U.S. War Machine... Heading Towards Iran

[norml]

U.S. War Machine... Heading Towards Iran
Revolution #031, January 22, 2006, posted at revcom.us

Over this past week, tensions between the U.S. and Iran got ratcheted up. Iran's government removed seals that kept Iranian scientists from accessing uranium enrichment equipment at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility. Those seals were part of a special deal that Iran's rulers made with European powers for inspection and supervision of Iran's nuclear power program--a deal that provided for much more supervision than is called for in existing international agreements governing the development of nuclear power plants. In response, European powers, including Russia, cut off their cooperation with Iran's nuclear development program.

The tension surrounding these developments comes from the fact that the U.S. and its regional enforcer, Israel, have been increasingly making threats against Iran, and a real danger of a widely escalated war in the Mid-East looms behind the charges and counter-charges surrounding Iran's nuclear program.

Readers might find it hard to imagine, given how bogged down the U.S. is in the Iraqi quagmire, that even Bush and his crew would charge off into a much wider war, with even more dangerous implications. But powerful forces within the Bush regime, as well as a powerful underlying logic, are driving events in a direction where such a conflict is a real danger.

snip

Here, as with so many of Bush's accusations in the "war on terror," the hypocrisy is off the charts. Even setting aside who's calling who "election cheaters" and "implementers of domestic repression," which country is it that is right now in possession of over 10,000 nuclear warheads? And the U.S.--not Iran--has declared its right to attack anyone, anywhere with those weapons, with Bush himself having his finger on what he calls the "nu-cu-lar" trigger.


snip


http://rwor.org/a/031/us-war-machine-iran.htm

[cliss]

1. A good article.

An important point, which I don't see very often, is WHY the U.S. is itching to invade Iran. This article points out that it's just part of the U.S. Empire moving forward to control all countries on earth.

But why specifically Iran?

I've read a few articles that hint that Iran, and not Saudi Arabia, may have the largest oil reserves on the planet. Let's face it: this administration is made up of oil people, so they should know. And they're lusting for Iran. The article at From the Wilderness said that "while Saudi Arabia's oil fields are starting a long and precipitious decline, Iran's oil fields are going strong."

They also have the world's largest supply of natural gas. They're shipping it to India. So they're rich, rich, rich. That's why they want it.

[DinahMoeHum]

2. Why Iran? It's about vengeance for what happened in 1979

when the neocons' pet, the Shah was deposed, and later, the seizure of the US Embassy and the taking of hostages.

The neocons haven't forgotten, after all these years.

Trouble is, neither have the Iranians. Their recent memories are at least TWICE as long, going back to 1953, when a CIA-sponsored coup usurped their democratically-elected President, Mossadegh, and put the Shah on the throne.

:evilfrown:

[apple_ridge]

6. It has nothing to do with vengeance.

It has everything to do with oil. Their goal is to destabilize the middle east and maintain control of 2/3 of the remaining oil on earth.

[Larkspur]

3. Iran is switching to Euros, just like Saddam had done

This would hurt the US economy because oil is sold in US Dollars. If oil rich countries switch to Euros than the US will have to purchase Euros to purchase oil and Euros are worth more now than dollars.

[phantom power]

4. It's even worse than that.

The US dollar is only worth as much as it is now, because every other country has to buy oil in dollars, and so every other country keeps dollars around to buy their oil with. If the rest of the world ever had a choice of currency to buy oil with, they could dump their dollars, and the dollar could easily go down like a ton of bricks.

[yurbud]

5. and neuter us without firing a shot