U.S. Targets Iran

Jan 23, 2012

The U.S. has now thrown its weight against Iran, threatening to strangle its economy through new trade and financial sanctions.

The Obama administration says it is trying to stop the Iranian government from producing nuclear weapons–a variation of the same deceitful weapons-of-mass-destruction argument that U.S. officials used against Iraq.

The Iranian government denies the charges that the U.S. levels against it. Iran says it is trying to develop nuclear technology to produce electricity, so it doesn’t completely depend on oil for all of its energy. And it points to the fact that the Iranian government started this program back in the early 1970s, with the help of the U.S.!

But even if the Iranian government were secretly producing nuclear weapons, who could blame it? Almost all the big powers that denounce Iran for trying to produce nuclear weapons have their own nuclear weapons arsenals. And the U.S. is the worst. Not only has it actually dropped nuclear bombs on people, the U.S. also has enough weapons to destroy the world population many times. Moreover, several of Iran’s neighbors, including Israel, Pakistan and India, also have nuclear weapons, with the U.S. government’s blessings!

Yes, Iran is a repressive dictatorship, and a fundamentalist religious state. But this cannot be a problem for the U.S. Most of its closest allies in the Persian Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia, are just as bad or worse. No, the problem for the U.S. is that the Iranian government is rival to the U.S.’s main client states in the region, Israel and Saudi Arabia. To maintain and consolidate its own hold over the Persian Gulf’s oil, the U.S. has targeted Iran. Hands off Iran!