Unjust as that was, another element of Iran-U.S. relations is even more likely to elicit that plaintive cry no parent is spared: "It's not fair." In the words of Iran's President Ahmadinejad, "Justice demands that those who want to hold talks with us shut down their nuclear fuel cycle program too. Then, we can hold dialogue under a fair atmosphere." [Emphasis added.]
The injustice in question breaks down to four grievances. First and most obvious: We seek to deny Iran the right to develop nuclear weapons while in possession of same. (Of course, since it insists it's not developing them, Iran can't press the point.)
Second: We also seek to to deny Iran the right to develop nuclear energy. Yet that right is guaranteed by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which both the US and Iran have signed.
Third: We looked the other way as Israel developed nuclear weapons and we've drawn up a plan to provide nuclear energy and technology to India. Unlike Iran, neither are signatories to the NPT. Can you say WTF in Farsi?
Fourth: Not only does the administration fail to draw down our nuclear weapons in blatant noncompliance with the NPT, as well as oppose the Nuclear Test Ban and Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaties, it's developing new weapons. Americans may console themselves with the thought that nuclear weapons are less dangerous in our hands than in those of other countries supposedly less irrational. But Iranians look on, jaws agape, at how oblivious we are to our hypocrisy.
Like other international treaties, the NPT, thanks to the Bush administration, is on life support. Tearing down the "Do not resusciate" sign is a job for the next administration.
Who better to right these wrongs and restore justice? In other words who will not only save Iran from us, but spare us retaliatory attacks on our troops in Iraq and on our own soil, not to mention the havoc it could wreak on the economy? Every child looks up to heroes -- or today's hi-def version, the superhero.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the midst of a four-year makeover from hawk to diplomat. Scarcely the stuff of which legends are made, she's notorious for capitulating when the going gets rough. To pin one's hopes for avoiding war with Iran on her is to grasp at straws.
Meanwhile, as Porter wrote in another column, CENTCOM chief Admiral William Fallon may have "privately vowed that there would be no war against Iran on his watch." But he recently met with Arab leaders to convince them to unite against Iran. In other words, "Don't look at me when it comes to stopping war with Iran in its tracks."
Is there no public figure speaking out against an attack on Iran? The lack of anything more than an occasional peep from Congress leaves one with a sinking sensation. Where's the hero who will not only save Iran from us, but ourselves from us?
Such a person, however unlikely looking and despite his advocacy of nuclear energy, exists: Mohamed ElBaradei, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He may be a Nobel laureate, but he's not one to sit on his laurels. A recent New York Times profile termed him "everyone's best hope."
But the Washington Post referred to him in a recent editorial as the "Rogue Regulator." Guess it thinks he takes the "peace" in Nobel Peace Prize too literally. In fact, he's about all that stands between the administration and its plans to attack Iran.
Here's a collection of his preemptive strikes against preemptive war:
"I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation, where 700,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons."
"So, [Iran has] the knowledge [to build a nuclear weapon]. Sure, they have the knowledge. Are you going to bomb the knowledge?"
"Careful! If we turn up the heat too high the pot could explode around our ears."
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