Israel, through its lobbies in the US is trying to create a diabolical perception in which the US is being blamed for ‘America-Late-Syndrome’ as consistent American pattern for acting late when the world mostly needed it to act urgently on time with dire consequences.

According to these strategists of the devil, America acted late in the Second World War as well as faltered and delayed in fully understanding the nature and level of Al-Qaeda threat in time to neutralise it. Similarly they say America is already being late to tackle Iran’s nuclear ambitions ‘to endanger the regional and world peace.’

This line of argument, never conceived before, touches wooingly the imperial sensi-bilities of the US ruling sphinxes to motivate them to action albeit huge cost of any war with Iran as well as deeply eroded notion of their own infallibility.

These agents of death and destruction believe that only Mr Bush can do what no other President of America will even think of doing for Israel because  of this Presi-dent’s ‘hopefuls’ on Iran are jingoistic, cavalier and  chauvinistic making room for some military action.

Further even in the absence of any direct military action by the US and overt support to Israel for any strikes in Iran, Mr Bush is already doing great  damage to Iran’s economy by creating a perception in the world that if economic sanctions against Iran did not work then America would have to go for some direct action unilaterally.

No doubt, with regular intervals the US administration emphasises the point that the President is keeping all options on the table to deal with Iran: however, the only option not on the table is direct ‘negotiations with Iran.’ Implicit result of the US failure in Iraq is that it has stopped rattling about new Middle East plan of George W. Bush to establish secularised democracy in the region starting with Iraq.

Instead, as recent tour of Condoleezza Rice indicated the US has come down to realpolitik. There was very little stress on democracy and stability of the region and more effort was concentrated on neutralising Iran’s growing influence in the region by creating a counter weight to Iran. The US in the Gulf has returned to hackneyed cold war ‘balance-of-power’ fixture and is trying to create an anti-Iran alliance comprising US, Israel and some Arab states including 
Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia among other small principalities.

During her last trip to the region Condoleezza Rice went to Egypt, Jordan and many States in the Gulf and during all her visits here focus was away from Iraq and the US war on terror. She focused on Iran’s nuclear programme and its destabilising affect on the region.

The New Strategy is doubly productive for the US. It is diverting world’s attention from the tragedy of Iraq and at the same time it is blending Israel with other regional Arab States by providing them a common enemy in Iran: the ending of Israel’s isola-tion due to the occupation of Palestine is the direct result the US new strategy in the Middle East.

Israel and the US in unison are beating the drums of war on Iran to convince the world that the use of military force is thinkable to neutralise Iran’s nuclear programme so that Europe and the world at large will be prepared to use economic leverage to avoid that possibility.

Earlier in December 2006 the US came out successful in the UNSC and got resolution 1737 passed imposing, though moderate, sanctions on Iran. They rather are corollary to what already is in place making economic activity of Iran in international market difficult.

The US has already started a severe psychological war against Iran with cogent econo-mic discipline beyond the parameters of resolution 1737. Last month the US Army was ordered to kill or capture all Iranian suspects in Iraq throwing a direct challenge to Iran to counter-weight this move.

The second nuclear-powered supercarrier with nine squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets, EA-6B Prowlers, S-3B Vikings, E-2C Hawkeyes and SH-60 Seahawks that was directed towards the Gulf on Jan. 10 and is reaching the designated destination in the middle of February is to keep up the pressure as much on Iran as on the world at large. Vice President Cheney, in a Newsweek interview published Sunday, acknowledged that the deployment of the second US aircraft carrier task force to the Persian Gulf was Iran specific.

He said that the move intended to signal to the region that the United States was ‘working with friends and allies as well as the international organizations to deal with the Iranian threat:’ how conveniently the war hawks can justify their unilateral act on behalf of others.

However, Iran’s nuclear programme is not all that is giving sleepless nights to the occupants of White House. Iran’s growing influence in the region is yet another beeper. John D. Negroponte, outgoing director of national intelligence, told Congress last month that Iran’s influence was growing across the region ‘in ways that go beyond the menace of its nuclear program.’

During her recent tour to the region in all capitals wherever she went Ms Rice clamoured about growing Iranian influence in the region and vowed that the US would not allow that to happen.

Nothing has worked for the US since its involvement in the region. First it attacked Afghanistan and removed Taliban regime that was against Iran then came the Iraq invasion that resulted in the change of regime that had fought Iran for eight years and had used chemical weapons against its troops and killed and maimed millions of Iranians.

The regime was replaced by politicians that are kindly predisposed towards Iran as Iran had provided them safe haven in Iran during their struggle against Saddam’s oppressive regime. Iran has found itself strengthened almost by default.

The US in cahoots with Israel is working on yet another plan of divide and rule as it did in Iraq. It is sharpening Sunni-Shia divide at regional level to starve Iran of its support from regional neighbouring states that Iran has nurtured so far very carefully.

King Abdullah of Jordan, whose father was considered in pay to CIA, has already come in the open and spoken darkly about Shiite crescent that would stretch from Iran, through Iraq’s Shia Arab majority, to Lebanon, where Shia make up the largest single community. Last year Egypt’s President, Hosni Mubarak created a lot of fuss when he blamed Shia community all across the region being more loyal to Iran than to their own countries.

Last week King Abdullah of SA talking to al-Siyassah, a Kuwaiti newspaper, has accused Iran, without naming it, of converting Sunni Arabs to Shiism. All this is happening in the name of peace and security in the region. Iran may be seeking only a ‘threshold’ nuclear defence capacity. This means Iran wants to have a level of techno-logical expertise from which it can, in an emergency, develop 
actual nuclear weapons in a very short time. Iran’s position is entirely legal as NPT, whose pioneering signatory is Iran, does not disallow this status to its member States and further about forty countries in the world are already enjoying this status.

Should we blame Iran for vying for this status with three nuclear powers India, Pak-istan and Israel in its neighbourhood and the US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq with basis in almost all neighbouring principalities edging a water line that facilitates 20 per cent of world oil flow, and with economy that more than 90 per cent depends on its oil exports.

Information

These agents of death and destruction believe that only Mr Bush can do what no other President of America will even think of doing for Israel because  of this Presi-dent’s ‘hopefuls’ on Iran are jingoistic, cavalier and  chauvinistic making room for some military action.

First appeared in Pakistan Observer on Feb. 11, 2007