On April 10, 2002, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons, “Saddam Hussein’s regime is…developing weapons of mass destruction, and we cannot leave him doing so unchecked.”
A year later, Blair, enthusiastically joined a US-led coalition that launched an illegal war against Iraq. Their hunt for weapons of mass destruction was futile because no such weapons actually existed. The Iraq Survey Group, a 1,400 strong member organization set up by the CIA and the Pentagon, made every attempt to prove otherwise, but only came back empty-handed. In its final Duelfer Report, released in September 2004, the group “found no evidence of concerted efforts to restart the [nuclear] program.”
One would think that the years between 1991—the first war on Iraq—and 2003 would have been enough to convince US-led western allies that economically besieged, politically isolated and war torn Iraq had no capacity for producing such weapons. Still, Iraq was attacked with a ferocity that left hundreds of thousands dead and a destroyed country. The outcome of the misadventure may be history to some, but it is a devastating reality for millions of Iraqis.
Considering all of this, shouldn’t we at least expect a slight change of course?
‘Drums of war beat louder as Iran and Israel step up rhetoric,’ declared a story headline in the British Independent newspaper on February 4, while ABC News stated that ‘Fear of Israel War With Iran Grows Amid Heightened Nuke Concerns.’
Of course, there is great deal of journalistic trickery in how the story is being reported. Iran did promise retaliation if attacked, but the possible war is being initiated and engineered by Israel.
In fact, contrary to popular perception, the potential war is not an exclusively Israeli-Iranian matter. While Israel is sorting out logistical issues, Western allies are actively working to both choke Iran economically and isolate it politically. The strategy may give the impression that Israel is the predator moving for the kill, but all other details are being sorted out in Western capitals.
As was the case with Iraq, Western allies are now hatching up both legal and political discourses. As they continue to escalate on multiple fronts, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seem to conveniently run into all sorts of obstacles in Iran itself.
Meanwhile, mainstream media continues to hype the idea of Iran as a threat to Israel and the United States. Comments made during a Friday sermon by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which threatened serious retaliation in case of attack, were stretched in every possible direction to give an impression of dangerous Iranian leadership. This was intended to retrospectively cement the bizarre Israeli narrative that ‘Iran must be stopped before it’s too late’.
U.N. Nuclear Inspectors’ Visit to Iran Is a Failure, West Says,’ declared a headline in the New York Times, although the story itself pointed to the fact that the inspectors merely faced problems meeting a key scientists and would return later in the month.
The media anxiety reached an all time high with the publishing of a report in the Independent, which suggested that US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “believes Israel could strike nuclear targets in Iran before the summer after concluding that military action might be needed before it was ‘too late’ to stop Tehran’s nuclear program”.
The saber-rattling that preceded the Iraq invasion prepared public opinion for a war that should never have taken place. In the case of Iraq, Israel was a central piece in the US justification for war. Defending Israel from some imagined Iraqi threat was used by every war enthusiast in the US government and media.
Now, it’s Iran’s turn. The ugly deed this time is likely to be perpetrated by Israeli hands as early as April, according to Panetta. (One would argue that a dirty war is already underway as a number of assassinations targeting Iranian scientists have been committed.)
While the very suggestion of war was an Israeli-US ‘option’ that has been tossed back and forth since at least 2005, no sensible Iranian position is to be found in Western media reporting.
“Iran argues that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has every right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” read a news article published in Iranian Press TV website.
No such claims will be assuring enough to the Israeli leadership. When Hamas’ feeble home-made rockets are viewed by Israel’s official discourse as an ‘existential threat’, one can imagine the trepidation of co-existing with a militarily strong Iran. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Ehud Barak are the two major proponents of the ‘bomb Iran before it’s too late’ argument. Considering Israel’s existing arsenal of nuclear weapons, subscribing to the Israeli logic is paramount to accepting that only Israel somehow has the moral capacity to use WMDs wisely.
Chillingly, officials used the annual conference of Israel’s security establishment at the Inter-Disciplinary Centre in Herzilya to mostly discuss the ‘how’ and ‘when’ of launching their attacks. Vice Prime Minister, Moshe Yaalon is determined that “one way or the other…(the) messianic-apocalyptic” Iranian nuclear project would be stopped. Yaalon is a passionate supporter of the theory that Iranian ungrounded facilities can in fact be penetrated by bunker-buster bombs.
However, using the Iraq war narrative for comparison must end here. The fact is, there are also significant differences between both cases. Iran is a major regional power, geographically massive and cannot be politically ‘contained’ or economically choked without exacting a high price from all parties involved. No ground invasion is possible, for the US is counting its losses in Iraq and is cutting down its military budget. Iran has had enough time to anticipate and prepare for all grim possibilities. The American-British-Western public willingness to subscribe to another war rationale is at an all time low. And an act of war could destroy any remaining semblance of stability in a strategically and economically precious region during a time of global recession.
If history ever repeats itself, it does so only when we fail to learn its important lessons. Israel might be prepared to take such chances, but why should the rest of the world?
you say why should the rest of the world take a chance and do what isreal will ultimately do, quite simple put really.
I think your forgetting germany and japan in the second world war, We never saw what japan and germanys ultimate gole was (complete control and dominance) America did not think that japan would actually attack so close to the main land, nor did they know that japans main gole was to try and destroy the might of the us navy and then try and continue onto the us mainland.It also came close to an invasion of the australian mainland. You already know how much damage germany did in europe before eventually being stopped by the aliese.
Dont forget that one of germanys main objevtives was the extermination of the jewish race.
excuse the babbling, but, it is this sort of situation that doese require a combined effort in stopping irans crazy nuclear ambitions and to sit idly by and not assist isreal is reprhensaville.
Iran has already stated its wishes of wiping out the state of isreal.
I am not jewish (catholic actually),but would stand by isreal in defending its right to existance, so how about growing some balls and show your support for isreals right to exist.
tom.
Not too convinced about Iran and the WW2 analogy! Iran has made no offensive moves for over 200 years (Compare that to Israel`s record). There is an acceptance of pro. Israel perspectives by mainstream western media, for example, during a BBC TV interview Benjamin Netanyahu stated “The President of Iran said. The Holocaust didn`t happen”, he was not queried, however the full statement by Ahmadinejad was “The Holocaust didn`t happen in Palestine, why then are Palestinians punished for the crimes that were committed in Europe?” Why indeed! The Iranian conference; The Effect of the Holocaust on the Middle East” and attended by many Rabbis was reported in the West as “A Holocaust Denial conference”, now why should that be? The West wiped Kurdistan of the face of the map, just ask those Kurd`s who now live in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, Wiping Israel off the face of the Map would not stop those who live there from continuing to live there, but it would be called Palestine, which funnily enough, was quite effectively wiped off the face of the map in 1948. Nothing wrong with opposing opinions, but the media polarising of public opinion is hard to justify and impossible to condone.
The rest of the world does not want to go through another war in the Middle East. We are fed up with the US/Eu/Israel for stokeing war fever. For the last 50 years, there is nothing from the West except for war, war and more war. Can’t they just stop fighting for oil, money and control?
Very nice article but you fail to mention that Iraq did launch Missile attacks on Israel, and Israel was urged not to retaliate. Iran has publicly declared their intention to wipe Israel off the map and continue to fund Hammas.
Israel does NOT want war and have made numerous attempts for peace with those who are ready and acknowledge its existence. The only country in the entire Middle East where both Jews and Muslims are represented in the government. You can continue to write articles but for those who are educated on both sides of the story, there is no fooling or hiding the truth.
Kooshy & Tom,
, You are taken in by what media is feeding you (through Zionist propaganda). Iran never threatened to wipe Israel from face of the earth, in fact the speech and the words which were twisted and then appeared in every headline, are still on the internet and youtube. Please go and listen to it, read the proper translation. I am no fan of Iran government or Ahmadi Nejad, but I speak Farsi fluently, and have heard more than once misquotation of what he has said.
I would argue, that it is you who are taken in by the media, Iran through it’s leaders, and their own puppets in the region (Syria, Hezbollah) have on many occasions called for the demise of Israel, as well as the west and specifically America. This article is both slanted and misleading. Iraq did indeed launch Scud missiles at Israel and the western coalition asked Israel for restraint and got it. Hezbollah launches missiles daily at Israel. As for the premise, that Iraq did not have “any” weapons of mass destruction, you may want to ask the Kurds about that, I will concede that no Nuclear weapons were found, and that the program was essentially shut down, but who’s to say if left on their own, that it would not have been restarted in earnest “There are none so blind as those who will not see”. The problem is real, the threat is real and the reality is that few outside Syria and some in Lebanon would be comfortable with a Nuclear Iran. The Iranians Know how to defuse the situation, should they choose to escalate instead, Israel will be forced to respond. Let’s see if the Iranians allow access to “all Nuclear sites” without delay, and stop their threats to close an international waterway. I would argue that it is the Iranians beating the war drum, something they should take into consideration, before this gets any further out of control.
Let see if Iran allows inspector full access…
Let see if Israel will sign to NPT, and will allow inspector into their nuclear instalations??
Iran is a signatory to NPT, and within the framework of NPT, they are allowed to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.. or are you saying uranium enrichment is the right of west and Israel only?? or they are the one to be trusted with it?? (which country is the only country to use nuke? and do they have nuke? ) look at the map, there are 45 USA bases in countries surronding Iran, yet Iran is the one threatening peace of region? get real.
mj, I would challenge you to provide links for those threats, not the English tranlation in the MSM, but the actual speech. I cannot forget that on one occasion we were watching BBC news, and when Ahmadinejad said ” Iran has every right to Nuclear Technology”, it was translated “Iran has ……to nuclear weapon”, yes two nights later they apologised for their mistake. Mistake my foot… they made the mistake over and over and over and feed it to people. Whether it is interest of Israel or the imperial aspiration of the west, I do not know, maybe Israel is being duped as well.
I really would like to put my hands together for Ramzy Baroud who wrote that article carrying out numerous pertinent points. As far as I am concerned this article really cast some light on this topic in a very clear way.
To sum up my own personal appeal I do share the feeling that an additional military action coming from the US would definitively be perceived as the straw that broke the camel’s back, not only for the nations of middle east, but also for the regions hit by today’s economical crisis (ALSO coming from the US…)
I am not sure neither that people would fall for the threat of weapon of mass destruction anymore after the massive flop of the war in Irak. Pretending that it is in our “free” nation’s interest to attack Iran for our own safety is now standing behind the frontier of the ludicrous as these are precisely occidental nations which wage war everywhere on the world…!
At last but not least, pretending that Israel is still today a victim in all the conflicts this country is involved in would be quite an easy short cut when we see how these guys treat their neighbours…!
Whereupon I would conclude with a spell of Gandhi : “Just be the change that you want to see”, and hopefully the world will get better! ^^
“”The American-British-Western public willingness to subscribe to another war rationale is at an all time low. And an act of war could destroy any remaining semblance of stability in a strategically and economically precious region during a time of global recession.”
That is exactly how modern warfare is conducted. Cause division, terror, chaos death and destruction (e.g. Iraq, Libya and now Syria). None of these need “boots on the ground” yet achieve their aim of robbery – It seems the Americans now believe they have mastered the art.
But any tactic only works so many times.
I have not read anywhere where Israel regards Hamas rockets as an exisential
threat, though it is an ever increasing dangerous one.
Iran however is most definitely an exisential threat to the country given its small size.
Given the multitude of Iranian threats to wipe Israel off the map, Israel has every right to strike Iran preemptively if she so chooses.
Israel has no desire to wipe Iran off the map, and therein lies the difference.
Whatever plays out, the facts should be presented accurately. In no way should Israel be made out to be the one at fault here.
Iran has never threatened Israel with military attack. Israel, on the other hand, perpetually threatens to attack Iran.
Barry, I challenge you to give me a link where Iran has threatened to wipe Israel off. And please do not send me a link of the MSM whereby they lie through their teeth. I have listened to the AN speech and what he said was not that, it is just like MSM claim he said Holocaust did not happen, he did not say that, he said “Holocaust did not happen in Palestine”. I have no time for the guy, or for that matter for the government of Iran, but with my own ears I have heard wrong translation of what he says more than once. (and I believe it is done on purpose)