Source: Global ResearchProf. Marjorie Cohn
Neocons in Israel and the United
States are escalating their rhetoric to prepare us for war with Iran.
Even the infamous John Yoo, architect of George W. Bush’s illegal
torture and spying programs, is calling on the Republican presidential
candidates to “begin preparing the case for a military strike to destroy
Iran’s nuclear program.”
Under the 1968 Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has the legal right to produce
nuclear power for peaceful purposes. The United Nations International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found no evidence that Iran is
developing a nuclear weapons program. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
recently said on CBS that Iran is not currently trying to build a
nuclear weapon.
Nevertheless, the United States and
Israel are mounting a campaign of aggression against Iran. The United
States has imposed punishing sanctions against Iran that are crippling
Iran’s economy, and pressuring other countries and strong-arming
financial institutions to stop buying oil from Iran, the world’s third
largest exporter. The Obama administration is also preparing new
punitive measures that target the Central Bank of Iran. And the House of
Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass the Iran Threat Reduction
Act of 2011 which would outlaw any contact between U.S. government
employees and some Iranian officials.
There is also evidence that Israel,
with the possible assistance of the United States, has orchestrated the
assassinations of at least five Iranian nuclear scientists or engineers
since 2007. The New York Times reported: “The campaign, which
experts believe is being carried out mainly by Israel, apparently
claimed its latest victim on [January 11] when a bomb killed a
32-year-old nuclear scientist in Tehran’s morning rush hour.” These
assassinations constitute acts of terrorism. There have also been
cyber-attacks on Iranian centrifuges and an explosion at a missile
facility last year that killed a senior general and 16 other people.
These acts of aggression are designed
to provoke Iran to retaliate, including possibly closing the Strait of
Hormuz, which will spark a war that could spread to the entire Middle
East.
In addition, the United States has
shifted combat troops and warships to the Middle East, and supplied
Israel with bunker-busting bombs. Moreover, President Barack Obama has
deployed 9,000 U.S. troops to Israel to participate later this year with
thousands of Israeli troops in “war games” to test the U.S./Israeli air
defense system; this exercise will be the largest ever joint drill
between the two countries. Panetta said the exercise is designed “to
back up our unshakable commitment to Israel’s security.”
Iran is not a threat to Israel’s
security. Iran has not attacked any country in some 200 years. In 1953,
the CIA engineered a coup that replaced a democratic government in Iran
with the vicious Shah. He ruled Iran with an iron hand for 25 years,
wreaking torture and terror on Iranians while keeping Iran open to
Western investment. When I visited Iran in 1978 as a human rights
observer, there were dozens of U.S. corporations in downtown Tehran. One
year later, the chickens came home to roost. The Iranian revolution
overthrew the Shah, replacing him with a tyrannical theocracy that
continues to violate the rights of the Iranian people. But that does not
mean that Iran, if it does obtain nuclear weapons, will attack Israel.
The Iranian government knows that Israel and the United States would
retaliate with unimaginable military force that would devastate Iran and
much of the Middle East.
