Iran

Iran's alleged nuclear desire has quickly shot to the top of international attention over the course of the past week, again raising the spectre of a US/Israeli military attack.

Lamenting that we now sit on the brink of a messy confrontation, Robert Dreyfuss argues that the Bush administration has bungled this situation terribly. Dreyfuss suggests we could be at a very different juncture than the one the world currently faces if the Bushies were less ideologically driven in their foreign policy dealings.

Most of what Dreyfuss says is true. I'm not, however, terribly sympathetic to his characterisation of Iran as a "rogue regime." Looking at things that way does nothing for us. Frankly, the "rogue" label is just a smear if you're not going to similarly lament America and Israel's "rogue" characteristics.

Nor am I a fan of nuclear proliferation, and if that is indeed Iran's goal, it wouldn't make me very happy. Still, it's worth pointing out that as yet there's no evidence against Iran, a detail that seems to be getting lost in the groupthink.

Unfortunately, to suggest that Iran has no need for nuclear weapons is absurd when you consider the sort of rhetoric emanating out of Tel Aviv and Washington for at least the last 4 years. It's perfectly reasonable for Iran to want to have nuclear weapons when they have shown to be the only real deterrent against aggression from the west (see Korea, North).

Much like the pre-war Iraq scenario, the hand wringing led by Israel and the US over nuclear proliferation is being used as a cover to build up Iran as a grave threat to humanity, which can then be manufactured into political momentum or public support for missile strikes. Again, the desirability of creating conditions where the US and/or Israel can act militarily with minimum international uproar is the goal here. The question of Iran's nuclear program, while not insignificant for the rest of the world, is not what is driving this scenario.

Memo to Americans and, indeed, the rest of the world: don't get caught up in the groupthink, again.