The United States is planning to launch another illegal and bloody war against a nation that hasn’t attacked, or even threatened to attack, any other country, not the U.S., not Israel or Europe, not even its neighbors.
Several political analysts believe that the Bush Administration has been readying plans to strike Iran from the very beginning. According to a recent article by former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, “President Bush recently re-affirmed his embrace of the principles of pre-emptive war when he signed off on the 2006 version of the National Security Strategy of the United States, which highlights Iran as a threat worthy of confrontation."
Moreover, the recent report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh on the New Yorker magazine confirmed that the Bush Administration was readying plans for a possible air strike on Iran's nuclear sites. Citing former intelligence officers, Hersh stated that President Bush considers Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a “new Hitler”, and sees regime change in Tehran as the ultimate goal.
"No matter what Iran would do, I think in the short run some people are afraid the President will want to go - just as he wanted to go on Iraq," Hersh said in an interview with the BBC, adding that Bush felt military action against Iran was something only he could do. "It's messianic," he said.
Over the past year, several U.S. media outlets have been beating the drums of war against Iran. All of them are reiterating the same clichés, that were also used against Iraq prior to the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Iran is in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. (In fact the U.S. and Israel are the ones who violate such treaties). Iran is the U.S.‘s greatest threat. (Actually the U.S. is posing a very obvious threat to Iran). Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. (An unproven U.S. allegation by the only country that used its nuclear power, and is developing a new-age, life-ending nuclear arsenal). Iran is building biological weapons and wants to spread the H5N1 virus (or malaria, or smallpox, or whatever) all over the United States and its allies (Another unproven allegation). Iran launched a mini satellite with Russian help, which some U.S. warmongers claimed was an evidence of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Iran is meddling in Iraq (as if the U.S. is not). The litany goes on.
But why is the U.S. determined to create mayhem? An article on Swans.com by political writer Gilles d'Aymery suggests that the answer to that question is closely related to the status of the U.S. dollar and the growing competitive force. It states that the U.S. is in a state of decline, economically and structurally, and that it must, out of sheer survival, hit at the competition, which has nothing to do with Afghanistan, Iraq, or Iran. Rather it comes directly from Europe and Asia. Higher oil prices, denominated in U.S. dollars, far from being an impediment to the U.S. economy and interests, weaken the competition, and reinforce the comparative advantages of the U.S.
Like Iraq, Iran poses a serious threat to the U.S.‘s oil interests. In 2000, Iraq had decided to switch to denominate its oil sales in euros (pegged to the U.S. dollar of course, but still, a possibility of the beginning of a currency threat to the domination of the U.S. dollar in international trade and financing of U.S. deficits). By March 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq. By June 2003, Iraqi oil was once again denominated in U.S. dollars.
Anglo-American oil interests have also been shut out of the Iranian market due to the U.S.’s policies against the Iranian regime. Moreover, Iran is working on the formation of an oil bourse (oil exchange) pegged entirely on the euro. This bourse would certainly harm the U.S. dollar supremacy in world trade.
"The Iranians will retaliate, and they have many possibilities in an area where there are many vulnerabilities, from our troop positions to the oil and gas in the region that can be interrupted,” according to retired General Anthony Zinni, the former head of U.S. Central Command.
Some analysts say that huge oil disruptions and price hikes will certainly occur if Iran respond to a U.S. strike by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, the only sea route through which oil from Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, as well as most of United Arab Emirates, can be transported. But those analysts miss an important point. Washington knows that if such retaliation takes place, it is Europe, Japan, and China that will bear the brunt of the disruptions, and the price hikes will be denominated in U.S. dollars.
Although the U.S. imports close to 60% of its oil needs, only 10% comes from the Middle East. The vast majority comes from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and Western Africa. The oil disruptions will affect to a much larger extent its major competitors who are far more dependent on Middle East oil & gas. Moreover, they will be forced to keep using the U.S. currency that in turn will be recycled in the U.S.
Iraq’s destruction and its descent into civil war has been carefully designed on a bipartisan basis to secure the U.S.‘s interests. After the invasion, Iraq returned to the U.S. dollar hegemony. Its resources are now controlled by the invaders, and the U.S.‘s main competitors are licking their wounds.
It is quite obvious that the same propaganda campaign, which has been used before the Iraq War, is again working perfectly with Iran. A recent L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll shows that 57% Americans favor military intervention against Iran. Of these same respondents, 53% believe it was not worth going to war against Iraq. Commenting on these findings, former Reagan Treasury Assistant Secretary Paul Craig Roberts said: “One wonders if Americans ever think of the consequences of the rash actions they favor."
Al-Jazeera