM PSTAdd Saudi's ruling class money and influence + American arms and that's all it takes to start terrorist attacks on military or civilian targets. It's a pattern being repeated all over Middle East. Divide and rule is the name of the game.
Hiro writes: "They (the
by DM on Sun Nov 01, 2009 06:16 AM PSTHiro writes: "They (the IRI) are also aware that the CIA has focused on stoking disaffection among Sunni ethnic minorities in Shiite-ruled Iran."
This is an oft-repeated rumor, and maybe is actually true, but no evidence has ever been presented by the IRI or anyone else to support it. If Hiro has such evidence, he should present it. If not, he should refrain from presenting speculation as fact.
interesting article and debate
by Niloufar Parsi on Sun Nov 01, 2009 06:11 AM PSTobama's strategy remains unclear to most observers, and this is a deliberate part of any carrot and stick approach. the problem is the carrot and stick approach.
for as long as the US administration is conceited enough to demand concessions in return for incentives on issues that it has no right to interfere with - such as iran's right to nuclear power - the relationship cannot get any better. US' dilemma is that it has talked itself into such a compromising situation right in front of the whole world. making the wrong demands, trying to come out of the mess looking like a 'winner', while at the same time falling down the global rankings of nations on so many fronts, is an unenviable position.
on top of it all, obama is severely hampered by a major handicap in the shape of hillary clinton who is probably busy undermining his strategy deliberately. a secretary of state who has gone on record threatening iran with annihilation is not going to take any chance of iranian success in negotiations lightly.
as for the cold war issues, let's not forget that no matter what games the US and Russia played, iran had set her own agenda with the revolution (with the slogan 'neither eastern nor western'), and would play all sides off against each other - including in the purchase of weapons from any side that would sell during the war with iraq - and build strategic alliances across the region and globally. she continues to do the same today, and has successfully out-manoeuvred her rivals whose sticks are stuck in their own throats where their carrots should be.
obama desperately needs iran's support to get the US out of its quagmire in afghanistan and iraq. the US is broke but she can't bring herself to admit military and diplomatic defeat in the region. on present course, her exit from the region is most likely to be vietnam style. does obama have the wisdom to try and avoid this? probably. but he faces enormous internal obstacles.
as for those of us who pray for a regime change in iran, i am still convinced that the most likely and effective path for this will be through détente with her rivals.
peace
I don't believe President Obama is stuck in Bush
by Mola Nasredeen on Sat Oct 31, 2009 10:26 PM PDTHe's been in office less than 10 months while it took the Village Idiot from Texas 8 years to mislead us to the realm of political and economical bankruptcy.
Obama is not going to continue on that same path. But a push from the base of democratic party is needed. He will not contiue the insane strategy of Bush Administration who were pushing 3 wars and threatening to start a new war with Iran. He must be given the chance to make changes in his dealings with Iran. His role is as of a ringmaster in charge of the political ruling class of America among whom many are indeed stuck in Bush.
Craig,
by Nousha Arzu on Sat Oct 31, 2009 05:54 PM PDTwrites: "Because, sereiously Q... how stupid do you have to be to fight a country that is backed by both of the world's super-powers?"
But here's the thing, Craig: the treasonous, rapist regime in Iran UNNECESSARILY continued that unholy war so as to feed young Iranians into the meat grinder of war so as to liquidate their enemies at home and silence all forms of dissent in the name of patriotism.
At the very beginning of the revolution, this morally bankrupt regime was ery easy prey to be overthrown, they were on very shaky ground. And the war with Iraq was a gift, as was the earlier hostage crisis. They used these two events to solidify their base and liquidate the opposition. Why else would they continue fighting Iraq, who was as Hezbollahi Q says, aided by all the world powers (including the 2 super-powers) unless they were hellbent on destroying Iranian society from within?
The mullahs had no dellusions of victory. They just wanted to murder and extinguish an entire generation so that they could rule Iran, unfettered by any homegrown threats.
And they very successfully accomplished this goal, as they rejected every peace offer by the Arab countries helping Saddam. As Mr. Hiro knows very well, Saudi Arabia in 1982 was going to give Iran $80 billion dollars in war reparations so long as Iran agreed to a cease fire (and this is when all Iraqi soliders had been expelled from Iranian soil), but the mad mulllah Khomeini rejected the offer and claimed that Iran would not stop fighting untill it captured Karbala. And Khoramshahr still remains in ruins! From 1982-1988, some 600,000 Iranians were killed in that screwed-up mullah war UNNECESSARILY!!!
This regime is categorically and patently ANTI-Iran, and ANTI-Iranian. They have killed more Iranians than the Mongols and Arabs put together in two successive invasions! The mullahs are the most ruthless and depraved occupiers of Iran since Ghengiz Khan, by a wide margin! And their supporters, like Hezbollahi Q, are accessories to massive crimes against humanity. But of course, as mullah Khomeini once said, "Iran can go up in smoke, so long as Islam survives."
God save Iran from these monsters!
LONG LIVE THE GLORY OF KUROSH
Q
by Nousha Arzu on Sun Nov 01, 2009 02:56 AM PSTWhy do you Hezbollahi foot soliders always inject the Israeli-Palestinian issue into every discussion about the IRI and Iran? I couldn't care less about the Israelis! In fact, Israel can go to hell as far as I care -- and they can take your downtrodden Palestianians with them! All I said was that Mr. Hiro's statement that Iran was "unaided by foreign powers" during the Iran-Iraq war was patently untrue!
And it burns your hezbollahi rear, Q, that your so-called anti-zionist Islamic masters in Tehran were significantly aided by those zionist pigs in Israel that you just love to hate! I'm just stating the facts, darling -- but you're the one who's trying to assasinate my character as an "Israeli-propangdist."
Mr. Hiro's statement is blatantly untrue (and he knows it) and so do you. But of course, just like any other Hezbollahi agent, you try to defame me, and then, inject the Palestinian/Israeli issue.
To hell with Israel, and to hell with your turbaned masters in Tehran, and to hell with your Palestianians! My own homeland is burning to ashes (and has been for 30 years), I sure as hell ain't gonna try to salvage my neighbor's home before I save my own!
God save Iran!
And God bless America!
LONG LIVE THE GLORY OF KUROSH