ثریا سپاهپور

The foxy neo-cons, with fangs out for a kill, have outwitted the world. After 27 years of violating the bi-lateral Algiers Agreement, finding itself in a quagmire in Iraq, the United States decided to bring on board other countries to attack Iran, or at the very least, have their blessings. Falsely accusing Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program and using the NPT, it succeeded.

Clearly, the aim of this administration is regime change. However, its propaganda, the continuous revelations about the audacious lies that led it to illegally invade Iraq and cause the death of over 100,000 human beings, including thousands of Americans, has left us inert and emotionally inept to extract the neo-cons’ fangs and put a stop to their incessant demise of nations. This is exactly what they count on – this allows them to persist.

Their next heinous plan – nuking Iran, will morally bankrupt humanity and be the next chapter of genocide in our history books. But in their shrewdness, they have even planned the murder of an entire civilization based on a preemptive genocide!

A senior intelligence officer interviewed by the renowned journalist, Seymour Hirsch, (See his article in The New Yorker), spoke of resultant mushroom clouds above Iran – radiation, mass casualties, and contamination for years that are being planned by this Administration. The nuclear confrontation with Iran is a fight for a regime change. “Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has challenged the reality of the Holocaust and said that Israel must be “wiped off the map.” Bush and others in the White House view him as a potential Adolf Hitler, a former senior intelligence official said. “That’s the name they’re using. They say, ‘Will Iran get a strategic weapon and threaten another world war?’ ”

There is no excuse for what Ahmadinejad said , however, several things are worth mentioning and pondering. Iran does not have an atomic bomb. Even according to Israel’s intelligence, it will not have the ability to manufacture it for several years. At best, even if it does acquire nuclear weapons in 5-10 years, it will be no match for Israel’s nuclear arsenal – nor indeed its nuclear-armed submarines. Attacking Israel at that point, would be illogical. Especially given that Israel has the backing of the US!

Further, both Ahmadinejad and Khamenei have reiterated Iran's longstanding demand for a referendum on the status of Israel that would involve all Palestinian refugees. This official position of theirs is not consistent with Ahmadinejad's rhetoric, least of all by using nuclear arms which would endanger the very Palestinians whom they want to protect.

Finally, is it not the Bush Administration that bears resemblance to Adolf Hitler by planning a nuclear attack on Iran? The radiation, mass casualties, and contamination not only of the Persians, but the 2% minority (1,300,000) groups living in Iran, a large number of whom (30000 ews) live in Isfahan near the Bushehr power plant is. Or perhaps by some miracle they will be told to leave before the bombing campaign, or maybe the nukes will avoid hitting them!

It may be that the West holds no value for Moslems. Somehow, the anger of the Moslems was deliberately incited with the hideous cartoons that affronted them. This anger, which combined religious zeal with decades of economic frustration, oppression, inequality, and Western domination, found a release valve to express itself having been slighted by the Western societies. This of course, played well into the hands of the sly neo-cons who now wish to nuke the Islamic Republic of Iran – though God knows we are hardly theocratic! After all, the whole world (mis)judged the Moslem world as uncontrollable, dangerous mobs. It is said ‘The devil is in the detail’ – indeed, in this instance, the devil was in the timing.

It is important for us all to recall that when the Holocaust was taking place, no one stood up to defend the Jews, including America who turned back ship after ship from their shores. Today, Iranians have become the ‘jews’ of the past – the atomic bomb is the gas chamber that they are condemned to. Their crime is their struggle for sovereignty. The attitude that prevailed at that time, reflected for eternity on a monolith at Boston’s Faneuil Hall, should remind us that we are all part of humanity and that the Bush Administration is taking us on a path of no return:

They came first for the Communists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.Then they came for the Jews,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.Then they came for the trade unionists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.Then they came for the Catholics,and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.Then they came for me,and by that time no one was left to speak up.
---Martin Niemoeller ---

Today, the world has the chance to avoid the crimes of the past. We need not allow the bloody fangs of neo-cons rob us of our morality and forever throw us in purgatory. There is time for choice. Every voice can tap into another conscious and sound the sirens of danger that is surrounding the Iranian people as well as the future of the American civilization. Our march of sanity can, will, and must overcome the will of the immoral Administration planning on the destruction of our future.

(1) Algiers Accords signed between the governments of the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran on January 19, 1981, as part of the hostage crisis resolution. Point I.1 of this Accord is non-intervention in Iranian affairs: “The United States pledge that it is and from now will be the policy of the United States not to intervene, directly or indirectly, politically or militarily, in Iran’s internal affairs.” Per Article VI of the Algiers Accords, the violated party, Iran, has the right to refer the matter to the Tribunal at Hague, the Netherlands, where the International Court of Justice will have jurisdiction.