Iran’s Nuclear Program or US Militarism?

31 July, 2008

US House of Representatives Concurrent Resolution 362[i] is another in a series of attempts by the US to demonize Iran as a destabilizing and imminent threat to world peace.  To the dismay of the peace-seeking community, the measure has 220 cosponsors to date.  Among its outrageous and misleading charges against Iran are the following:

 

“For nearly 20 years, in clear contravention of its explicit obligations under the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), Iran operated a covert nuclear program.”  - No evidence exists showing that Iran has a nuclear weapons program.  The National Intelligence Estimate of November 2007 indicates that Iran currently has neither a nuclear weapon nor a nuclear weapons program.[ii]

 

“Iranian nuclear weapons capability would pose a grave threat to international peace and security by fundamentally altering and destabilizing the strategic balance in the Middle East.”  - Iran has no nuclear weapons, but if it did, it would end US/Israeli nuclear hegemony in the Middle East. Perhaps a nuclear-armed Iran would even strengthen international peace and security by forcing the US administration and trigger-happy Israelis to think twice before launching their next attacks.

 

“Iran's rapid development of its nuclear capabilities is outpacing the slow ratcheting up of economic and diplomatic sanctions.”  Iran’s nuclear research has been hampered by the lack of cooperation from international community; hence there is no rapid development.  The previously cited National Intelligence Estimate states with high confidence, that Iran will not have the capability to produce enough highly enriched uranium or plutonium for a weapon until at least 2015.[iii]

 

“Iran has used its banking system, including the Central Bank of Iran, to support its proliferation efforts and its assistance to terrorist groups.” –This claim appears to stem from Israeli sources.[iv]  The US-dominated International Monetary Fund claims that the Central Bank of Iran as yet doesn’t meet certain Financial Action Task Force (FATF) anti-terrorism financial guidelines.[v]

 

The history of US involvement with Iran’s nuclear program dates back long before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the overthrow of the US-installed Shah.  The US was actually the driving force behind Iran’s nuclear research through the Atoms for Peace program and assisted Iran in its pursuit of peaceful nuclear technology beginning in 1957.[vi]   The US supplied technical assistance and fuel for the reactor built in 1967 at Tehran University’s Tehran Nuclear Research Center, and even as late as 1978 on the eve of the Islamic Revolution, the US had entered into an agreement with Iran governing transfer of material and equipment for its nuclear program.[vii]

 

On 9 February 2003, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami announced the existence of a fuel enrichment plant at Natanz and invited the IAEA to inspect the facilities.  The disclosure unleashed a barrage of allegations from the US and Western powers accusing Iran of harboring a secret nuclear weapons program.  Reacting to them, the IAEA presented Iran with an ultimatum to reveal the full extent of its nuclear program.[viii]  As a gesture of good will, Iran voluntarily suspended nuclear fuel enrichment - its right under the NPT - from October of 2003[ix] to January of 2006 in an attempt to counter suspicion on the part of the US and its allies.[x]

 

Both US Presidential presumptive candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, seem convinced that Tehran is hiding a secret nuclear weapons program, as does the current President.[xi]  Since Bush convinced the American public that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear weapons program and sold a war against Iraq based upon lies, the potential exists for him or the next President to launch a similar “preventive” war against Iran.

 

Regarding factual evidence of an on-going nuclear weapons program in Iran, the IAEA Board of Governors report, after sifting through numerous allegations admits,  “The Agency currently has no information … on the actual design or manufacture by Iran of nuclear material components of a nuclear weapon or of certain other key components, such as initiators, or on related nuclear physics studies.”[xii]

 

In short, there is no evidence that Iran is concealing a nuclear weapons program.  There is a single questionable document, referred to as the “uranium metal document,” that oddly enough is a copy of an identical document in the possession of Pakistan, a US nuclear ally and not a party to the NPT.  The document, which is now under IAEA seal,[xiii] may merit further inquiry but certainly is no basis for concluding that Iran has a covert nuclear weapons program that poses a grave threat to international peace and security. The IAEA report goes on to clearly summarize Iran’s compliance: “The Agency has been able to continue to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran. Iran has provided the Agency with access to declared nuclear material and has provided the required nuclear material accountancy reports in connection with declared nuclear material and activities.”

 

Where is the basis for the allegations in House Concurrent Resolution 362?  One may exist in Rep. Gary Ackerman’s mind but it certainly does not in reality.  Of course, America is a country that makes the reality through its enormous military and economic power, so if America’s leaders say there are doubts then the doubts can be made to seem menacing enough to wage a “preventive” war, as we have seen happen in Iraq over its non-existent weapons of mass destruction. 

 

Regarding the motivation behind the US invasion of Iraq, University of California Professor Emeritus Chalmers Johnson asks, “Was the assault against Iraq driven by Iraq’s actions or by military capabilities in American hands?  It may well be that the ultimate causes of twenty-first-century mayhem in the Middle East are American militarism and imperialism.”[xiv]

 

Similarly, one must ask the question, is it Iran’s nuclear program or US militarism and imperialism that is the motivation behind Resolution 362?  With its vast nuclear arsenal, the US itself poses a grave threat to international peace and is in blatant violation of Article 6 of the NPT with Bush’s nuclear weapons proposals.[xv] 

 

While “Myth of America” discourse holds that it is the guardian of peace, democracy and human rights, from the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans through the invasion and occupation of Iraq, America has established a national identity characterized by and reinforced through massive violence directed against a perceived or imagined enemy.  As Professor Walter Hixson, History Department Chair at the University of Akron points out, “By affirming the Myth of America, the wars, even unpopular wars, paved the way for the next wave of pathological violence.”[xvi] 

 

America’s national identity drives its foreign policy, which expresses itself through militarism by threats and violence against the putative enemy.  US militarism is the thrust behind the bellicose rhetoric of House Resolution 362 and is the real threat to international peace.  Iran is merely the current enemy and its nuclear program is nothing more than a convenient pretext for the next wave of obsessive US violence.

 

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2008-07-30

Posted by yuram 10:56 | General , Iran , United States | Comment(1) | Permalink

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