Victims of History

By: Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."- George Santayana

01/05/06 "Information Clearing House" -- --- Regrettably, the most immoral among us remember the past, observe the criminal implications and repeat it. In 1939, six years after the Madrid Conference, Hitler met with his military chiefs and delivered a speech that today some are determined to emulate:

“It was knowingly and lightheartedly that Genghis Khan sent thousands of women and children to their deaths. History sees in him only the founder of a state. The aim of war is not to reach definite lines but to annihilate the enemy physically. It is by this means that we shall obtain the living space that we need. Who today speaks of the massacre of the Armenians?”

In 1996, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and David Wurmser prepared a paper for former Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding Israel’s grand strategy in the Middle East. This paper involved the removal of Saddam Hossein from power . Not without coincidence, the three men were given high level positions in the Bush Administration. Perle became Pentagon’s Chair of the Defense Policy Board (2001-04), Douglas Feith who was forced to resign from his post as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy following investigations into allegations of distorting prewar intelligence on Iraq; and last but not least, Wurmser who became special assistant to the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control (now advisor to Dick Cheney) whose wife Meyrav founded MEMRI, the very institution which translates everything that comes out of Iran – and elsewhere in the Middle East.

On May 2, 2003, President Bush landed on the flight deck of the USS Lincoln, above him a large sign that read “Mission Accomplished” - Indeed this was the accomplishment of “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” recommended by Perle, Feith, and Wurmser. Three years later, Americans would see more than 3000 body-bags brought home, the violent death of more than 655,000 Iraqis, and the execution of Saddam Hossein. Those injured and maimed, those we starved and deprived with our sanctions have been buried in stupor’s cemetery.

Our trance is deliberate, for we are the executioners – the rope that hung Saddam and massacred hundreds of thousands was our ignorance, fear, and complacency. We never questioned the morality of the sanctions, nor their effectiveness. Not a single tear was shed for the Iraqi children that died as a result of the sanctions. The old and the sick were not our concern as long as they weakened the tyrant, so we thought. But their skeletons were the pillars of his palaces, our ignorance profound, our consciousness dormant, we ravaged and buried a whole nation.

Congress was cowered into violating international law based on lies. Only 6 congressional members read the NIE (national intelligent estimate) on which a decision was made to go to war. Over 450 members elected to represent the American people neglected their duty. Emboldened, the cabal of neo-cons bribed and intimidated the United Nations to sanction Iran. After all, it was next on the ‘A clean Break’ and on the wish list. On our part, abandoning morality, salivating at the thought of taking more lives so as to empower the malignant tumor of destruction and death, we clung to our weapons – And so I say we are the Angels of Death who kill with our complacency, ignorance and fear.

The three feed on each other; the fear on ignorance and complacency on fear. When Khomeini with millions of followers made this claim about Zionism: “this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time, just as the Shah's regime in Iran had vanished.”, Israel provided Iran with weapons considering it to be a lesser enemy than Iraq [but an enemy nonetheless]. And one must not forget the Iran Contra affair which took place during the Reagan Administration when Iran was sold arms so that the Contras in Nicaragua could be financed. Khomeini’s remarks, his elevated status as an Imam did not seem to be an ‘existential threat’ to Israel or the US, odd that a president who is without power, should bring the wrath of the world. But then, Iraq had not been defeated and reduced to rubbles yet – Iran’s number had not been called. Nor had the MEK been called to serve its masters, Israel, to provide false intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program. Nor had MEMRI been established to misinterpret and misguide the public.

In 2002, the MEK (aka NCRI), ‘exposed’ Iran’s undeclared nuclear activities. Of interest is the fact that more recently, in 2005, the same group declared that the “production of Beryllium and polonium-210 is being carried out ” implicating Iran in nuclear bomb-making. Fortunately, intensive and intrusive inspections by IAEA dismissed the charges to the chagrin of Bolton. [side note: Polonium-210 is what was used to poison the Russian spy in London. He met with Leonid Nevzlin in Tel-Aviv before meeting his demise. Nevzlin is under investigation for his death . What is not being investigated is the fact Russian plants are under IAEA inspection while Israeli plants are not; it is also noteworthy that this misinformation about Iran is more in line with Israel’s weapon of demonization as well as well as that of assassination – Polonium-210).

Regardless of lack of evidence, the US persisted with its push for sanctions.

We are in the hand of history makers, learning from the past, destroying the future. Friends have been bought. Allies turned into enemies. China whose ambition is to regain its lost suzerainty, and without a doubt the only power challenging the United States, acted out of character for “China also believes sanctions are not an effective way to resolve problems and China has been opposing economic sanctions or pressures imposed on relevant countries, including on the Darfur issue”(BBC international reports) . In November 20, 2004, China stated that it “opposed” moves to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council over its nuclear program (Spencer) . The package from the US would seem to include selling out Taiwan. It would seem that when the President was talking about ‘sacrifice’, he was talking not only about more American lives, but perhaps he had Taiwan in mind. After all, history has shown that US foreign policy has never been in favor of democracies.

In 2005, Washington opposed Tel-Aviv’s sale of sensitive military equipment to China. Specifically, the Harpy Killer unmanned drones as Washington feared that the advanced US defense technology contained in Israeli equipment would be used against Taiwan . It now seems that the destruction of Iran is far more important than the ideals of democracy. On December 3, 2007, the Israeli Prime Minister announced that he would be visiting China to meet with President Hu in order to negotiate trade and Iran’s nuclear program . No doubt Israel will be passing high tech equipment to China in appreciation of its cooperation.

Resolution 1737 is not meant to stop the sensitive nuclear materials and technology; it was a first step towards demanding further sanctions on the Iranian people. Under secretary of State, Nicholas Burns stated: “We don't think this resolution is enough in itself. And we're certainly not going to put all our eggs in a UN basket," . After harsher sanctions have been imposed, with or without consensus, the United States plans to attack Iran and massacre millions of innocent Iranians. The US toll would depend on its method of warfare.

If there should be a future left to those looking back at this decade, they will remember genocide at so many fronts – But it is safe to venture and guess that they would find it extraordinary that we were able to sit in our sitting rooms and without lifting a finger, enabled the death of millions of people across the world.

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich has lived and studied in Iran, the UK, France, Australia and the US. She obtained her Bachelors Degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and she is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Middle East Studies concentrating in Political Science. She has done extensive research on US foreign policy towards Iran and Iran’s nuclear program.