Right now, leaders from the West are trying to justify going to war with Iran.
In the recent Republican debates, Mitt Romney, Republican nominee, has made it clear that he would take military action against Iran to prevent the country from becoming a nuclear power. He was followed by others like Rick Santorum, who said he was prepared to bomb Iranian nuclear sites and Newt Gingrich, who said Iran will not attain a nuclear weapon. All of them are sending a clear message: Iran is a threat and war is the outcome.
It’s not only American leaders who have taken a clear stance on war against Iran, it’s also Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“Iran is a very serious threat to international peace and security. In my judgment, it is the world’s most serious threat,” he said during an interview with CHQR, a Calgary radio station, in January.
Rather strong and demonizing words for a nation of 78 million people. Especially considering in 2003 Harper wrote the same sentiments to the Wall Street Journal; however that time it was Iraq.
However, neither one of them can confidently confirm that Iran already possesses nuclear weapons or that the country has the intention to use these weapons against them. Harper insists that Iran has aspirations to “acquire” them while Romney insists that we need to prevent Iran from attaining weapons.
And while no war has been declared, these leaders continue to threaten Iran and raise tensions between the Middle East and the West.
Recently, the armada of US Navy aircraft carriers that recently ended operations in Iraq were stationed below Iran. Iran’s army chief issued a warning, that if the aircraft carriers were not moved they would close off the Strait of Hormuz and prevent oil from being exported to US.
In the last two years, four Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated, and Iran strongly believes that the murders have been caused by Israel and the US. This does not help the situation, and only furthers anti-Western sentiments.
Currently, the only country to possess nuclear weapons in the Middle East is Israel, a tight US ally and also one of the only three non-signatories for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The other two nations to not sign the treaty that puts nuclear facilities under the comprehensive safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency are India and Pakistan.
However, if Israel is within its sovereign right to have nuclear weapons to deter attacks from volatile neighbors, why aren’t Iran, Pakistan, India, and China allowed that same luxury? It seems highly discriminatory that France, England, Russia, the US, and Israel can have uncontested nuclear weapons while that same technology in the hands of non-Western nations can be disastrous.
It is worth noting that Iran has never attacked or invaded another country in the past century, and their economy is struggling with several economic sanctions imposed by the American and Canadian governments. The country is nowhere close to funding a war.
We have just emerged on the other side of the decade-long Iraq war. We can no longer plead ignorance and simply state we were bamboozled into another unjust war on faulty intelligence. We need to question the motives of our supposed enemies, and then question the motives of our own government too.
Osama Butt, Contributor
Featured image courtesy of Wikimedia
