Iran's Nuclear Program for Dummies

The rhetoric is heating up over Iran's controversial nuclear program. Israel, the United States and European Union believe that Iran is secretly attempting to build a nuclear bomb. Iran maintains that they have never attempted to build a nuclear bomb and at only 20 percent uranium enrichment do not have the capacity to create one; a nuclear bomb takes around 90 percent enrichment. Israel, the arch rival of Iran in the middle-east, has indicated eagerness to setback Iran's nuclear capabilities through strategic aerial bombings. The U.S. on the other hand can not afford the opening of another war front in addition to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. An Israeli strike would lead to a complex Iranian response and the U.S. would be forced to intervene. To avoid this potentiality the U.S. and Europe are proposing another round of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran as punishment for their disobedience.

Iran is the only muslim country in the middle-east today which opposes the U.S. wars and occupations in the region. Although in the past Iran has been bitter enemies with Sunni extremist organizations like Al-Qaeda, it maintains the true intentions behind the current U.S. occupations are to increase political hegemony and military control. Other Arab muslim countries on the other hand, have tacitly supported U.S. objectives in the middle-east and the stalemate in occupied Palestine. The U.S. is working to isolate Iran by supplying billions of dollars in military aid and other payments to the Arab regimes. Ironically, most of these countries are governed by authoritarian regimes that are responsible for serious violations of basic civil liberties and human rights themselves.

All of the countries which are proposing sanctions against Iran have nuclear weapons; and, one(America) is the only country to have dropped them on actual people. The problem therefore is not nuclear weapons or enrichment of uranium but political power. If the U.S. can leverage the threat of a nuclear armed Iran to weaken its position in the region, America will have won a huge strategic victory over the only opposing government in the middle-east. Iran on the other hand, surrounded on every side by permanent U.S. bases and proxy governments, can not afford to allow this marginalization to take place. Israel is waiting for U.N. sanctions to fall through so that it may take direct military action its self with guaranteed American support. The nuclear saga is proving once again that "politics is war without bloodshed". But when the stakes are as high as they are in the middle-east, bloodshed is never beyond the realm of immediate possibilities.

The most important thing for intelligent observers in the weeks ahead is not to become so blind with patriotism or bleeding heart liberalism to allow themselves to be manipulated as most were before the Iraq War. Iran is no different than any other State in that it is narrowly seeking its own self-interests, but that does not mean it wants to build a nuclear bomb and destroy Israel or America. Realize the attempts to demonize the Islamic Republic of Iran through comparisons to Nazi Germany are totally based on propaganda, not reliable information. And the fact that Iran is historically guilty for human rights violations is the rule rather than the exception for all State powers including America. This time around we can break through the bipolar, good v.s. evil garbage and appreciate the complexity of geo-politics before the war breaks out.

U.S. Defense Spending and the Battle of Ideas

"History has shown that where the Great Powers cannot colonize, they balkanize. This is what they did to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and this is what they have done and are doing in Africa. If we allow ourselves to be balkanized, we shall be re-colonized and be picked off one after the other...."-Kwame Nkrumah

My mother says in a verbal debate the one who throws the first punch has conceded the argument to the other side. At the bequest of the "invisible government", the Obama administration wants to increase war spending to record highs and has made clear that America has given up trying to persuade the world to accept its role as the supreme hegemon and instead has chosen to impose its self.

The overwhelming reliance on violence by the American government is obviously a response to declining ideological legitimacy around the world. The recession has eroded the mythology of neo-liberal economics. The attempts by the U.S. to impose its version of liberal democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan are extremely unpopular and along with the Israeli occupation of Palestine are radicalizing millions of young muslims in opposition. In Latin America a legion of left-wing political and social movements are directly challenging the historical dominance of the U.S. The American government finds its self increasingly marginalized, supporting a right-wing coup regime in Honduras and ignoring human rights violations against the poor in Colombia. Accordingly, the U.S.-lead "War on Drugs" in Latin America has been almost as tragic a failure there as in the ghettos of the U.S.

The waning influence of American ideological hegemony is being overcome by an anti-democratic attempt to force our "national interests" on the third world. This is the reason why in the first month of 2010, the U.S. has sold millions of dollars in weapons to Taiwan to threaten China, to authoritarian proxies in the middle-east and why the latest budget request from the Obama administration asked Congress to approve a record $708bn in defense spending for fiscal year 2011. The budget calls for a 3.4 per cent increase in the Pentagon's base budget to $549bn not including the occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The "national interests" the U.S. is seeking to achieve around the world clearly do not include the interests of poor and working-class families in America. At the same time the Obama administration spends a greater amount of money on so called defense than ever before, it has announced a spending freeze on all Federal social programs. The recession has hit many American states hard and massive budget cuts have eroded the minimal safety-nets which existed before the financial crisis. Meanwhile, the American people who need help the most are being forced to pay for endless war and occupation in foreign lands.

The U.S. is clearly loosing the battle of ideas on environmental protection, socio-economic justice, and committment to a multi-polar world. The only way to stop their irrational rampage for market access and influence is for a united global justice movement to challenge the militarization of social problems and propose real solutions to the crises which affect us all.