Freedom Rider: Defend Iran!

“Americans can expect to see a presidential address within the next few months, announcing bombings, drone attacks or an outright invasion with ground troops against Iran.” The momentum of war makes the result nearly inevitable. But the obligation to resist war remains paramount. “Iran has been demonized so thoroughly that only the most ardent peace activists will come to its defense, but defend it they must.”

“The question is not whether there will be an attack, but when.”

The United States has already declared a de facto war [6] on Iran. The partners in crime in the European Union and the NATO alliance have joined in, and are ganging up on Iran as instructed by Washington. The EU voted to ban imports [7] of Iranian oil and the Obama administration is attempting to extract similar promises from Asian nations.

Obama has succeeded in doing what George Bush never could. For the second time in less than one year he has managed to get nearly all Western nations on board with his plans for conquest. Regime change in Libya has not been without complications for the west, but Gaddafi was not just overthrown, he was killed, and as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed out, Washington could not have been happier with that outcome.

The writing is on the wall, and Americans can expect to see a presidential address within the next few months, announcing bombings, drone attacks or an outright invasion with ground troops against Iran. The thought of this crime is enough to make any conscious individual sick with anger, but with no power in the world capable of stopping the United States, the die are cast.

“Obama is loved by Democrats who hated Bush and was likewise welcomed by people around the world who shared that antipathy to his predecessor.”

When George W. Bush invaded Iraq in 2003, millions of people around the world took to the streets. Bush was discredited because of his fraudulent election and his ham-fisted treatment of even allied nations. Obama is hampered by none of these complications. He is loved by Democrats who hated Bush and was likewise welcomed by people around the world who shared that antipathy to his predecessor. He was awarded a Nobel peace prize merely on the basis of having been elected president. Such accolades give him a protective Teflon coating that would have made Ronald Reagan jealous.

After claiming that an Iranian used car salesman hatched a bizarre assassination plot, and lying about Iran’s nuclear capabilities, and threatening that nation for pledging to defend itself, the question is not whether there will be an attack, but when. The other question is what the people of this country and this world will say and do when that occurs. Iran has been demonized so thoroughly that only the most ardent peace activists will come to its defense, but defend it they must.

Iran has done nothing to warrant the enmity expressed by the west and its people have the right to live free from yet another American attack on their nation and on their lives. Thirty years ago another American president, Ronald Reagan, supported Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran. This sorry episode has been largely forgotten, but it should be pointed out that more than one million people died in the decade long conflict which would not have taken place without America’s arms and money.

“Any short comings we may observe in that society don’t give Americans the right to commit war crimes and kill thousands of people.”

Who in America will speak up for the Iranian people and their government? There should be no hesitancy and no wavering. America’s violence and wars of aggressions should be condemned, and individual opinions about the nation in question should not keep anyone who marched in the streets in 2003 from doing the same thing again in 2012.

It doesn’t matter if president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that “there are no gay people in Iran” or that Islamic law restricts women’s legal rights. Any short comings we may observe in that society don’t give Americans the right to commit war crimes and kill thousands of people. Lest we forget, Iran had a secular and democratically elected government sixty years ago and that government was destroyed by the United States and Great Britain, who are once again working hand in had to deny other nations the right to self-determination.

There should be no qualifications because of phony stories about “wiping Israel off the map.” That canard has long been discredited and in any case it is Israel that has a nuclear arsenal capable of wiping Iran off the map. It doesn’t matter who won the disputed election in 2009. The United States does not have the right to kill people based on another country’s internal disputes. We must also remember that undemocratic and even oppressive rule have never been obstacles to winning American support if the right interests want that to happen.

Libya has been laid waste because of tall tales perpetrated by the West. Tales of civilian slaughter in Benghazi are Obama’s WMD, that is to say outright falsehoods. There will be more such story telling in the coming weeks and months, but it should not matter to anyone who claims to want peace.

Peace makers must defend Iran and condemn the American government when it launches its violence. Such actions will be the true determination of who is civilized and who is not. Our government is definitely uncivilized and we shall see how many of its people also fit that description.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as athttp://freedomrider.blogspot.com. [8] Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com.