In 2 parts
Part 1: Deception and Lies as a Method of Politics Against Iran - National Intelligence Estimate [NIE] - McCain: “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran” - US relations with Iran: Hostility Then, Hostility Now, and Hostility Tomorrow

Part 2 (in February issue of FTT): Iranian Revolution - Who is Dangerous and threatening the World, Iran or US? - Military Build Up for War - Why the New Era of War and Occupation - No Confusion: Our Tasks Inside and Outside of Iran – Iranian Community Unite – Don’t Attack Iran

Part 1
Deception and Lies as a Method of Politics Against Iranian People
On August 28, 2007 US President George Bush declared that the US would “confront Tehran’s murderous activities” in Iraq. In his report to the US Senate on Monday September 10, General David Petraeus, the commander of 163,000 US troops in Iraq, claimed “there is very clear evidence of Iranian involvement in attacks on US forces in Iraq”. US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice (who always feels she shouldn’t get behind in the race to blame every problem in Iraq on Iran), in response to Petraeus’ report, stated that, although security has improved in Iraq, Iran is to blame for slowing the pace of security improvements since Iran has always been a “troublesome neighbor.”

For many years the US has also been accusing Iran of developing nuclear weapons. This accusation has been used by the US to label Iran as a ‘terrorist threat’ and part of an ‘axis of evil’ that should be internationally sanctioned, isolated and potentially militarily invaded.

In October 2007 the US escalated its drive for war and invasion against the people of Iran with the announcement of new sanctions attacking the Iranian Defence Ministry, Revolutionary Guards, and major Iranian banks. The US state and treasury departments also labeled the Revolutionary Guard Corps “proliferates of weapons of mass destruction” and “a supporter of terrorism”. This truly was an unofficial declaration of war on the Iranian government and the Iranian people. Major European and international banks joined the US to tighten financial transactions to limit Iran’s ability to do business with the outside world. They did this in order to keep Iran in a dire position, to make Iran vulnerable to a lack of exchange and goods, and to eventually cripple the Iranian economy to make it easier for imperialists to attack Iran militarily.

While the Iranian government has never accepted the accusation that they are developing nuclear weapons, and while there has never been any proof of this allegation, on December 3, 2007, the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) reported that Iran stopped any nuclear arms work or research in 2003. Although this report somehow indicates that Iran had a plan to make an atomic bomb up to 2003, at the same time it was indeed a blow to the US war drive propaganda against Iran. Despite this set back however, George Bush maintains that Iran is still a “danger to the world” and the US will keep “all options on the table” – a statement that brings a terrible threat against the people of Iran.

National Intelligence Estimate [NIE]
The US, France and the UK were indeed very disturbed by the NIE report. Although the report was not suggesting that the imperialist ruling classes should stop their war drive against Iran, the report itself was indeed an interruption to the imperialists’ rhetoric for war against Iran. The first loss came when Russia and China announced that the NIE report eliminated the foundation of further sanctions against Iran. On December 14, just two weeks after the announcement of the NIE report on December 3, Russia delivered the first the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant. Suffering from this partial defeat George Bush accelerated his Islamophbia campaign by calling Muslims Islamofascist; and he accelerated his Iranophobia campaign by saying that Iran is dangerous to world security regardless of the NIE report. Then, during his latest tour to the Middle East in January 2008, he tried to sell this rhetoric by turning up the heat and saying that Iran is a “threat” to the international community and must be “confronted” before it’s “too late”. With all the positive and negative aspects of the NIE report it is correct to state that this report exploited the lies and hypocrisy of the George Bush anti-Iran propaganda to some significance. This could be sensed very clearly when ruling class spokespersons criticized the Bush Administration’s handling of anti-Iran rhetoric and the failure of the containment policy, which we saw in the latest George Bush tour to the Middle East. Such criticism came in the New York Times Editorial on December 27 in response to NIE scandal, “While the risk that Tehran might divert the low-enriched uranium for weapons use is relatively small, the political significance of the shipment is not. It is the latest reminder that the Bush administration's Iran policy is not working …”

McCain: “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran”
It hasn’t been very long since millions of people around the world watched the inhuman and shameful youtube video of Sen. McCain of Arizona expressing his wish to bomb Iran to settle accounts with the government of Iran. In the video he mockingly sang a Beach Boys song, substituting the words with “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”. After carefully observing the motions of the US government, Congress and the military forces, one can claim that Sen. McCain pretty much represents the attitude and desires of the whole US ruling class toward Iran and its people. Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the US government has always looked for the opportunity to go to war against Iran - either to invade militarily or by massive bombing.

Many people in the activist or progressive community saw the NIE report as a decisive blow to the US war drive. While partly true, nonetheless, their wishful thinking led them to believe that military attack on Iran has been taken off the agenda of the US ruling class. Some even suggested that the report was a coup d'etat by one wing of the US ruling class against another wing. This is the most false reading of the US ruling elite and their intentions. The US ruling elite in its entirety, with the exception of some insignificant individuals, are for war against Iran. With a careful study of most of the statements by the US government, and other individuals within the ruling class, it becomes clear that the question for them is not whether they attack Iran or not, the question is what is the best time or better to say, WHEN to do it. The NIE report was a cautionary warning based on the bitter experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. It brought the message to the US ruling class as a whole that there is a need for more preparation and more careful planning before the execution of any attack on Iran. Democrats and Republicans are both for war but with differences in tactics.

The NIE report is basically a pretext for war since it suggests that there is no guarantee that Iran will not restart the so-called nuclear weapons program that they allegedly stopped in 2003.

US relations with Iran: Hostility Then, Hostility Now, and Hostility Tomorrow

Understandably it is very difficult for Iranian people to trust the US government’s intentions towards Iran. The Iranian peoples’ suspicions towards the United States are not based on a cynical national psychology but are based on historical facts and a long history of the plundering of the resources of Iran. In the last 50 years this relationship has been based on exploitation, suppression and the pillaging of Iranians by the various United States governments. In 1953 the CIA, with help from the UK, organized a coup d'etat against the democratically elected, popular government of Mohammad Mosaddegh. The government of Mosaddegh was a progressive nationalist government which successfully nationalized Iranian oil in April 1951 with the support of millions of masses in Iran. The newly installed monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with the help of the CIA and the US government, jailed, tortured and killed thousands of Iranian working people, political activists and progressive people in order to consolidate itself. All progressive institutions that had previously been formed during the Mosaddegh government, including political parties and unions, were shut down. Severe repression was imposed on the Iranian people in order to guarantee the interests of imperialist countries, especially the United States.

The US and the CIA then formed and developed one of the most vicious secret police forces in the world, SAVAK. Until the Iranian revolution of 1979, SAVAK tortured and killed more than 100,000 Iranian people, also with the help of the Israeli secret police MOSSAD. From the coup d’etat of 1953 to the revolution of 1979, US corporations stole billions of dollars out of the pockets of Iranian working and poor people. They elevated poverty and misery to such an unprecedented level that a combination of repression and the economic/social crisis caused the opposition of millions of people to the US imperialist domination and its puppet Shah regime.

The process ended with departure of Shah Mohammad Reza in January and the victory of the Iranian revolution in February 1979. The three main slogans of the Iranian revolution were 'Down with the Shah', 'Down with the US', and 'Free all Political Prisoners'. Heroic Iranian masses, with intelligence, determination and discipline, created advanced political consciousness and powerful political will. With overthrowing the monarchy, who was supported not only by a vicious secret police but by the presence of more than 35,000 US military advisors and troops, as well as by kicking out US imperialism from Iran, they opened a new anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist chapter around the world. This occurred not only in the Middle East, but the wave and message of this anti-imperialist liberation movement shook countries as far as West Africa, Indonesia and central Asia. The US ruling class has never forgotten and forgiven the Iranian people for their historical precedent.

Iranian and US relations after the Iranian revolution got worse, basically for the US, immediately after the revolution imposed all kinds of harsh measures on the Iranian people. This hostile attitude became more apparent when the US immediately froze some Iranian financial and non-financial assets in the US. Then a series of economic embargos were imposed on Iran, including refusing to sell parts and other important goods that Iranian industry needed very badly in order to function and produce. In November 1979 Iranian students and young people took over the US embassy in to protest to the US assisting the Shah to reside in the United States. Their demand was that US must extradite the Shah to Iran in order to put him on trial for the crimes he had done during his reign. The US government never gave any response to this legitimate demand of Iranian people. In September 1980 Saddam Hussein, tyrant of Iraq, attacked and invaded Iran with the encouragement and support, especially of the US, and of some Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. This American planned supported war killed more than 2 million of people on the both sides. During the war the US, UK, Germany and France armed and financed the Saddam war drive and even supplied him with all kinds of chemical weapons. None of these imperialist governments or the UN Security Council said anything against this inhuman and criminal act, let alone to condemn it. The hypocrisy becomes even more apparent when the same countries, especially the US attacked and occupied Iraq for having chemical weapons, which they themselves provided to Iraq.

In July 1989 an American navy ship, the USS Vincennes, shot down an Iranian civilian plane, killing all 290 passengers and the crew in hopes of provoking Iran for a large scale confrontation. In January 2002, George Bush in his State of the Union speech referred to Iran –as well as N.Korea and Iraq- as part of an "axis of evil," saying the country is actively pursuing weapons of mass destruction. In 2006 US Congress appropriated $75 million to the State Department to use towards “democracy building” in Iran. This is was a turning point for how the US ruling class has finalized its war drive against Iran. Since October 2006, the US has been carrying out a massive military build up in the Persian Gulf. Provocations, Sanctions and military build up are all about a war drive. Without a doubt the US is preparing for a vicious military attack on Iran.



Back to Article Listing