By Daniel M Pourkesali, Campaign Iran (CASMII)
Forty five years ago in October 1962, people watched
in horror as the superpowers went to the brink of a global nuclear war during
the Cuban Missile Crisis when the Soviets attempted to place nuclear missiles in
Cuba, to match U.S. deployments in Europe near the Soviet border. What followed
next was nearly 30 years of constant fear of a nuclear holocaust. But 16 years
after the fall of the Soviet Union the threat of a new nuclear disaster still
remains.
The recent report by the Sunday Times [1] that
'Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment
facilities with tactical nuclear weapons'
may have come as little surprise to those closely following these reports
first hint of which surfaced during an MSNBC Interview with U.S. Vice President
Dick Cheney in January 2005 when he literally gave U.S. approval of a unilateral
Israeli attack on Iran:
"One of the concerns people have is that Israel
might do it without being asked…Given that Iran has a stated policy that their
objective is the destruction of Israel, the Israelis might well decide to act
first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic
mess afterwards"
Missing in the rhetoric and media reports since are
the actual consequences of such an attack and the fact that a nuclear assault on
Iran will usher in the very disastrous scenario the world managed to avoid for
over half a century during the cold war and that the ensuing mess will not be so
easy to clean.
The high risk neo-con strategy for gaining
unchallenged U.S.-Israeli dominance in the region has already burdened the
American people with one enormous mess in the Iraqi debacle and if left to make
good on bringing about a nuclear attack on Iran, the rest of the world will
share and experience the very calamity they've so far managed to evade.
Even a conventional attack on Iran could have a
catastrophic impact on global economy as Iran produces nearly 4 million barrels
a day and can cause havoc for or impede delivery of nearly 25% of total oil
passing through the Straights of Hormuz on its way to the world markets.
But the Israeli pushed and US supported plan for
"surgical tactical nuclear strikes" holds far more serious consequences which
are ironically packaged and presented by an acquiescent media as means of
preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Missing, is any debate on the undesirable outcome --
destruction of human life on a grand scale in what will undoubtedly be the next
nuclear holocaust.
Let us have no delusions; despite their claims of
unilateral action, Israel can not pull off a nuclear attack on Iran alone which
means such an attack will come with full coordination and logistical support
from the United States with strict guidance from Pentagon's Doctrine for Joint
Nuclear Operations [2].
I had a chance to read this dreadfully horrific
document last night. While the 2002 Nuclear Posture Review [3] and the earlier
PNAC document 'Rebuilding America's Defenses, Strategy, Forces and Resources for
a New Century' [4] set the stage for preemptive use of nuclear weapons against
non-nuclear states like Iran , the DJNO has completely blurred the distinction
between "defensive" and "offensive" military action by describing war planning
as simply a management decision making process, where certain military and
strategic objectives are to be achieved with little or no concern for the
resulting loss of human life.
In a recent article [5] Sherwood Ross quoting
Dr. Helen Caldicott, a nuclear weapons
expert, states that such an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities will release
huge amounts of radioactive material into the air contaminating the people of
Iran and surrounding countries for years to come. A report published in February
2006 by the Oxford Research Group [6] estimates that even a conventional aerial
attack on Iran's nuclear facilities can cause up to 10,000 civilian casualties
and if tactical nuclear weapons such as the earth-penetrating "bunker buster"
bombs are used, the radioactive fallout would become even more disastrous
pushing the number of fatalities into millions.
Once again the unsuspecting public is being primed to
accept such an illegal act of aggression as a necessary 'peace-keeping
operation' but the world must wise up to such deceptive tactics and realize that
no peace can be achieved through violence. What is urgently needed is a
sustained, and growing nonviolent opposition to the chain of preparations that
will lead to the very kind of disaster we managed to avoid in October of 1962.
Now is the time to take decisive and direct action against the warmongers in
defense of human life everywhere on this fragile planet.
[1]
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2535310_1,00.html
