*(Top image: U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo delivers keynote remarks at United Against Nuclear Iran’s 2019 Iran Summit, at the Palace Hotel, in New York City, New York on September 25, 2019. Credit: State Department photo by Ron Przysucha/ Public Domain)
No nation that possesses nuclear arsenals or those aspiring to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes has been subjected to the kinds of rigorous inspection and verification regimes --- some bordering on humiliation and hijacking the country’s sovereignty --- than Iran. All indications, until the announcement from the White House that the US would unilaterally withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and begin reinstating economic sanctions against Iran at “the highest level”, demonstrated that the nuclear-related commitments were being implemented by Iran. Trump did not claim that Iran was in violation of the terms of the deal, but described its so-called “sunset provisions” – which lift restrictions on the country’s ability to enrich uranium within 10 to 15 years – as “totally unacceptable”. There has been an abundance of American rhetorical inanities that would precede the draconian measures that followed including crippling sanctions. More recently, pompous Pompeo of the we-lie-we-cheat-we steal notoriety revisited his pet mantras of calling Iran the world’s most heinous terrorist regime. Initially (and still) supported by most of the signatories to JCPOA, Iran continues to endure the tireless American hounding. This was in keeping with historical reneging on treaties going back to some 400 treaties with Native Americans that were drafted, signed and speedily trashed.
Consider this: in the post-World War II era, America has killed more innocents than the rest of the world combined, in totally senseless, unprovoked wars of aggression. Pompeo’s hate-filled declaration is little more than a distraction from the world’s certified terrorist nation, the US of A. Those are words intended to placate Trump’s Zionist evangelicals at home and doing Israel’s bidding at the behest of the pro-Israel lobby, the sole fixture in America’s foreign policy prattles. Such distractions, are left as stand-alone tacit rhetoric, that lend them ersatz credibility, but scarcely entered into public discourse on nuclear proliferation. Simply stated, Israel’s nuclear arsenal is off limits for discussion by the “international community”. That country is protected by a craftily concocted dog-whistle tool, with the anti-Semitism card at the ready hurled at critics of Israel as a sure way of silencing them. Lackeys in the Gulf, including another of Washington’s client and terrorist monarchy, Saudi Arabia, would naturally be quietly applauding Pompeo’s tirade against Iran.
The Ugly: in the ongoing hounding of Iran, led by the world’s gangster nation over Iran’s non-existent nuclear arsenal, you could be forgiven for concluding that if Iran did indeed acquire a nuclear bomb, its device would pose an unambiguous existential threat to the planet’s entire “international community”. The bludgeoning handed Iran is of a thoroughgoing mafia variety. Countries are denied the luxury of choosing what best serves their interests when it comes to complying with American sanctions. Rather, there is the tireless arm wringing from the mobsters in Washington to ensure nations are either “with us or against us” --- with a hefty price tag for those impudent enough to entertain the idea of pursuing a course independent of Washington’s incessant strongarm hoodlum tactics. Extenuating circumstances that invoke humanitarian considerations are given short shrift. Gangsters with eyes fixed on the prize will not alter course out of the kindness of their hearts. America’s residual compassion is reserved for fellow Caucasians and Israel, the biggest welfare beneficiary of American tax dollars. Others may be ignored, because they know better than challenge the might of a perilous hoodlum nuclear power.
Absolute edicts issued by this species allow no room for finagling; they are in black and white, with a yawning absence of shades of gray, not unlike the habitual racism that has plagued America since its founding and continues at full throttle to this day. They are unforgiving and god-like in their finality. Few other nations with similarly scandalous track records of treating segments of their citizenry with unceasing scorn would declare - while destroying societies and with deadpan, their passion for freedom, democracy and human rights. Then proceed to force this brash lie down the throats of other nations, notwithstanding their failures at home. Yet others have advanced the notion closer to reality that America has never been a democracy at any point in its history. This parallel exhibition of hubris and righteousness might be more handily explained as repressed yearnings of what America has been sorely missing since the nation’s beginning: freedom, human rights, democracy and empathy.
The solid wall of denial surrounding America’s entrenched racist culture, is extended to the racism that fuels its foreign policy initiatives. It is no fluke that America’s chosen enemies belong to non-White nations. An element of Islamophobia cleverly blended with the racism is diluted by the counterclaim that America’s protection racket is extended to Muslim client monarchs of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, obscuring the fact that since the Vietnam war and the collapse of the Soviet Union, America’s compulsive need for enemies shifted from communist bogeys to Muslim ones and lately to a rehashed communist capitalist entity, China. After the Vietnam war, the vast majority of America’s over one million victims of war and regime change spread over a half dozen Middle Eastern and at least one African country all have been Muslim. Five of the 7 countries affected by Trump’s travel ban have a Muslim majority. Saudi Arabia, a country that supplied 17 of 19 of the architects of 9/11 was excluded from the list. The noises issuing from Washingtonmasquerading as sympathy for the Muslims of Uyghur and hastily labeled a genocide are no match the nearly two million dead Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya from American bombs. The same fake news sources that remain silent on the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians and the millions of victims of America’s racist and Islamophobic wars have deferred the honor of qualifying these wars as genocidal, which is exactly what they are.
The average misinformed American would swear on the noble and purely defensive ends of their country’s nuclear policies, Trump’s unilateral canceling of the INF Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces) treaty notwithstanding. Those are hardly measures depicting a quest for peace and easing of nuclear tensions by the planet’s sole superpower. But America’s merciless obsession with Iran, egged on by pro-Israel lobbies that direct America’s foreign policy in the Middle East will fashion an implausible narrative vilifying Iran while concurrently deflecting attention from Israel’s estimated 300 nuclear warheads. The soft glove is hard at work when dealing with American puppets in the Persian Gulf with their own nuclear ambitions that are beyond the reach of scrutiny from the IAEA and even in their nascent stages exhibit alarming shortcomings on safety issues.
The “international community” is a nebulous, nondescript group of nations with wildly fluctuating memberships. Based on certain voting patterns in the UN General Assembly, its membership oscillates between a handful of countries, that comprise the usual suspects: the US, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada and, logically, Zionist Israel. On other occasions, such as the overwhelming condemnation at the UN General Assembly of the US blockade against Cuba, the “international community” comprises the US --- the architect of this phantom entity ---, and, you guessed it, Israel. It is a ploy that continues to be employed, by the US, often with the fawning approval from “allies” --- i.e. nations that have shorn themselves of thoughts or ideas independent of Washington. This fictitious community is invoked whenever imagined threats are nimbly painted on the horizon to create an illusion of general consensus, even where none exists. Never a work of art guided by free will.The average misinformed American would swear on the noble and purely defensive ends of their country’s nuclear policies, Trump’s unilateral canceling of the INF Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces) treaty notwithstanding. Those are hardly measures depicting a quest for peace and easing of nuclear tensions by the planet’s sole superpower. But America’s merciless obsession with Iran, egged on by pro-Israel lobbies that direct America’s foreign policy in the Middle East will fashion an implausible narrative vilifying Iran while concurrently deflecting attention from Israel’s estimated 300 nuclear warheads. The soft glove is hard at work when dealing with American puppets in the Persian Gulf with their own nuclear ambitions that are beyond the reach of scrutiny from the IAEA and even in their nascent stages exhibit alarming shortcomings on safety issues.
By the same token, you could also be excused for inferring that an Iranian nuclear device --- albeit still nonexistent, issuing from that country carries with it, unprecedented powers of devastation, mass slaughter and mercilessly raze countries targeted by the fearsome destructive power (as yet still nonexistent) of its bombs. Presumably, a country of some 200 million like Nigeria or another, like Indonesia with about 268 million will, at some point, have won membership privileges, provisional to be sure, to the “international community” club. Noteworthy, is the combined population of these 2 countries alone outnumber the entire population of the US. Because of the quirky threat, the existence of these countries would be in mortal peril from Iran’s nuclear ambitions. With yet another straight face, the gangs in Washington would profess that the safety and security of such countries, some of whom qualify as shithole will receive priority. Egypt, with its 102 million strong has been excluded from that supposed community and facing potential extinction from a fictional Iranian bomb, simply because any destruction resulting from such a bomb will be mitigated by the protection extended by the racket to which the Egyptian despotism subscribes: the United States, Western Europe and Israel. Countries like Algeria, a nation of 43 million, may also be subject to an implausible existential threat from Iran’s imagined nuclear lunacy.
The Good: in sharp contrast to the purported Iranian existential threat to the “international community”, one could also be excused for deducing that nuclear devices detonated by members of this exclusive club would, rather than unleash unparalleled destruction, release cookies, candy and flowers for the benefit of children in countries “blessed” with such nuclear largesse. Further, the two atom bombs rained on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the current promoter of global democracy and human rights, were mere nuclear accidents that simply happened, not on account of the racist nature of America targeting a non-White nation for total destruction and surrender, simply because … well simply because. Facts keep getting sidetracked and swept under the rug in the frenzied attacks on non-nuclear Iran.
The exclusive nuclear club with a membership of 7 known nations carries the fearsome combined total of nearly 15,000 nuclear warheads. A question that goes begging, but is yet one more that is being brushed under the rug: why would nuclear nations need to feel secure when owning nuclear arsenals whose combined firepower is capable of ending life on the planet as we know it? Speaking of an existential threat to the real international community, here is one instance of it staring at us in the face and one that is scarcely the subject of negotiations. With the US as is usual, always at the forefront fabricating a narrative in keeping with its hegemony, can pull out of treaties unilaterally and at will. The unceremonious cancellation of the INF treaty with Russia adds to a long list of treaties going back to those negotiated with Native Americans that have been, dishonored, discarded and forgotten. The cruel, sadistic notion of willfully starving Iran shows signs of amelioration after the bumper 25-year deal between Iran and China, leaving America livid. The New York Times has chosen to depict this understanding between two sovereign nations as defiance of US sanctions, not as the promotion and defense of legitimate national self-interests.
The Bad: Neither has North Korea been spared America’s unrelenting pressure to curtail its nuclear arsenal program. The North Koreans have had the rare good fortune of being allowed the pleasure of dialog, no matter how tenuous, between the two countries, something that Iran has been summarily denied. The talks are essentially monologs reflecting America’s desire to continue monopolizing the nuclear club and impose its will. Negotiations can only bear fruit if held by and among equals. America’s bigotry has little tolerance for nations regarded as inferior claiming equal status or their right to be heard. But NK has not been subjected to the revolting and demeaning rhetoric reserved for Iran. At no point has NK played second fiddle, not one to abjure or given in to America’s mafia-like arm twisting tactics. To top that, “accidents” targeting Iran’spower plant and nuclear reactors are occurring at greater than random rates. Then came America’s routine “air mission and standard visual inspection” in which a US Air Force flewdangerously close to an Iranian passenger aircraft. Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Ghaddafi yielded to American pressure at their peril. These two leaders met their gruesome deaths, despite surrendering their sovereignties agreeing to the lies foisted on them by the “international community”. Recently, we were treated to a comical, almost infantile exchange between Trump and Kim Jon Ung about whose bomb is bigger. Trump in his usual infantile reaction refused to be upended, reminding his NK counterpart that America’s bomb was more powerful and that his nuclear button actually works.
WRITER
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