The Chris Moeller Archives

Where's the celebration?

The nuclear freeze agreement with Iran is the historic achievement to date, foreign or domestic, for the Obama administration, with praise wide and warranted enough to spread to Secretary of State Kerry. The credit goes principally to new Iranian President Rouhani, but Obama and Kerry get kudos as well for laying down their swords and walking forward even one step to counter Rouhani's ten. There's no recent precedent for this in American foreign policy towards Iran. The act of diplomacy alone here is historic as the tentative agreement results from the first formal talks between the two states since 1979.

There are no parties being scheduled in the Beltway today however. Much of Washington still sees more legitimacy in a "President Netanyahu" than a President Obama, and it's those blinders, paid for by mountains of stone cold campaign cash, that still prevent them from seeing how far Iran has come on this agreement. There is still no agreement with Israel on ending the apartheid status of Palestine that the international community condemns. Israel still holds up progress on a nuclear proliferation treaty for the entire Middle Eastern region. (Israel is the only country with a massive nuclear capacity in that area.) It will still be a violation of international law every time you hear a U.S. official utter the phrase "all options are on the table" in regards to Iran as the U.N. charter strictly forbids the threat or use of force in international relations (as if anyone besides Noam Chomsky ever acknowledges this fact).

The truth is that Iran, capability or not, has never had motivation to attack the U.S. or Israel. Any act of aggression on its part towards either well-armed power would certainly mean its almost-complete annihilation. One can see its motivation to enrich uranium, both to provide energy for the nation and to protect itself against its itchy neighbors. Iran has land borders with three countries to its west and east and the U.S. has repeatedly attacked all three of these militarily over the last decade. It's not a stretch to make the claim that Iran's threatening public posturing has actually helped to keep it safe from the fate of its neighbors. Now by agreeing not to enrich uranium above a certain purity, Iran is clearly showing a wish for peace.

Netanyahu, the P.W. Botha of Israel, is pissed of course. We're hearing the words "deception," "self-delusion," and "historic mistake" from him and his government, and as for the hope of a separate peace between Iran and Israel, the Jewish state's cabinet minister for intelligence says only that Israel won't attack Iran-- for the time being. The neo-cons there, and here, are warning that Rouhani is no Gorbachev, that he's a wolf in sheep's clothing, but weren't they also the ones that warned us against Gorbachev? These thuggish conspirators, always eager to promote the concept of permanent enemies, are the greatest enemies of peace on this earth.

posted by CM @ 9:24 AM