In Praise of the Balance of Power in the Middle East

"We're fixated on the Iranian nuclear program while the Tehran regime has its eyes on the real prize: the balance of power in the Persian Gulf and the greater Middle East." - Thomas Donnelly, November 29, 2011.

"It can not be repeated too often: The secret to understanding US foreign policy is that there is no secret. Principally, one must come to the realization that the United States strives to dominate the world. Once one understands that, much of the apparent confusion, contradiction, and ambiguity surrounding Washington's policies fades away. Examine a map: Iran sits directly between two of the United States' great obsessions — Iraq and Afghanistan ... directly between two of the world's greatest oil regions — the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea areas ... it's part of the encirclement of the two leading potential threats to American world domination — Russia and China ... Tehran will never be a client state or obedient poodle to Washington. How could any good, self-respecting Washington imperialist resist such a target? Bombs Away!" - William Blum, December 3, 2011.

The talk of nuclear war in the Middle East is heating up.

There is an international consensus emerging that Washington, Israel, and the terrorist cult MEK are working together silently to destabilize Iran's missile defense systems and nuclear capabilities. Iranian nuclear scientists, engineers, and generals have been assassinated during this shadow campaign of sabotage and terror.

Several big lies have been told by U.S. and Israeli officials to legitimize their criminal attacks against Iran, none bigger than this one: Iran is working on a nuclear program to wipe out Israel.

The truth is Iran is not building nuclear weapons. And second, even if Iranian leaders were building nuclear weapons, they are not crazy enough to drop a nuke on an Israeli city. It is obvious that Ahmadinejad, who has grand delusions and anticipates the coming of the Mahdi, is more stable and sane than the Jewish messianic leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Serious Middle East experts and intelligence officials know that Iran does not pose a nuclear threat to Israel or the United States. MJ Rosenberg's article, "American Enterprise Institute Admits: Iran Threat Isn't That It Will Launch Nuclear Attack," shows that even cold-blooded neoconservatives are abandoning their "Iran will wipe out Israel" propaganda. Rosenberg says that the real threat Iran poses to the West and Israel is political and strategic, writing:

Suddenly the struggle to stop Iran is not about saving Israel from nuclear annihilation. After a decade of scare-mongering about the second coming of Nazi Germany, the Iran hawks are admitting that they have other reasons for wanting to take out Iran, and saving Israeli lives may not be one of them. Suddenly the neoconservatives have discovered the concept of truth-telling, although, no doubt, the change will be ephemeral.

The shift in the rationale for war was kicked off this week when Danielle Pletka, head of the American Enterprise Institute's foreign policy shop and one of the most prominent neoconservatives in Washington explained what the current obsession with Iran's nuclear program is all about.

The biggest problem for the United States is not Iran getting a nuclear weapon and testing it, it's Iran getting a nuclear weapon and not using it. Because the second that they have one and they don't do anything bad, all of the naysayers are going to come back and say, "See, we told you Iran is a responsible power. We told you that Iran wasn't getting nuclear weapons in order to use them immediately..." And they will eventually define Iran with nuclear weapons as not a problem.

Hold on. The "biggest problem" with Iran getting a nuclear weapon is not that Iranians will use it but that they won't use it and might behave like a "responsible power." But what about the hysteria about a second Holocaust? What about Prime Minister Netanyahu's assertion that this is 1938 and Hitler is on the march? What about all of these pronouncements that Iran must be prevented from developing a nuclear weapons because the apocalyptic mullahs would happily commit national suicide in order to destroy Israel. And what about AIPAC and its satellites which produce one sanctions bill after another (all dutifully passed by Congress) because of the "existential threat" that Iran poses to Israel? Did Pletka lose her talking points?

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This admission that the problem with a nuclear Iran is not that it would attack Israel but that it would alter the regional balance of power is incredibly significant. The American Enterprise Institute is not Commentary, the Republican Jewish Coalition or the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which are not exactly known for their intellectual heft.

It is, along with the Heritage Foundation, the most influential conservative think-tank. That is why it was able to play such an influential role in promoting the invasion of Iraq. Take a look at this page from the AEI website from January 2002 (featuring, no surprise, a head shot of Richard Perle). It is announcing one of an almost endless series of events designed to instigate the war with Iraq, a war that did not begin for another 14 months. Perle himself famously began promoting a war with Iraq within days of 9/11 according to former CIA director, George Tenet). AEI's drumbeat for war was incessant, finally meeting with success in March 2003.

And now they are doing it again.

What is so bad about restoring the balance of power in the Middle East? If it means aggressive nations like Israel will be prevented from attacking their neighbours without provocation then the balance of power is a good thing and should be restored in the Middle East.

It is much better for the people of the Middle East and the world if there are three or more empires competing for economic influence and political prestige in the region than one global corporate empire killing and pillaging a bunch of little nations.

The big secret is that Iran does not want to wipe Israel off the map, but merely to defend itself.

Iran's defense strategy is based on maintaining the moral high ground and retaining the support of public opinion in the Middle East, not military superiority. The state terrorists in Israel and Washington have the military superiority to demolish Iran, but they lost the moral high ground on September 11, 2001, when they killed three thousand innocent Americans, and they have lost global public support since then.

Israel and Washington can deal with a belligerent nuclear-armed state, and even a state that is trying to build nuclear weapons. But they can't deal with a state that rejects nuclear weapons for moral and spiritual reasons.

At the end of the day, the conflict between Iran and the West is primarily spiritual. U.S. drones and nuclear bombs are useless weapons in spiritual warfare. The Iranian mullahs know this. Look at the public opinion polls in the Middle East: 90 percent of the people are against the policies of Washington and Israel. Invading, bombing and occupying innocent countries is not a winning strategy. And neither is building nuclear weapons.

There is a common belief that the nuclear club is an "exclusive" club, but this belief is wrong. Think about it. If every country acquires a nuke then how exclusive is the club?

It is more exclusive in today's Middle East to reject nuclear weapons and instead rely on moral strength and public opinion to ensure your survival and success. Israel could learn a thing or two from Iran's approach.

The "mad dog Israel" has brought the Middle East and the world to the edge of Armageddon. The collective psyche in Israel and America needs to undergo a profound change.

False flag terror attacks in the United States and elsewhere, political assassinations, falsely accusing other nations of wrongdoing, and fear-mongering about the "Iranian bomb," have exposed the bankster-hijacked governments in Washington and Israel for what they are: dishonest, nuclear-armed terrorist states that are psychologically, morally and politically isolated from the international community.

The good news is that the people of Israel and America are waking up and their demonic governments no longer possess the same power over their minds as they did just ten years ago.