|
"We Don't Speak To Evil"
By Ted Rall
10/04/07 -- -- The nation is Iran. And the reaction is
ridiculous.
"The Evil Has Landed," shrieked the headline of the New York
Daily News on the occasion of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speeches at
the United Nations and Columbia University. A "madman," Rupert
Murdoch's New York Post spat, setting the tone for a week of
Bizarro News. On "60 Minutes," the Iranian president said there
was no reason his country and ours couldn't be friends--even the
best of friends.
"La la la la--we can't hear you" was the response.
"Is it the goal of your government, the goal of this nation to
build a nuclear weapon?" CBS News' Scott Pelley asked
Ahmadinejad.
He replied: "You have to appreciate we don't need a nuclear
bomb. We don't need that. What need do we have for a bomb?"
Pelley followed up: "May I take that as a 'no,' sir?"
Ahmadinejad: "It is a firm 'no.'"
Some Americans would pay good money to hear an answer as honest
and straightforward as that from their leaders. Yet, minutes
later, Pelley kept badgering: "When I ask you a question as
direct as 'Will you pledge not to test a nuclear weapon?' you
dance all around the question. You never say 'yes.' You never
say 'no.'"
Weird. Is Pelley hard of hearing? But what I really can't figure
out is how Iran qualifies as our--Very Big Word coming--"enemy."
We're not at war with Iran. Neither are our allies. What gives?
Capitalizing on the reliable ignorance of the American public
and the indolent gullibility of its journalists, the Bush
Administration regularly conflates its numerous targets of
regime change, pretending they love each other to death and are
united only in their desire to slaughter innocent American
children. There are gaping chasms in this narrative, but they
vanish into our national memory hole.
After the 9/11 attacks turned the U.S. against the Taliban, U.S.
media outlets put footage of a handful of jeering Palestinians
on heavy rotation. Meanwhile, "In Iran, vast crowds turned out
on the streets and held candlelit vigils for the victims.
Sixty-thousand spectators respected a minute's silence at
Tehran's football stadium."
Wondering why you never heard that? The above quote comes from
the BBC. Fox News didn't report. American news consumers didn't
know, much less decide.
Finding an opportunity for rapprochement and a mutual foe in the
Taliban, Iran became a silent America ally after 9/11. The
Iranian military offered to conduct search and rescue operations
for downed U.S. pilots during the fall 2001 war against the
Taliban. It used its influence with the Afghanistan's Dari
population to broker the loya jirga that installed Hamid Karzai
as president of Afghanistan.
Everyone expected U.S.-Iranian relations to thaw. There was even
talk about ending sanctions and exchanging ambassadors. A few
weeks later, however, White House neocons had Iran named as a
member of an "Axis of Evil" in Bush's 2002 State of the Union
address. "We were all shocked by the fact that the U.S. had such
a short memory and was so ungrateful about what had happened
just a month ago," remembers Javad Zarif, now the Iranian
ambassador to the U.N.
Bush accused Shiite-majority Iran, a mortal enemy of
Sunni-dominated Al Qaeda, of offering sanctuary to Al Qaeda
fighters fleeing Afghanistan. "Iran must be a contributor in the
war against terror," Bush railed. "Either you're with us or
against us." The allegation was BS. No one--not the CIA, not one
of our allies, no one--believed that Iran would harbor, or had
harbored, members of Al Qaeda. "I wasn't aware of any
intelligence supporting that charge," says James Dobbins, Bush's
special envoy to Afghanistan. But we never took it back.
In May 2003, Iran shook off its annoyance and again tried to
make nice. The Iranian overture came in the form of a letter
delivered to the State Department after the fall of Baghdad.
"Iran appeared willing to put everything on the table--including
being completely open about its nuclear program, helping to
stabilize Iraq, ending its support for Palestinian militant
groups and help in disarming Hezbollah," reported the BBC.
U.S. officials confirm this overture.
"That letter went to the Americans to say that we are ready to
talk, we are ready to address our issues," says Seyed Adeli, an
Iranian foreign minister at the time. Larry Wilkerson, chief of
staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, says the Bushies
made a conscious decision to ignore it. "We don't speak to
evil," he recalls that Administration hardliners led by Donald
Rumsfeld said.
In the minds of the hard right, the case for Iran's evilness
rests on three issues: the 1979 hostage crisis, its opposition
to Israel, and its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Readers of Mark Bowden's "Guests of the Ayatollah" can't help
but sympathize with the American embassy staffers who spent 444
days in captivity from late 1979 to early 1981. But the
right-wingers' real beef over this episode concerns our wounded
national pride.
What they fail to mention is that President Carter brought the
mess upon himself, first by continuing to prop up the corrupt
and brutal regime of Reza Shah Pahlavi long after it was
obviously doomed, and then by admitting him to the U.S. for
cancer treatment. Carter knew that his decision to coddle a
toppled tyrant could stir up trouble.
"He went around the room," said then-Vice President Walter
Mondale," and most of us said, 'Let him [the Shah] in. And he
said, 'And if [the Iranians] take our employees in our embassy
hostage, then what would be your advice?' And the room just fell
dead. No one had an answer to that. Turns out, we never did."
Iran finances and arms Hezbollah, the paramilitary
group-cum-nascent state based in Lebanon that wages sporadic
attacks against Israel. If proxy warfare and funding Islamist
terror organizations that despise Israel were a consideration,
however, the U.S. would cut off relations with and impose
sanctions against Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. (Can we stop
talking to ourselves? We supported the Afghan mujahedeen.) It is
possible to maintain friendly relations with nations that hate
one another, and we do.
There are two points missing from most discussions of Iran's
nuclear energy program and whether it's a cover for a weapons
program. First, Iran ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty in 1970. Leaders of the Islamic Republic inherited the
NPT from the Shah. The revolutionaries voluntarily chose to
honor the agreement after they threw him out.
Second, the U.S. practices a double standard by threatening war
against Iran while ignoring Israel's refusal to obey a U.N.
resolution calling for a nuclear-free Middle East passed in
1996. As of the late 1990s, U.S. intelligence agencies believed
Israel to possess between 75 and 130 nukes. Iran has zero.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, there's
even less evidence against Iran than there was against Saddam's
Iraq.
There are many legitimate reasons to criticize the government of
Iran. They're just a regional rival in the Middle East--another
frenemy.
(Ted Rall is the author of the new book "Silk Road to Ruin: Is
Central Asia the New Middle East?," an in-depth prose and
graphic novel analysis of America's next big foreign policy
challenge.)
Click
on "comments" below to
read or post comments
Comment
Guidelines
Be succinct, constructive and
relevant to the story.
We
encourage engaging, diverse and
meaningful commentary. Do not
include personal information such
as names, addresses, phone
numbers and emails. Comments
falling outside our guidelines
– those including personal
attacks and profanity – are
not permitted.
See our complete
Comment
Policy and
use
this link to notify us if you
have concerns about a comment.
We’ll promptly review and
remove any inappropriate
postings.
Send Page To a Friend
In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational
purposes. Information Clearing House has no
affiliation whatsoever with the originator of
this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
|
