Pfaff: Iran's Nukes a Non-Issue

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 12:43 PM

Below is an important article by William Pfaff in the IHT of six weeks ago concerning the confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program. Pfaff takes the view that the matter is a non-issue. This would be true if the folks in charge in Washington were rational, honest, even-handed and balanced, and if they were not driven almost entirely by domestic politics and the Israeli Lobby. Since the folks in Washington are what they are, this "non-issue" is indeed a fraud, but nevertheless deadly serious and real enough. This fraud has been sufficiently propagandized within the U.S. that a majority of Americans now regard Iran as some sort of major threat, like Iraq supposedly was three years ago, prior to "Operation Iraqi Freedom".

Pfaff may have changed his mind in the interim, but six weeks ago his view seemed to be that the affair would blow over, because "Iran already possesses non-nuclear deterrents to American attack, which Iraq did not, and they are probably strong enough to keep both the United States and Israel away from Iranian nuclear sites." Pfaff points to the size of the Revolutionary Guard and Iran's regular armed forces and to the fact that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz and that "Tehran also has influence on the Shiite clerical leadership, which holds the key to Iraq's future." Let's hope Pfaff calculations are correct and that he is not indulging in wishful thinking.

On the other hand, the U.S. is not planning to get down on the ground and fight the Revolutionary Guard or the Iranian Army.  The Tel Aviv/Washington scenario is to fire a barrage of cruise missiles and bunker-busting bombs into a number of Iranian nuclear facilities, and call it a day. Nothing Iran has among military assets can prevent such a surprise, preemptive attack. Closing the Strait of Hormuz in the aftermath of an attack might hurt Iran more than the U.S. Moreover, with respect to Iranian influence in Iraq, Washington and Tel Aviv do not care, ultimately, what happens inside Iraq, just so long as it implodes as a nation-state and is no longer an independent factor in the region. Mission accomplished.

Patrick
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Iran's nukes are a non-issue

William Pfaff [International Herald Tribune]

FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2006

PARIS  || Why is all this pressure being mounted against Iran when both Washington and Jerusalem unofficially concede that there is nothing to be done to prevent Iran's government from continuing along its present course of nuclear development?

The contradictions in Western official and unofficial discourse about Iran and its nuclear ambitions are so blatant that one might suspect disinformation, but it probably is simply the cacophony of single-minded bureaucracies working at cross purposes, and the effect of the multiple lobbies involved and of U.S. domestic political exploitation, and the paradox of the American policy itself, whose nonproliferation efforts actually provoke nuclear proliferation.

The Washington official line seems meant to build pressure at the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran, even while conceding that nothing practical is expected to result, and that nothing can be done about Iran's resumption of nuclear processing. Iran at present is doing no more than it has a right to do in international law.

The crossfire of public pronouncements draws attention to the inherent criticism of the Western position: The United States and the other Security Council members can have nuclear weapons, and Israel, Pakistan and India (non-Security Council members), can have them too, but Iran shouldn't proceed with its (currently) nonmilitary program. The United States is even in discussion with India to supply nuclear materials (for strictly peaceful purposes, of course).

All of this piles up in righteous Iranian eyes as evidence that Iran needs to go beyond its present program and actually build nuclear weapons. National prestige and pride are involved, obviously - and nationalism is probably the most powerful of all political forces.

Military strategy is also involved. So far as anyone in the non-Western world can see, Iraq's mistake in 2003 was not to have a nuclear bomb or two in working order. That would have kept the United States at bay, just as uncertainty about North Korea's nuclear arms inhibits U.S. policy in the Far East.

Iran already possesses non-nuclear deterrents to American attack, which Iraq did not, and they are probably strong enough to keep both the United States and Israel away from Iranian nuclear sites.

Iran can close down a major part of Middle Eastern oil shipments by closing the Strait of Hormuz. It has combined Revolutionary Guard and ground forces three times the total of American forces now active in Iraq, where Tehran also has influence on the Shiite clerical leadership, which holds the key to Iraq's future.

Nuclear weapons proliferation in the non-Western world is an old American preoccupation, but it is directly linked to third-world perceptions of the threat of American military intervention. The main, if not the only, advantage that nuclear weapons provide a country such as Iran is the deterrence of intervention by the United States or Israel. The urge to possess these weapons is directly reciprocal to American nonproliferation pressures, and the threat of attack.

(The India-Pakistan case is an exception to these generalizations, since there the perceived threats are strictly bilateral, and the two countries have simply replicated for themselves , at great cost, the balance of terror that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.)

Possession of the bomb would also bring comfort and prestige to Iran in dealing with its nuclear-armed neighbors, which include Pakistan and Russia, as well as Israel.

In theory, a threat of aggressive use of nuclear weapons exists, but in the Middle East it is accompanied by certainty of overwhelming Israeli (or even American) retaliation. Warning by American politicians that "rogue states" might attack Israel, the United States, British bases on Cyprus, or Western Europe, are manipulation or propaganda. Individual Muslims may welcome martyrdom, but nations, even Muslim nations, do not.

Israel, with its conventional arms and weapons of mass destruction, is amply capable of assuring its own military deterrence and defense, whatever Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, thinks or says. But Israel cannot expect long-term security without resolving its conflict with the Palestinians. As Israeli leaders know, solving the problem is chiefly up to Israel. Forty years of American involvement have mainly enabled the Israelis to avoid doing so.

The danger of terrorists acquiring nuclear weapons exists, if barely. This would be possible only with a nuclear state's complicity. The political plausibility of any government giving terrorists control of such weapons is next to nil, considering the risks involved for the benefactor state. The technical and logistical complexity of such an operation would also be great.

There are serious problems in international affairs and there are baroque ones. This one is baroque.

Copyright © 2006 The International Herald Tribune