Noam Chomsky's recent comment on the US approach to Iran in an interview with Jon Snow, 14 October 2009:
If someone was watching this from Mars, they'd collapse in ridicule. The United States is telling Iran to stop its aggressive militarism? I mean we occupy two countries on their border, US spending on arms is approximately equal to the rest of the world combined, we're threatening them with attack and violation of the UN Charter and on and on. Iran hasn't invaded anyone for, probably, centuries, except for two Arab islands that the Shah conquered with the support of the United States.
Are there any Martians here? I have felt like a Martian for a while because the whole thing seems just ridiculous. The biggest military bully just will not stop threatening Iran, as if we did not have enough problems of our own to sort out with a rabid theocracy, a region burning with fundamentalist fire, and an existential threat from a dangerous, nuclear-armed Israel.
A threat to whom?
Iran is not and never was a threat to the US, and this makes the whole US attitude toward Iran rather 'obsessive'. I would even suggest that the Obama approach might be tied to the economic woes of the US, and her realization that the end of empire is near. Empires often drive themselves bankrupt through excessive military adventurism. The military industrial complex is as much a cause of US weakness in that sense.
As for Israel, I think Iran is a real threat to Israel's power projection in the region, and that Israel's loss of power to Iran is inevitable.
Question of style?
Iran's regional strategy has to some extent been ludicrous in that it has been carried out way too confrontationally and guided by some cosmic fundamentalist cause, leading to illusions of having a monopoly on the 'truth' and the 'gateway to heaven'. This, however, is similar to US and Israeli misconceptions. And 'interfering in other countries affairs' is surely not specific to Iran.
Is it the nuclear issue?
Iran wants to develop her technology to a point where she can produce bombs if needed, but she is not going to produce any. Her aim is to place herself strategically within the nuclear fuel cartel. This is likely to be the OPEC of tomorrow, and Iran sees no reason to stay out of it. Nor should she from a national interest perspective.
In terms of weapons, Iran's position
is a safe and stable position for both Iran and the region. A nuclear-capable
(rather than nuclear-armed) Iran reduces the threat of war from Israel, not
only against Iran but others too.
It's all about power
All the noise is basically about holding Iran down, and maintaining the US-Israeli stranglehold on the region. This is not because of the regime's theocratic nature, but because no power holder wishes to share power, even if they claim to believe in democracy and the rule of law.
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