By Kenneth J. Theisen March 19, 2008
As I write this article, Vice-President Dick Cheney is engaged in a trip to the Middle East to urge “peace” in that region.
Israel is on the list of countries Cheney is visiting, and the subject of Iran will be on the table – including what role, if any, the Israelis will play in the event of U.S. military action against Iran. In fact, Iran is the largest item on the agenda for Cheney’s trip.
This was made clear by a “senior administration official” at a March 15th press briefing. Referring to Cheney’s visit to various Middle Eastern nations, the official stated, “I expect in all of these countries that the challenge we face from Iran will be a very high topic of conversation. And it’s a comprehensive challenge. At the forefront of that is clearly the nuclear issue problem, and how we attempt to resolve that. But it also includes Iran’s worrisome activities in both the Iraqi and Afghanistan theaters; Lebanon; their connections to the Palestinian Territories to whatever violence is happening in Gaza.”
Cheney had previously brought up Gaza in a March 11th speech to the right-wing Heritage Foundation. Cheney stated, “Tehran may increasingly be turning its sights to inflaming the situation in the Gaza Strip. In Gaza, crude, home-made weapons meant to terrorize Israeli civilians are being augmented by more advanced, longer-range weapons that are clearly smuggled in from the outside.” In other words, the Bush Regime sees Iran as a major obstacle to a U.S./Israeil imposed “settlement” of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
The “senior administration official” that briefed the media also talked about Cheney’s visit to Oman. Oman sits just across the Straight of Hormuz from Iran and is used as a base and forward staging area for the U.S. in its military moves in the region. It is central to any military actions against Iran. The U.S. utilizes four air bases in Oman for refueling, logistics, and storage of pre-positioned military supplies.
The briefer stated that Oman has “been an incredibly reliable partner, particularly — both before September 11th, and certainly after September 11th, the kind of support being provided, logistically and otherwise, to our ability to operate in the war on terror”they sit in kind of the eye of the storm of that part of the world, and are both observers and participants in all the major issues there”The Omanis, like a lot of other people, are concerned by the escalating tensions between the rest of the world community and Iran, by some of Iran’s activities, particularly in the nuclear field, but outside its borders as well.”
“So again, the strategic location of Oman, right there on the Straits of Hormuz, it obviously has a lot at stake, and we have a lot vested in that relationship bilaterally, but also the Vice President, certainly since his time as Defense Secretary, has a very deep, personal relationship with the Sultan, and I know that they have should some — a good amount of time to sort of do a pretty comprehensive regional overview.” The briefer was asked, “But what message will Cheney have to the Arab world about Iran?” The official admitted that Cheney has already discussed Iran with some of these folks repeatedly, “I’m not sure — I mean, he’s discussed this problem with — particularly with King Abdullah, as well as with the Sultan of Oman so often, and I’m not sure he’s got a particular message, and it’s really comparing and updating their notes on where we are, on the strategy we’re pursuing to try and get Iran into a diplomatic settlement of this problem…”
HIGH TENSION, HIGH STAKES
But don’t be fooled by the words “diplomatic settlement.” On Wednesday, March 19th Cheney made clear that his real mission in the Middle East is to keep tensions high. He brought forward the weapons of mass destruction argument again and cast doubt on the earlier National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that said that Iran has abandoned any nuclear weapons program in 2003. He claimed the U.S. is uncertain as to whether Iran has restarted the nuclear weaponization program. In a comment made in Oman he stated, “The important thing to keep in mind is the objective that we share with many of our friends in the region, and that is that a nuclear-armed Iran would be very destabilizing for the entire area.” He went on to claim, “What it (the NIE) says is that they have definitely had in the past a program to develop a nuclear warhead; that it would appear that they stopped that weaponization process in 2003. We don’t know whether or not they’ve restarted. What we do know is that they had then, and have now, a process by which they’re trying to enrich uranium, which is the key obstacle they’ve got to overcome in order to have a nuclear weapon. They’ve been working at it for years”Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.” If people reading this hear echoes of the words used to justify the invasion of Iraq, they are correct.
In the Bush regime, Cheney has played the role of the enforcer and attack dog. His trip is meant to unleash verbal propaganda attacks against Iran and as we can see he is doing so, and will continue to do so, while on the trip. But he also plays the role of bringing allies into line with the Bush regime agenda. It is not a coincidence that his trip includes stopovers in Israel, Turkey (in a war with Iran the U.S. would want to use Turkish air bases and air routes if possible), Saudi Arabia, and Oman. These countries all play a role in any U.S. moves against Iran.
A military attack against Iran is not a certainty. But the current moves of the Bush regime are consistent with a possible attack. The Bush regime has said its policy toward Iran includes regime change. It said this before the 2003 invasion of Iran. Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq we heard repeated charges that Iraq had WMDs. Today we hear from the Bush regime that Iran may be trying to acquire nukes. Iraq was accused of supporting terrorists and we hear these charges now being repeated against Iran. The similarities leading up to the Iraqi invasion and today are frightening.
We can not afford to wait to be certain of the Bush regime’s intentions toward Iran. Then it will be too late. We must drive out the Bush regime before war can be unleashed against another nation and its people.
Ken Theisen is a veteran activist of movements opposing U.S. imperialism, its wars and domination of countries throughout the world, and an advocate against domestic violence in the San Francisco Bay Area.