Iran Overload
I’m on overload too. Now, what would Will Rogers say? Remember one of his favorite quips, “All I know is what I read in the papers”. If he were here today Will would have to say, “All I know is what I read in the papers, newsmagazines, e-zines, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC. Don’t you think he’d just pack a lunch, buy bait and go fishing? I’m tempted to do just that but then I think of all the information, people are dying to hear me dispense, and I blog.
As you can tell, if you’ve read any of my articles, Iran—Ahmadinejad—uranium enrichment is the theme of this blog and true to that theme I’ll stay, sort of.
During the past month or two A-jad has gone from resistance to IAEA inspections to semi resistance and now he’s saying Tehran may agree to ship part of its stockpile of low enriched uranium abroad for enrichment. The AP reported that this is the first official indication that Iran could at least partly sign onto a UN-drafted plan aimed at easing nuclear tensions. I’ve underlined the obvious modifiers.
There are those who think this is a step in the right direction but is it really. We all hope so, however, there are many who think it’s a lie, another delaying tactic while A-jad ramps up his program of enriching uranium for military purposes. You’ve heard this over and over, I know. Here is the reason I’m siding with the skeptics. Anthropologists believe Homo sapiens moved out of East Africa 50 to 100,000 years ago and those people (our ancestors) brought with them practices that would help them survive. Survival was the only goal, nothing else mattered. Those practices—that later became traditions, customs, mores, culture, etc.—included self defense, there were a lot of adversaries including predatory animals. Long story short groups formed out of a need to protect themselves from animals as well as a growing number of adversarial human beings. With the advent of groups (tribes, settlements, towns, cities), and ultimately a perception of encroachment, came conflict over the traditions and customs mentioned above. All of that has been engrained (hardwired) into the brain of the male gender along with suspicion and deceit. You can not conquer an enemy without first being suspicious of their intent and employing deception in discovering whether your suspicions are warranted or not. The crux of what I’m saying is this hardwiring of self defense, suspicion, deceit, and ultimately killing (barbarism, if you like.) trumps diplomacy most of the time. Therefore, diplomacy must be entered into with the same level of suspicion and deception as our adversaries. Diplomacy is a tool, not a universal remedy, like the military it should be used sparingly and with utmost caution.
One might think I’m being barbaric, uncivilized, silly or stupid for thinking this and out of my mind for dumping it in cyberspace and maybe I am. I invite you to tell me what you believe.
Ahmadinejad the Predictable
Keeping track of Ahmadinejad and his plans for a nuclear armed Iran has been both enlightening and predictable. How many times have we read headlines quoting A-jad saying, “Iran’s nuclear activities are geared solely toward generating electricity.” One thing I’ve learned over the short 66 years I have been alive is that if you say something enough times, no matter how ludicrous, it becomes a fact to some. Think Hitler, you can’t tell me that all his followers were fire-breathing, psychopathic monsters, no you can’t. Those men that opted to become monsters themselves did so after hearing Adolph proclaim in hundreds of speeches that he—and his faithful followers—were of a superior race. They heard that trash long enough to buy it. That’s what A-jad is hoping for now, that the community of leaders within the IAEA will begin to believe him. He is even using old and overused transparent rhetoric accusing the US, and allies, of forging documents that supposedly prove Iran is enriching uranium far beyond what is needed to produce electricity. Opponents of the certainty Iran has a secret A-bomb program going on somewhere in the high desert keep calling everyone’s attention to the US mess in Iraq. We were certain weapons of mass destruction were being made and stockpiled. Our downsized intelligence gathering agencies did not have a good handle on that certainty and it cost America dearly in credibility. Now, there’s reason to not trust what the US is telling the world and A-jad is capitalizing on that.
According to a recent story in Foreign Policy magazines morning brief A-jad is still lambasting Mousavi, the opposition leader, and his followers. Even the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Ahmadinejad to be open to benevolent criticism. But being open is not the way of psychopaths (Hitler) nor extremists (A-jad). Being open is a sign of weakness to both, whether it is or isn’t. The fact is the Hitler’s and Ahmadinejad’s believe it. Their jobs are to convince others and, unfortunately, they do far too often.
Same Old Story
The Iranian government—you know, all Ahmadinejad’s loyal friends—has agreed to allow the IAEA a look at one of their newest energy generating plants. Ahh, the new government and its old president have finally come around. World opinion and pressure has encouraged sanity in the region and the outcome, halleluiah and hold onto your hat, a renewal in Persia!
Okay, okay, I know you don’t believe that for a minute but, as we’ve discussed earlier, a show of cooperation is just a chess game move—a strategy to buy time. I think the artificial willingness to cooperate was brought about by Netanyahu’s not so veiled remark two weeks ago about a military strike. Regardless of Ahmadinejad’s motivation to give the appearance of openness he is still stalling. Why? Because he is enriching uranium to weapons grade, why else.