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Washington also balked. Hillary Clinton "Every step of the way has demonstrated clearly to the world that Iran is not participating in the international arena in the way that we had asked them to do and that they continued to pursue their nuclear program."
So what is the real agenda? A negotiated deal or regime change. The similarities to Iraq are striking but no alarms are going off. Why?
The most important discussion should be what is the threat to the United States if Iran gets a nuclear weapon three years from now.
Israel's Nukes
Israel has close to 100 nuclear weapons stored at its Dimona facility yet no American president has ever publicly mentioned Israel's nuclear weapons. At the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the final statement criticized Israel for not joining the Non Proliferation Treaty. The double standard rose its ugly head. Obama's statement at the close of the treaty.
"The
United States has long supported such a [nuclear-free Middle East]
zone, although our view is that a comprehensive and durable peace in the
region and full compliance by all regional states with their arms
control and nonproliferation obligations are essential precursors for
its establishment. We strongly oppose efforts to single out Israel, and
will oppose actions that jeopardize Israel's national security,"But Israel is different, they would never proliferate nuclear weapons, they are America's best friend, the only democracy in the Middle East. Well, they are a democracy if you weren't born in what is now Israel as a Palestinian. The Guardian reported recently on how declassified apartheid era documents show that Israel tried to sell nuclear weapons to South Africa. "Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons."
Interesting to see the spin the story was given in The New York Times.
Israel Denies It Offered South Africa Warheads
JERUSALEM -- The office of Israel's president, Shimon Peres, strongly denied Monday that Mr. Peres, as Israel's defense minister, offered to sell nuclear warheads to South Africa in 1975, as reported by The Guardian.
Hard to make that case that Iran is the evil one if Israel is proliferating nuclear weapons to apartheid regimes.
The Real Debate
Instead of debating the pros and cons of another war against a country that has done us no harm, nor has said it will, we should focus on why we are so entangled in the Middle East in the first place.
Is it oil? Less than 17% of US oil imports come from the Middle East, and only Saudi Arabia represents an important part of our oil needs.
Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day)
Country May-10
