Bush's Run to Iran
July 18th 2008 00:07
Tell me: can you imagine a herd of gazelles living smack bang in the middle of lion territory? I can. I’ve seen it on Animal Planet. And that means I know what happens to Mr and Mrs Gazelle. Hint: it’s not pretty. There’s blood. And ripping and tearing and pouncing. Suffice to say the Family Gazelle do not fair too well.
The warning of the gazelle and the lion has been what has kept the US from having a diplomatic presence in Iran since the catastrophe of the crisis where, as part of overthrowing the Shah, Iranian revolutionaries took hostage the American embassy in Tehran and kept hostage all it’s occupants between 1979 and 1981. Pretty sensibly after that the US have been a little gun shy of having an embassy in the country. Especially since Iran hasn’t exactly given them a reason to believe diplomats returning would be safe. The country is currently under the same regime that came to power in the 1979 Revolution, to begin with. Not that the US hasn’t cooperated with formerly hostile regimes before. In fact, they dealt with this new regime in a round-about sort of way during the Iran-Contra scandal, selling weapons to the Iranians to fund anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua. But not only was that on not exactly ‘on the level’, it ruined a lot of careers within the Reagan Administration and so the US were forced to distance themselves from the Iranians even further to compensate for their misstep.
Fast forward from the 1980’s to 2008 and US-Iranian relations haven’t exactly thawed much. In fact, for the last few years they’ve actually gotten worse. The US accuses Iran of funding terrorists, trying to exert their influence over southern Iraq, threatening Israel and taking steps to try to develop a nuclear weapons program. The Iranians say they have nothing to do with terrorism, only want nuclear power rather than weaponary and it is in fact the US who are the one’s acting behind the scenes to destabilise the Middle East region. This game of he said-she said may seem pathetic but it has a dangerous edge to it: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks he can solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem without a road map to peace, instead having just two simple steps: press the button, and watch Israel disappear under a nuclear mushroom cloud. And the US? Not exactly known for having a steady trigger finger when it comes to invading threatening Middle Eastern nations.
This week, however, President Bush has made a rather startling turn around. US officials will meet with Iranian officials to hear their ideas on a plan to resolve the nuclear weapon stand-off between the two countries. Bush has always been hardline on Iran, refusing to even meet with anyone from the Iranian Government. It seems that in his Administration’s dying days, like Bill Clinton with his last minute attempts at solving the Israel-Palestine situation, he is making a mad dash towards establishing a positive legacy with US-Middle East relations. One can only wonder how successful such a move will be. I mean, we all saw what happened to Clinton’s last minute plan for the Middle East. Because aren’t those Israeli’s and Palestinians living in such peace and harmony? Right?
In the event these discussions do lead to a plan being agreed upon for Iran to cut back it’s nuclear program the US have said they will open a ‘US special interests section’ in Tehran, the first step to reestablishing an embassy. But why now? Of all the time in the past few years that the US could have done with an outlet of diplomacy in Iran and the Bush Administration chooses now to put one in place? I think I may have an idea of why.
There is a senior member in the Bush Administration that is in favour of military strikes against Iranian nuclear power plants right now, a pretext to open warfare between the US and yet another country in the region. That man is Vice President Dick Cheney. Maybe President Bush finally feels comfortae stepping out from under Cheney’s influence in the dying days of the Administration. In the last months of his Presidency, maybe Bush feels like he can override Cheney without too much political fallout. Either way, he has nothing to lose.
He’d just better be careful. I hear Cheney’s good with a hunting rifle.
The warning of the gazelle and the lion has been what has kept the US from having a diplomatic presence in Iran since the catastrophe of the crisis where, as part of overthrowing the Shah, Iranian revolutionaries took hostage the American embassy in Tehran and kept hostage all it’s occupants between 1979 and 1981. Pretty sensibly after that the US have been a little gun shy of having an embassy in the country. Especially since Iran hasn’t exactly given them a reason to believe diplomats returning would be safe. The country is currently under the same regime that came to power in the 1979 Revolution, to begin with. Not that the US hasn’t cooperated with formerly hostile regimes before. In fact, they dealt with this new regime in a round-about sort of way during the Iran-Contra scandal, selling weapons to the Iranians to fund anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua. But not only was that on not exactly ‘on the level’, it ruined a lot of careers within the Reagan Administration and so the US were forced to distance themselves from the Iranians even further to compensate for their misstep.
Fast forward from the 1980’s to 2008 and US-Iranian relations haven’t exactly thawed much. In fact, for the last few years they’ve actually gotten worse. The US accuses Iran of funding terrorists, trying to exert their influence over southern Iraq, threatening Israel and taking steps to try to develop a nuclear weapons program. The Iranians say they have nothing to do with terrorism, only want nuclear power rather than weaponary and it is in fact the US who are the one’s acting behind the scenes to destabilise the Middle East region. This game of he said-she said may seem pathetic but it has a dangerous edge to it: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks he can solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem without a road map to peace, instead having just two simple steps: press the button, and watch Israel disappear under a nuclear mushroom cloud. And the US? Not exactly known for having a steady trigger finger when it comes to invading threatening Middle Eastern nations.
This week, however, President Bush has made a rather startling turn around. US officials will meet with Iranian officials to hear their ideas on a plan to resolve the nuclear weapon stand-off between the two countries. Bush has always been hardline on Iran, refusing to even meet with anyone from the Iranian Government. It seems that in his Administration’s dying days, like Bill Clinton with his last minute attempts at solving the Israel-Palestine situation, he is making a mad dash towards establishing a positive legacy with US-Middle East relations. One can only wonder how successful such a move will be. I mean, we all saw what happened to Clinton’s last minute plan for the Middle East. Because aren’t those Israeli’s and Palestinians living in such peace and harmony? Right?
In the event these discussions do lead to a plan being agreed upon for Iran to cut back it’s nuclear program the US have said they will open a ‘US special interests section’ in Tehran, the first step to reestablishing an embassy. But why now? Of all the time in the past few years that the US could have done with an outlet of diplomacy in Iran and the Bush Administration chooses now to put one in place? I think I may have an idea of why.
There is a senior member in the Bush Administration that is in favour of military strikes against Iranian nuclear power plants right now, a pretext to open warfare between the US and yet another country in the region. That man is Vice President Dick Cheney. Maybe President Bush finally feels comfortae stepping out from under Cheney’s influence in the dying days of the Administration. In the last months of his Presidency, maybe Bush feels like he can override Cheney without too much political fallout. Either way, he has nothing to lose.
He’d just better be careful. I hear Cheney’s good with a hunting rifle.
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