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| Image credit: Storm is Coming |
In fact, if anything can persuade Iran to pursue nuclear weapons, it’s the Republican hawk’s lust for war.
Republicans say Iran cannot be trusted. But, it seems to me that Iran has more reasons not to trust the United States.
In 1953, the United States, along with its counterpart the United Kingdom, overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh, reinstating Mosaddegh with the puppet government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran.
(Pahlavi was the former king of Iran. The Iranian Revolution in 1979 forced the Shah into exile. This is the point where our problems with Iran, and the calls that Iran can’t be trusted, began.)
In 1980, the United States found it necessary to assist Iraq’s Saddam Hussein with arms when they blindsided Iran with an all-out invasion.
In 2003, after the United States military toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, the Iranian government sent a negotiation proposal letter to President George W Bush that included transparency on their nuclear program, collaboration with the United States against terrorism, and collaboration with the United States and Iraq to ensure the installation of a nonsectarian government in Iraq. Bush, however, never responded to the overture. Bush and his Republican cohorts, exalted by their successful invasion of Iraq, instead had in mind to do the same thing with Iran – regime change.
Reagan’s “trust, but verify” is the mantra often used in opposition to the Iran deal. However, Reagan, who republicans worship and hold in high esteem, betrayed our trust when he secretly conspired with Israel to facilitate arms sales to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo at the time, in order to acquire the release of American hostages held by Iran and use its proceeds to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
And, no one should forget that the Republicans used cooked intelligence to justify the Iraq war.
For years, Republicans have had an opportunity to take meaningful action to prevent Iran from the possibility of developing nuclear weapons. But, all they have accomplished is to make threats of bombings and war.
When Bush took office in 2001, the number of Iranian centrifuges was minimal …less than 12. During the Bush years, Iran built under a mountain a new enrichment facility at Qom. Under a Republican belligerent strategy of bombs and war, Iran now has 19,000 centrifuges.
In 2003, when Iran offered to negotiate with the United States, it may have been possible to convince Iran to dismantle all of its centrifuges, since they had so few.
In 2005, Iran had a few hundred centrifuges and negotiating a nuclear deal with the European Union but the Bush administration refused to comply with any deal with Iran. “We don’t negotiate with evil,” said Vice President Dick Cheney, “We defeat it.” So, the E.U. negotiations and proposals failed.
The Iran Nuclear deal between Iran, the Obama administration and five other countries (all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council) limits Iran to about 6,000 centrifuges. It accomplishes two goals: prevents another war and prevents Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Americans should be wise enough to know that the Republican Party lied and took us into a war with Iraq, and that they are up to the same shenanigans now with an all-out effort to derail the Iran deal. The Republican Party not only advocates destructive foreign policy but destructive economic and social policies as well.
All but one country has a problem with the Iran deal and that’s the United States.
© Copyright 2015 Horatio Green
