Eric S. Margolis 9 March 2012
NEW YORK – Israel’s American supporters are crying out for war against Iran. The entire Republican Party – with the exception of the intrepid Dr. Ron Paul – is consumed by war fever bordering on the hysterical.
Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, whose foreign affairs experience is, to put it politely, limited, vowed unlimited military support for Israel and insinuated that Obama was an Arab sympathizer. Romney, who never served in the military, opined that attacking Iran would be easy.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2008 threat to “obliterate” Iran was joyously recalled during a huge Israel lobby gathering last week in Washington.
Israel’s right wing government insists it must attack Iran before the Islamic Republic gets nuclear weapons that will be used to obliterate Israel. “Time is running out,” warned Israeli leader Bibi Netanyahu last week while visiting Washington to show Americans who really runs US Mideast policy. He said nothing about his own nation’s estimated 300 nuclear weapons, or why it needs so many when 16-20 would obliterate the entire Arab world and Iran.
Netanyahu’s claim raises an interesting question. Since many Americans think it’s essential to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities – even though US intelligence denies Iran is even working on nuclear weapons – then what about North Korea?
Why shouldn’t Japan and its big brother ally, the United States, attack North Korea’s nuclear infrastructure? Unlike Iran, North Korea actually has an estimated four operational nuclear weapons and some 800 short and medium-ranged missiles that can strike US bases in South Korea and Japan.
The North’s new Taepodong missile can cover much of Japan. It is unknown if North Korea has yet developed nuclear warheads, but Pyongyang certainly has chemical and biological ones. The North has routinely threatened to turn South Korea and Japan into a “sea of fire.” That’s even more fevered than Iranian rhetoric.
Iran has only a handful of highly inaccurate Shahab- II missiles with small, conventional warheads, but no nuclear warheads. Iran has much less offensive military capability than North Korea.
In fact, if US intelligence is correct, Iran threatens no one with nuclear weapons – because it has none. Meir Dagan, former chief of Israel’s intelligence service Mossad, just told CBC News that it would be a mistake to attack Iran, and diplomacy should be given more time – pulling the Persian carpet from under the war mongering Republican candidates.
Having followed Iran’s nuclear policies for 20 years, I’m amazed that Tehran has not by now managed to deploy nuclear weapons. Even Israel’s defense minister recently wondered aloud why Iran hadn’t already produced such weapons.
Even though US troops in North Asia are seriously threatened by North Korea’s weapons, there are no calls in the US Congress or media to launch a war against North Korea. To the contrary, Pyongyang is opening new nuclear talks with the US, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China.
Contrast this measured diplomacy to the rush to war against Iran now being marketed in the US. The United States faced thousands of Soviet nuclear weapons for fifty years. Could not nuclear-armed Israel do the same with Iran, assuming Tehran had a few nuclear weapons?
Last week, President Obama had the courage to stand up to the Israel lobby in an election year and say, “slow down.” He rightly called Republican leaders irresponsible for shamelessly beating the war drums.
In fact, President Obama might also have told Republicans, “your leader John McCain denounced me last week for not leading US military intervention in Syria and Iran. Well, he backed our wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, and look where that got us!”
“What’s more, the Afghan and Iraq Wars will end up costing American taxpayers $2 trillion. This vast sum was piled on the US national debt, undermining our economy.”
“A new, drawn out war against Iran – never mind Syria – could cost us another trillion. If the Israel lobby wants war, let them ante up and pay for it.”
“Let’s level with Americans and tell them that smashing Iran and keeping it down by repeated bombings will cost each family $30,000 in new taxes.
“That’s facing reality. See how many Americans want a new war after that.”
copyright Eric S. Margolis 2012
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Am I the first to comment?
Congrats on the new website Eric.
On to business. Damn those Israeli warmongers!
Great new look and I have to say that I love it. Sadly, others in your previous site degenerated your topics into a free for all to further their own agenda. I grew tired and did not comment much. This way is much better in my opinion.
I at times have disagreed with some of your articles on principle. However I do find them informative and interesting and I do not miss any of your posts…
I have a deep connection to Viet Nam and this summer I will be going there once again. I would love to see you write some articles regarding Viet Nam. The current political enviroment, the economy, and dear to my heart the limited knowledge on the long time impact of Agent Orange and Purple. The shame continues to haunt the country to this day. In my mind the US has not properly taken ownership of its actions during the thousand day war.
Nicely said Eric. The zealous pounders of war against Iran are in pandering for Jewish money by tradfing American debt and lives for Israeli hegemony. Its a laugh to think Israel is threatened by Iran. Indeed the show is on the other foot. Its time the Israeli Lobby was registered as a foreign lobby and subject to major lobbying and financial restrictions. I hope they don’t lead America and the world economies into a cataclymism. What does Israel care? America is a tool for them, not a friend.
It is about time that Obama stepped up and told the Israelis to cool it, after all these people and their repub hacks were crying about Iraqi WMD’s and we know what happened there-where are these “weapons”? Eric as always says it like it is and we need more like him to tell the truth, needless to say FAUX NEWS would never hire him. Israel cannot wag the dog like they have for so many years, to stop this nonsense all Obama has to do is stop the “foreign aid” of 3 billion dollars that the USA sends every year to them, this saving should be used for deficit reduction. Surely the repubs cannot complain about that?
Anyone remember John Aristotle Phillips the A-Bomb kid? In 1976, while attending Princeton University as a junior undergraduate, he designed a nuclear weapon using publicly-available books and papers. Any terrorist group determined enough to build one can without Iran.
The information is out there and the Genie cannot be put back in the bottle. Iran has been under attack by the US and the West since the peaceful, non-violent people’s revolution and break from the past and the American installed proxy Dictator the Shah. Democracy was not for the Iranian people when the US had the dominant influence, but only for American domestic consumption.
The last thing the international arms merchants want to see is peaceful non-violent revolutions happening in this world as it happened in Iran in ’79. That would put them out of business. The US is the biggest arms merchant the world has ever produced. The more violent the revolution the better for business.
In a recent Ramsay Clark video of an interview by RT television, he stated that if the President is not elected for a second term, he is considered a failed president. I believe that President Obama will be elected again. He is steering US foreign policy towards diplomacy. The American People are tired of war and will support his efforts, especially if he succeeds with Iran. Obama would be wise to consult with Eric, who knows the culture and politics of the Persian/Afghani people. In the upcoming Presidential Debates, I hope President Obama mentions the $30,000 per family in new taxes. That will open peoples eyes to the warmongering agenda that his opponent will no doubt deploy.
ad iudicium
Great to have the website up and running again.Having closely monitored the situation about the constant never ending war mongering going on,it is CLEARLY evident who the most dangerous man to world peace is…and it isn’t Ahmadinajad…but rather PM Benjamin Netanyahu himself.He and his exteme Right Likud party are angering Israeli moderates as well as peace desiring Israelis,not only in Israel,but around the world.This man is a DANGER…far more than any politicians are willing to admit or even have the spine to do anything about it.Netanyahu’s recent visit to his clapping seal PM Harper and to a lesser extent President Obama,clearly indicates who is,in fact,in charge when it comes to American (and Canadian…now) foreign policy.The words that come out of the mouths of these gutless politicians is just mind boggling…and that is being understated.
Welcome back young man!
Finally back to reading Mr Eric’s unvarnished world views. My longest dry spell since 1983.
CNN was killing me.
Let’s hope that civil discourse prevails in the comments section.
Certainly intelligent and varying views were never in short supply.
Alas “Hope can be a dangerous thing in the Shawshank”.
Respectfully
Hi Eric,
You are one of few sane journalists in the West.
However, the reason why Islamic Republic of Iran has not produced nuclear weapons is because it goes against the teachings of Islam. In the early part of the revolution Ayatullah Khomeini said it is haraam ( forbidden) in Islam and this policy has and will remain in Islamic Iran. The reason for this is because nuclear weapon is a WMD where innocent people would die. The US and state of Israel kill innocent women and children everyday anyways. So really they dont really need WMD!
Just like you raised a good point about the former Soviet Union and US in the cold war; nobody dared fire a single nuclear weapon. That would be a mutual destruction.
So Eric, we are past the age of WMD. And you have to admit the Iranian regime is a very intelligent and rational people who use logic and reasoning. Meir Dagan, former chief of Israel’s intelligence service Mossad himself pointed out in an interview that the Iranians are “rational”.