Iran’s Holocaust conference and the dead end of bourgeois nationalism

[IndianaGreen]

Iran’s Holocaust conference and the dead end of bourgeois nationalism

By Bill Van Auken
23 December 2006

In his year-end press conference, President George W. Bush once again condemned the Iranian government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the officially sponsored conference of Holocaust deniers convened in Teheran earlier this month, declaring that it “heralded a really backward view of the history of the world.”

This is from a US president whose administration frankly discusses the options of supporting a sectarian civil war that would result in the “the uprooting or extermination” of Iraq’s more than 5 million Sunni Arabs and of provoking a region-wide Sunni-Shia war that could claim millions more victims (New York Times, Dec. 17, “The Capital Awaits a Masterstroke on Iraq”).

The denunciations of the Iran conference have been nearly universal. Leaders of governments in Europe and America as well as the Vatican—all of whose predecessors actively collaborated in the Holocaust, ignored and covered it up or worked strenuously to prevent its survivors from entering their territories—were among the loudest critics.

The hypocrisy underlying such condemnation is plain. The aim of Washington and its allies is to use the issue to provide one more justification for another war of aggression in the Middle East aimed at securing domination over the region’s vast energy supplies.

Having said that, the conference convened by the Iranian regime was as shameful as it was reactionary.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/iran-d23.shtml

[madrchsod]

1. it may be said the people voted the the conservatives out of power

but whether they go "gently into the night" is the question. the people in iran and the usa voted against the conservatives but it would seem they both do not care to listen.

[still_one]

4. Wait until January. The Democrats will NOT go gently into the night anymore /nt

[Trajan]

2. I love you IG ....

But shameful it was ....

There is enough shame to go around in history, and none should be excluded IF there is specific culpability ... Every intentional act that causes harm has someone who is responsible for that intention ....

[still_one]

3. Shouldn't the Iranian Holocaust conference be condemned?

What bush and company did is also bad, but no one is having a conference denying the disaster and death we caused in Iraq

[Unvanguard]

5. Their characterization of the Chávez government as "bourgeois nationalist"

is open to question, but I guess they have their reasons, some of which are good ones.

Such quibbles aside, this is an excellent article; this sort of nationalism is merely an attempt by the fundamentalist scum who rule Iran to avoid the plain fact that their program has not and cannot solve the problems the Iranian people face. It is a grievous mistake to interpret it as some kind of heroic defense against the infestation of capitalist imperialism.

[IndianaGreen]

6. One of the reasons why Ahmadinejad delights in challenging Bush

is that he is feeding red meat to his base. When you have Bush and Condi make bellicose statements on Iran, they are merely playing into Ahmadinejad's hands by undercutting his domestic opposition.

By threatening Iran, we are undercutting the moderates in Iran and emboldening the radicals.

American and Israeli bombs won't distinguish between an Iranian radical and a moderate, and if we are foolish enough to go ahead with war, we will only succeed in unifying the entire Iranian nation against the West.