http://socialistaction.org/u-s-imperialism-imposes-iran-nuke-accord/
U.S. imperialism imposes Iran nuke pact
Published September 2, 2015. | By Socialist Action.
Sept. 2015 Iran nukes
By JEFF MACKLER
The U.S. credo with regard to Iran today might well read, “Only
civilized nations and their leaders should have nuclear weapons!”
Included in this U.S.-allied circle of civilized nuclear-weapons nations
is India. But we hear no U.S. complaints regarding India’s racist Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, who essentially praised the communal murders of
1000 Muslims and suggested that all non-Hindus leave his country.
Nor is nuclear Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who routinely
orders the slaughter of Palestinian Gazans and whose government
illegally occupies 90 percent of historic Palestinian land, placed
beyond the “civilized nation” pale.
Or perhaps the Pakistani nuclear dictatorship, or the French, whose
troops slaughter tens of thousands of Africans as France reasserts its
grip over its African neo-colonies? They too are civilized. In the case
of France, the country is simply following the imperial mantra of
Rudyard Kipling’s “white man’s burden” in bringing “peace” to
“terrorist-ridden” Africa—and plunder too.
We might add the other imperialist nations among the ranks of
“civilized” countries, including the United States itself, whose
surrogate African dictator-led armies slaughtered some six million
Congolese over the past decade to steal that nation’s rich mineral
resources.
Yes, the U.S. is the properly named Great Satan—the racist, imperialist,
warmongering U.S. government, “under God,” of course, that today
presides over the illegal embargo of Iran and imposes all pervasive
sanctions that have qualitatively reduced the quality of life of nearly
all Iranians, sequestered Iranian government bank accounts, stolen
billions of dollars in Iranian funds, and cut off Iran from world oil
markets—again, in the name of “civilization!”
According to the Arms Control Association, which monitors the number and
type of all nations with nuclear arsenals, “the United States has 1,597
strategic nuclear warheads deployed on 785 ICBMs, SLBMs, and strategic
bombers. The Federation of American Scientists estimates that the United
States’s non-deployed strategic arsenal is approximately 2,800 warheads
and the U.S. tactical nuclear arsenal numbers 500 warheads. According to
the U.S. State Department, the United States possessed 4,717 active
nuclear warheads as of September 30, 2014, including tactical,
strategic, and non-deployed weapons.”
Further, the Obama administration has announced plans to upgrade its
nuclear arsenal over the next three decades at a cost of $1 trillion.
This is the deed of a “civilized” nation that holds in its blood-stained
hands the immediate capacity to wipe out all life on earth!
Iran, by contrast, has zero nuclear weapons. Neither has any source—the
imperialist-created International Atomic Energy Commission included—ever
verified Iranian plans to develop nuclear weapons.
No credible evidence has been presented that Iran’s intentions have been
otherwise. Iran has not violated any international or other treaty
obligations regarding nuclear weapons. Its development and deployment of
the technology to purify uranium for nuclear power generation, medical
purposes, and scientific research is totally within the parameters of
all international treaties.
Yet the recent Iran-U.S. “negotiated agreement” was conducted under the
threat of even deeper sanctions and the strongly implied, if not
explicit, warning that the U.S. and its Israel puppet are prepared to
bomb Iran’s enrichment facilities should they deem Iran in violation of
the imperialist-imposed “agreement” and “having exhausted all peaceful
means” of persuasion.
In our view, the world’s imperialist bully has no moral, political,
legal, or any other standing to demand that Iran or any poor and
oppressed nation accede to its demands. Need we remind our readers that
the U.S. is the only nation on earth to explode nuclear weapons on
civilian populations, having instantly obliterated over 100,000 people
(with an equal number dying from injuries and radiation sickness in
subsequent months) when it bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in August 1945?
Need we recall the 1953 military coup orchestrated by the Central
Intelligence Agency that removed Iran’s democratically elected Prime
Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and replaced him with dictator Mohammad-Reza
Shah Pahlavi, who promptly signed over Iran’s nationalized oil reserves,
the second or third largest in the Middle East, to U.S. corporations?
This U.S.-imposed dictator/king, with direct CIA assistance, established
the most murderous secret police in the world, the SAVAK, which
imprisoned, and often tortured, 70,000 Iranian dissidents. With U.S. aid
and instruction, the Shah built the world’s sixth largest army.
After the Iranian people in 1979, in the world’s largest peaceful
demonstration of seven million in Teheran, forced the Shah to flee,
where he took refuge in the U.S., the Iranians had the audacity to
return control of its oil reserves to the Iranian nation.
As punishment for this anti-imperialist transgression, the U.S. armed
and financed its Iraqi ally, Saddam Hussein, then touted as a Middle
East democrat, to attack Iran in a 10-year war that took the lives of
one million Iranians and another million Iraqis. The U.S. government
preferred that both oil-producing nations destroy each other’s refining
capabilities in order to improve the competitiveness of U.S. oil
corporations.
And when this seemingly endless war began to tilt a bit too much to the
Saddam Hussein side, members of the Reagan administration
surreptitiously sold Tow missiles at $1 million each to the still
demonized Iran, in order to even the battlefield score while keeping the
war going. In the insane and “civilized world” touted by U.S.
apologists, war is good for oil profits and for the military-industrial
complex too!
The terms of the present Iran-U.S. “agreement” are heinous—but they are
certainly in line with the stipulations of most treaties that victorious
imperialist nations impose on their victims. In essence, Iran is to be
subjected to the most intrusive inspection of its nation imaginable.
Language has been included that essentially allows this inspection to
continue in perpetuity.
Simultaneously, the vast proportion of the U.S. and imperialist-imposed
sanctions remain in place, with virtually all of the $100 billion
sequestered from Iranian overseas bank accounts remaining under U.S.
control.
Iran’s oil production is to be reduced below the level of two years ago.
Virtually all proceeds from its sale of oil are to administered by U.S.
agencies, which will supposedly dole out Iran’s oil revenues to Iran as
U.S. and allied “inspectors,” deem fit.
A single summary of but one small aspect of this agreement is sufficient
to reveal its predatory nature: “In the next six months, Iran’s crude
oil sales cannot increase. Oil sanctions alone will result in
approximately $30 billion in lost revenues to Iran—or roughly $5 billion
per month—compared to what Iran earned in a six-month period in 2011,
before these sanctions took effect.
“While Iran will be allowed access to $4.2 billion of its oil sales,
nearly $15 billion of its revenues during this period will go into
restricted overseas accounts. In summary, we expect the balance of
Iran’s money in restricted accounts overseas will actually increase, not
decrease, under the terms of this deal.”
In essence, Iran, an independent nation, has been placed in a form of
permanent servitude. It has been compelled to agree to horrific
restrictions on its economy, including not only short and long-term oil
production but gold and other valuable resources as well, thus
subordinating its sovereignty to imperialist designs.
In this “civilized”—or better, Orwellian world view—when U.S. oil
dominates international markets, and the glut of the very fossil fuel
resources whose continued use spells doom for humankind has reduced oil
and gas prices to less than half their previous levels, U.S. corporate
interests are well served by keeping competitive Iranian oil off world
markets.
What conclusions can serious antiwar and social justice activists draw
from this monstrous state of affairs regarding the U.S.-Iran agreements?
The answers seem obvious:
First and foremost, we must demand the immediate and total end to all
U.S. sanctions, embargoes, and other acts of war against the people of
Iran. We recognize no imperialist “right” to deny oppressed and poor
nations their right to self-determination. This principle applies to all
nations oppressed and exploited by imperialism, regardless of the
policies of the leadership of these nations.
Second, we demand the immediate, unilateral, and total destruction of
the entire U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons. The twin existential threats
of nuclear war and catastrophic fossil-fuel-induced global warming are a
direct and inherent product of the capitalist/imperialist system. The
disarmament of the warmakers remains central to any realistic antiwar
strategy.
Third, we must unreservedly support the right of self-determination of
oppressed nations and peoples, including, in the case of Iran, its right
to sign humiliating treaties if it deems this necessary to thwart,
however modestly and temporarily, imperialist intervention and subjugation.
Finally, we cannot become advocates of this imperialist-imposed
agreement, lobbying or otherwise urging one or another wing of the U.S.
ruling elite to sign it. Our demands must continue to be:
U.S. Out Now from the Middle East!
End all Sanctions and Embargoes!
Support Iran’s Right to Self-determination!
U.S. Hands Off Iran!
Photo: Demonstrators outside Tehran nuclear facility in November 2014,
during talks between Iran and six major powers concerning the nuclear
agreement. Atta Kenare / AFP / Getty Images
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Posted in Anti-War, International, Middle East. | Tagged Iran, nuclear.
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