SEVEN THINGS YOU DIDNT KNOW THE U.S. AND ITS ALLIES DID TO IRAN
BY JON SCHWARZ
Its hard for some Americans to understand why the Obama administration is
so determined to come to an agreement with Iran on its nuclear capability,
given that huge Iranian rallies are constantly chanting Death to America!
I know the chanting makes me unhappy, since Im part of America, and I
strongly oppose me dying.
But if you know our actual history with Iran, you can kind of see where
theyre coming from. They have understandable reasons to be
angry at and frightened of us things weve done that if, say, Norway had
done them to us, would have us out in the streets shouting Death to
Norway! Unfortunately, not only have the U.S. and our allies done
horrendous things to Iran, were not even polite enough to remember it.
Reminding ourselves of this history does not mean endorsing an Iran with
nuclear-tipped ICBMs. It does mean realizing how absurd it sounds when
critics of the proposed agreement say it suddenly makes the U.S. the weaker
party or that were getting a bad deal because Iran, as Republican Sen.
Lindsey Graham put it, does not fear Obama enough. Its exactly the
opposite: This is the best agreement the U.S. could get because for the
first time in 35 years, U.S.-Iranian relations arent being driven purely by
fear.
1. The founder of Reuters purchased Iran in 1872
Nasir al-Din Shah, Shah of Iran from 1848-1896, sold Baron Julius de Reuter
the right to operate all of Irans railroads and canals, most of the mines,
all of the governments forests, and all future industries. The famous
British statesman Lord Curzon called itthe most complete and extraordinary
surrender of the entire industrial resources of a kingdom into foreign hands
that has probably ever been dreamed of. Iranians were so infuriated that
the Shah had to rescind the sale the next year.
2. The BBC lent a hand to the CIAs 1953 overthrow of Irans Prime Minister
Mohammad Mosaddegh
If the Reuters thing werent enough to give Iranians a grudge against the
Western media, the BBC transmitted a secret code to help Kermit Roosevelt
(Teddys grandson) lay the groundwork for an American and British coup
against Mosaddegh. (BBC Persian also assisted by broadcasting pro-coup
propaganda on the orders of the British government.) Soon enough the U.S.
was training the regimes secret police in how to interrogate Iranians with
methods a CIA analyst said were based on German torture techniques from
World War II.
3. We had extensive plans to use nuclear weapons in Iran
In 1980 the U.S. military was terrified the Soviet Union would take
advantage of the Iranian Revolution to invade Iran and seize the Straits of
Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. So the Pentagon came up with a plan: If the
Soviets began massing their troops, we would use small nuclear weapons to
destroy the mountain passes in northern Iran the Soviets needed to move
their troops into the country.
So we wouldnt be using nukes on Iran, just in Iran. As Pentagon historian
David Crist put it, No one reflected on how the Iranians might view such a
scenario. But they probably would have been fine with it, just as wed be
fine with Iran nuking Minnesota to prevent Canada from gaining control of
the Gulf of Mexico. No problem, wed say. Nuestra casa es su casa.
4. We were cool with Saudi Arabia giving Saddam $5 billion to build nukes
during the Iran-Iraq war
You probably know that, after Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980, Iraq went
all out (with our help) trying to make biological, chemical and nuclear
weapons, and actually used chemical weapons on Iranian soldiers. What you
probably dont know is that Saudi Arabia was funding Saddams nuclear
program with billions of dollars, and the Reagan administration knew all
about it and didnt care.
To understand how this looks to Iran, remember that at least 0.75% of Irans
total population died during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, the per capita
equivalent today of 2.4 million Americans. For comparisons sake, we still
constantly talk about World War II in which 400,000 Americans died, then
0.3% of our population 70 years later.
5. U.S. leaders have repeatedly threatened to outright destroy Iran
Its not just John McCain singing bomb bomb bomb Iran. Admiral William
Fallon, who retired as head of CENTCOM in 2008, said about Iran: These guys
are ants. When the time comes, you crush them. Admiral James Lyons Jr.,
commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in the 1980s,has said we were prepared
to drill them back to the fourth century. Richard Armitage, then assistant
secretary of defense, explained that we considered whether to completely
obliterate Iran. Billionaire and GOP kingmaker Sheldon Adelson advocates an
unprovoked nuclear attack on Iran in the middle of the desert at first,
then possibly moving on to places with more people.
Most seriously, the Obama administrations 2010 Nuclear Posture Review
declared that we will not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons
states that are party to the NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] and in
compliance with their nuclear non-proliferation obligations. Theres only
one non-nuclear country thats plausibly not in this category. So we were
saying we will never use nuclear weapons against any country that doesnt
have them already with a single exception, Iran. Understandably, Iran
found having a nuclear target painted on it pretty upsetting.
6. We shot down a civilian Iranian airliner killing 290 people, including
66 children
On July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes, patrolling in the Persian Gulf, blew
Iran Air Flight 655 out of the sky.The New York Times had editorialized
about Murder in the Air in 1983 when the Soviet Union mistakenly shot down
a South Korean civilian airliner in its airspace, declaring, there is no
conceivable excuse for any nation shooting down a harmless airliner. After
the Vincennes missile strike, a Times editorial announced that what happened
to Flight 655 raises stern questions for Iran. Thats right for Iran.
Two years later the U.S. Navy gave the Vincenness commander the highly
prestigious Legion of Merit commendation.
7. We worry about Iranian nukes because they would deter our own military
strikes
Our rhetoric on Iran seems nonsensical: Do U.S. leaders actually believe
Iran would engage in a first nuclear strike on Israel or the U.S., given
that would lead to a quick and devastating retaliation from those well-armed
nuclear powers?
Even conservative U.S. foreign policy experts know thats incredibly
unlikely. Theyre not worried that we cant deter a nuclear-armed Iran
theyre worried that a nuclear-armed Iran could deter us. As Thomas
Donnelly, a top Iran analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, put it in
2004, the prospect of a nuclear Iran is a nightmare
because of the
constraining effect it threatens to impose upon U.S. strategy for the
greater Middle East.
The surest deterrent to American action is a
functioning nuclear arsenal.
This perspective that we must prevent other countries from being able to
deter us from waging war is a bedrock belief of the U.S. establishment,
and in fact was touted as a major reason to invade Iraq.
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko"
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