Engage or Enrage
Originally published in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (September/October 2005) The Iranian Labyrinth: Journeys through Theocratic Iran and Its Furies, By Dilip Hiro Nation Books, 418 pages, 2005, $16.95 Iran’s Nuclear Option: Tehran’s Quest for the Atom Bomb, By Al J. Venter Casemate Publishers, 451 pages, 2005, $29.95 Suddenly it was 1979 over again. In the United States, the election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prompted a wave of nostalgia — and not the good kind. In the words of the Chicago Tribune, Ahmadinejad was an “ultraconservative” former mayor of Tehran who “sought to resurrect the fervor” of Iran’s Islamic revolution. Grainy photos of Ahmadinejad — or someone resembling him –from more than 20 years ago appeared on television screens like a scene from America’s Most Wanted, amid speculation that he … Read entire article »
Filed under: Book Reviews, Foreign Policy, Iran
When Does Opposition to Israel or the Israel Lobby Indicate Anti-Semitism?
Writing for the New York Times online on March 4, 2007, Stanley Fish asked the question, “Why Does Anti-Semitism Persist?” Quoting Professor Charles Small of Yale University, Professor Fish notes, “Increasingly, Jewish communities around the world feel under threat,” and he blames three words for that feeling: “Israel, Iraq and anti-Semitism.” Here’s how Professor Fish explains the connection: “Much of the world has been opposed to the Iraq war from its beginning, and now after four years 70 percent of Americans share the world’s opinion. Some who deplore the war believe that those who got us into it and cheered it on did so, at least in part, out of a desire to improve Israel’s position in the Middle East. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Foreign Policy, Iran, Iraq War
A Pig Looking at a Watch: Assessing Iran’s Nuclear Program
Now that North Korea might reopen its doors to weapons inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), U.S. “intelligence agencies are facing the possibility that their assessments will once again be compared to what is actually found on the ground.” [David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, "U.S. Concedes Uncertainty On Korean Uranium Effort," New York Times, March 1, 2007] Perhaps that explains why, during “a little-noticed exchange” [Ibid] at the 27 February 2007 session of the Senate Armed Services Committee, an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence seized the opportunity to publicly soften earlier intelligence findings about North Korea’s uranium enrichment program. “We still have confidence that the program is in existence” but now … Read entire article »
Filed under: Foreign Policy, Iran
Israel’s Bomb, Iran’s Pursuit of the Bomb and U.S. War Preparations (Part 2 of 3)
One person possessing the courage to admit guilt for his role in producing the bomb was Albert Einstein. Some five months before his death in late 1954, Einstein declared: “I made one great mistake in my life, when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made, but there was some justification – the danger that the Germans would make them.” [Karpin, pp. 358-59] Another person, David Ben-Gurion, reached just the opposite conclusion about the bomb. Notwithstanding the role that Zionist settlers played in stirring up Arab hatred in Palestine, in the wake of the Arab attacks on Jews in Jerusalem in August 1929 and the “Arab Revolt” of 1936, Ben-Gurion told friends in Jerusalem, “The danger … Read entire article »
Filed under: Book Reviews, Foreign Policy, History, Iran, Military History
Israel’s Bomb, Iran’s Pursuit of the Bomb and U.S. War Preparations (Part 1 of 3)
Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan, by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Harvard University Press, 2005, $29.95 Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War, by Michael D. Gordin, Princeton University Press, 2007, $24.95. The Bomb in the Basement: How Israel Went Nuclear and What that Means for the World, by Michael Karpin, Simon & Schuster, 2006, $26.00. Target Iran: The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change, by Scott Ritter, Nation Books, 2006, $25.95. Four years ago today, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell played a major role in persuading a gullible, stupefied and craven American news media and public – but not a cynical world – to support the Bush administration’s illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq. He did so by presenting … Read entire article »
Filed under: Book Reviews, Foreign Policy, History, Iran, Military History
Iraq “Rendezvous”: Cheney, “Bubble-boy” and Ahmadinejad Up the Ante
Listening to Vice President Cheney and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad exchange threats of war while both nations hover, like vultures, over the moribund carcass of Iraq’s insurgency-racked shotgun democracy, I was reminded of David Low’s famous 1939 cartoon, “Rendezvous.” Mr. Low, you’ll recall, depicted Hitler and Stalin as bloodthirsty tyrants, tipping their hats in salutation while standing over Poland’s corpse. Thus, Hitler saluted Stalin: “The scum of the earth I believe?” Stalin replied: “The bloody assassin of the workers, I presume?” But, unlike Hitler and Stalin, who collaborated to effect Poland’s dismemberment, Cheney and Ahmadinejad play ‘winner take all.” Thanks to the criminal dishonesty and gross incompetence of Cheney, his fellow “cabal-mate,” Rumsfeld, a sycophantic Condoleezza Rice … Read entire article »
Filed under: Bush Administration, Iran
The Nation: Editor's Picks
- Global War on Terror, R.I.P. May 24, 2013 Bob Dreyfuss
- This Week in Poverty: Homeowners Take the Foreclosure Fight to the DOJ May 24, 2013 Greg Kaufmann
- Was the Assassination of Four US Citizens Legal? May 23, 2013 Jeremy Scahill