High on Hate?

By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich & Nader Bagherzadeh
Information Clearing House
Jun. 14, 2007

While the poppy fields in Afghanistan are thriving in supplying the demands of millions, this White House and their neo-cons accomplices are cultivating their own fix - hate. But in order for them to get their high, their hate must be transferred into people's fear – A fear they plan to turn into another bloodbath. Pushing forward with their latest warmongering idea that Iran is planning to extend the reach of its Shahab 3 missiles from 1200 to more than 2500 kilometers in order to reach Rome, the media beats the war drums, hoping the fearful sound will drown out reason and logic.

This White House and its foreign policy architects, Dick Cheney and National Security Council (NSC) boss Stephen Hadley accuse Iran of planning to extend its strike ability to one of the major countries that has billions of dollars of commerce with it, Italy. Not only are the Italians involved in oil exploration in defiance of US sanctions, but they also sell Iran high tech equipment and technology[i]. What makes these groundless accusations even more preposterous is that the head of the Roman Catholic Church seated in the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI supports Iran's right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.[ii]

Lies and deception come easily to an administration which 'cooked up' intelligence in order to invade a sovereign country and cause the death of more than 655,000 people in order to further its agenda. The US, finding itself unable to pressure Iran into abandoning its enrichment program, which is nothing short of a pretext for a regime change, has opted for military strike as sanctions are not delivering the desired outcome, and Iran is making progress towards a full enrichment capability.

Had John Bolton been successful in his quest to push Iran out of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), perhaps the American people would hear less lies. John Bolton had purposefully attempted to have Iran leave NPT by making unreasonable demands. In an address to AIPAC, he was dismayed at not having succeeded in compelling Iran to leave the international treaty thus 'justifying' a reaction from the United States, presumably, militarily.[iii]

Left without a pretext for a military assault on Iran, the Bush administration finds itself in a position where it needs to prepare the world opinion for mass genocide with a compelling reason. With its control over the media, it is accomplishing this by denouncing Iran as the killer of American troops while causing civil unrest in Iraq. Tragically, the majority of the public has been paralyzed by fear and believes that the letting of blood is the only cure that will rid them of their unfounded panic. Iran's woes are not limited to the ambitions of the neo-cons.

Reza Pahlavi who thinks that he can in turn dupe Iranians, and peoples of other nations, has sent out a statement to the world from a conference in Prague asking for "solidarity for the people of Iran,". At this conference he was in good company where he conferred with U.S. hawks, including an all-star contingent from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) consisting of Richard Perle, Michael Rubin, Michael Novak, Joshua Muravchik, and Reuel Marc Gerecht; Herb London, John O'Sullivan, and Bruce Jackson a former director of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). Names of the Iraq war planners must be noted among the aforementioned.[iv] No doubt Reza Pahlavi's friends had innovative ideas for giving him the ruins of Iran, but none were as original as Senator Lieberman who 4 days after the Prague conference announced that the U.S. should use military force against Iran based on false allegations. The presence of the group in the conference is a telling sign, for many were the same disingenuous politicians that were accusing Iran of the Khobar Tower bombing in 1993; an accusation rejected last week by William Perry, Clinton's Defense Secretary at the time, with the assertion that the bombings had been the work of al-Qaeda all along.

It seems that the tragedy of Iran goes beyond the treason of the MEK, all the 'chelabis', and the dangerous ambitions of Reza Pahlavi; she is equally abandoned by Iranian-Americans. While the Iranians take pride in their history, they shun away from defending her from the imminent danger she is in, or contributing to the future in a meaningful way. The movie '300' caused an uproar among the Iranians – rightly so. The affront caused by this movie, a movie that insulted the history of Iran of 2000 years ago, united Iranian-Americans and caused them to take action. Yet they are insensitive to the threat of war, death of millions of fellow Iranians, and destruction of their country.

If Iran is attacked under false pretense, all those who defend her history have no reason to celebrate their heritage. Making a movie is easy, maintaining a legacy - that takes character, national character.

Notes
[i] http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L05722579.htm

[ii] http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=246637
http://content.msn.co.in/News/International/InternationalIANS_050507_507.htm

[iii] http://www.stopaipac.org/bolton_aipactranscript.pdf
http://www.stopaipac.org:80/boltontape.htm

[iv] http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/?p=27