{"id":12280,"date":"2012-09-04T13:26:15","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T20:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=12280"},"modified":"2012-09-26T06:11:10","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T13:11:10","slug":"chomsky-the-us-and-israel-not-iran-threaten-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=12280","title":{"rendered":"Chomsky – The US and Israel, Not Iran, Threaten Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US and Israel, Not Iran, Threaten Peace<\/strong>
\nby Noam Chomsky – 4 September, 2012 – commondreams.org<\/p>\n

It is not easy to escape from one\u2019s skin, to see the world differently from the way it is presented to us day after day. But it is useful to try. Let\u2019s take a few examples.<\/p>\n

The war drums are beating ever more loudly over Iran. Imagine the situation to be reversed.<\/p>\n

Iran is carrying out a murderous and destructive low-level war against Israel with great-power participation. Its leaders announce that negotiations are going nowhere. Israel refuses to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and allow inspections, as Iran has done. Israel continues to defy the overwhelming international call for a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the region. Throughout, Iran enjoys the support of its superpower patron.<\/p>\n

Iranian leaders are therefore announcing their intention to bomb Israel, and prominent Iranian military analysts report that the attack may happen before the U.S. elections.<\/p>\n

Iran can use its powerful air force and new submarines sent by Germany, armed with nuclear missiles and stationed off the coast of Israel. Whatever the timetable, Iran is counting on its superpower backer to join if not lead the assault. U.S. defense secretary Leon Panetta says that while we do not favor such an attack, as a sovereign country Iran will act in its best interests.<\/p>\n

All unimaginable, of course, though it is actually happening, with the cast of characters reversed. True, analogies are never exact, and this one is unfair \u2013 to Iran.<\/p>\n

Like its patron, Israel resorts to violence at will. It persists in illegal settlement in occupied territory, some annexed, all in brazen defiance of international law and the U.N. Security Council. It has repeatedly carried out brutal attacks against Lebanon and the imprisoned people of Gaza, killing tens of thousands without credible pretext.<\/p>\n

Thirty years ago Israel destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor, an act that has recently been praised, avoiding the strong evidence, even from U.S. intelligence, that the bombing did not end Saddam Hussein\u2019s nuclear weapons program but rather initiated it. Bombing of Iran might have the same effect.<\/p>\n

Iran too has carried out aggression \u2013 but during the past several hundred years, only under the U.S.-backed regime of the shah, when it conquered Arab islands in the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n

Iran engaged in nuclear development programs under the shah, with the strong support of official Washington. The Iranian government is brutal and repressive, as are Washington\u2019s allies in the region. The most important ally, Saudi Arabia, is the most extreme Islamic fundamentalist regime, and spends enormous funds spreading its radical Wahhabist doctrines elsewhere. The gulf dictatorships, also favored U.S. allies, have harshly repressed any popular effort to join the Arab Spring.<\/p>\n

The Nonaligned Movement \u2013 the governments of most of the world\u2019s population \u2013 is now meeting in Teheran. The group has vigorously endorsed Iran\u2019s right to enrich uranium, and some members \u2013 India, for example \u2013 adhere to the harsh U.S. sanctions program only partially and reluctantly.<\/p>\n

The NAM delegates doubtless recognize the threat that dominates discussion in the West, lucidly articulated by Gen. Lee Butler, former head of the U.S. Strategic Command: \u201cIt is dangerous in the extreme that in the cauldron of animosities that we call the Middle East,\u201d one nation should arm itself with nuclear weapons, which \u201cinspires other nations to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Butler is not referring to Iran, but to Israel, which is regarded in the Arab countries and in Europe as posing the greatest threat to peace In the Arab world, the United States is ranked second as a threat, while Iran, though disliked, is far less feared. Indeed in many polls majorities hold that the region would be more secure if Iran had nuclear weapons to balance the threats they perceive.<\/p>\n

If Iran is indeed moving toward nuclear-weapons capability \u2013 this is still unknown to U.S. intelligence \u2013 that may be because it is \u201cinspired to do so\u201d by the U.S.-Israeli threats, regularly issued in explicit violation of the U.N. Charter.<\/p>\n

Why then is Iran the greatest threat to world peace, as seen in official Western discourse? The primary reason is acknowledged by U.S. military and intelligence and their Israeli counterparts: Iran might deter the resort to force by the United States and Israel.<\/p>\n

Furthermore Iran must be punished for its \u201csuccessful defiance,\u201d which was Washington\u2019s charge against Cuba half a century ago, and still the driving force for the U.S. assault against Cuba that continues despite international condemnation.<\/p>\n

Other events featured on the front pages might also benefit from a different perspective. Suppose that Julian Assange had leaked Russian documents revealing important information that Moscow wanted to conceal from the public, and that circumstances were otherwise identical.<\/p>\n

Sweden would not hesitate to pursue its sole announced concern, accepting the offer to interrogate Assange in London. It would declare that if Assange returned to Sweden (as he has agreed to do), he would not be extradited to Russia, where chances of a fair trial would be slight.<\/p>\n

Sweden would be honored for this principled stand. Assange would be praised for performing a public service \u2013 which, of course, would not obviate the need to take the accusations against him as seriously as in all such cases. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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The US and Israel, Not Iran, Threaten Peace by Noam Chomsky – 4 September, 2012 – commondreams.org It is not easy to escape from one\u2019s skin, to see the world differently from the way it is presented to us day after day. But it is useful to try. Let\u2019s take a few examples. The war more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1469],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12282,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12280\/revisions\/12282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}