Nero, Not Hitler
by Gordon Prather :: Anti-War.Com :: 14 October
This year the Israelis and various neocrazy media sycophants have increasingly been comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Adolf Hitler.
That’s a ridiculous comparison, of course. Iran’s president is almost powerless and occupies in the Iranian government a position roughly equivalent to our Secretary of Interior.
Chancellor Hitler, on the other hand, shortly after the Reichstag fire in 1933, got the German equivalent of our Congress to pass the Enabling Act, effectively making him absolute dictator of the Third Reich.
Our Congress passed the PATRIOT Act shortly after the jihadist’s attacks on the World Trade Center, and Bush seems to think that he has also, thereby, effectively been made an absolute dictator.
But it would be unfair to compare Bush with Hitler.
No, a better comparison for Bush would be the Roman Emperor Nero, who (legend has it) “fiddled while Rome burned.”
For an entire month this summer – while Israel’s latest war of aggression was devastating Lebanon, costing at least a thousand Lebanese civilians their lives and hundreds of thousands their homes – Bush prevented the UN Security Council from ordering a cease-fire.
Why?
Because the Israelis had assured Bush that they could accomplish their mission – destroying Hezbollah, a powerful political party, as well as a spiritual-economic support group for the Islamic community in Lebanon – if given free rein for a month.
How did Bush fiddle? By forcing deliberation on, and ultimate passage of, UNSC Resolution 1696, during that month instead, which Bonkers Bolton falsely claimed
“also calls upon member states to do what they can to prevent the transfer of resources to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, and Iran should understand that the United States and others will ensure that the financial transactions associated with its proliferant activities will be impeded as well.”
Now, the provisions relating to Iran’s nuclear programs arose because the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency required – in violation of the IAEA Statute – Iran to suspend immediately and indefinitely those IAEA Safeguarded programs.
But where did those provisions relating to Iran’s missile programs come from?
Well, harken back to Bush’s 2002 State of the Union message to Congress.
“North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens.
“Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people’s hope for freedom.”
Okay, that’s where missiles enter the picture.
“States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.
“We will work closely with our coalition to deny terrorists and their state sponsors the materials, technology and expertise to make and deliver weapons of mass destruction.”
Okay, so Bush charged in January 2002 that North Korea, Iran, and Iraq – all signatories to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons with all their nuclear programs subject to IAEA Safeguards – were developing nuclear weapons, unbeknownst to on-the-ground IAEA inspectors.
Worse, the North Koreans had developed and the Iranians had bought ballistic missiles.
Capable of reaching Israel from Iran!
So, henceforth, Bush intended to deny North Korea and Iran “the materials, technology and expertise” needed to continue their perfectly legal – under international law – safeguarded nuclear programs and to deny Iran North Korea’s ballistic missiles.
In October, 2002, Bush unilaterally abrogated the US-IAEA-DPRK Agreed Framework, under which all North Korean nuclear programs had been “frozen,” subject to IAEA lock and seal. In response, North Korea withdrew from the NPT, and began to produce and recover weapons-grade plutonium.
Why abrogate the Agreed Framework?
Bush had been falsely charging that Iran, Iraq and North Korea had secret weapons-grade uranium-enrichment programs. But North Korea was only capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.
But, not to worry.
You, see, once you have two 60 lb pieces of weapons-grade uranium it is a simple matter to make a gun-type nuke. Even the DPRK could do that. But no one has ever made a gun-type nuke with plutonium. It is absolutely guaranteed to “fizzle”, producing no significant yield.
Then, this summer, with Bush fiddling while Iraq and Lebanon continued to be sacked and burned, the North Koreans broke their voluntarily imposed moratorium on testing intermediate and long-range ballistic missiles.
Whoops!
Then, last week the North Koreans at least partially successfully tested a plutonium implosion-nuke.
Incredible!
What was Bush’s reaction? To order Condi Rice to step up her efforts to get sanctions imposed on Iran!
Basically, our Emperor has continued fiddling.
Meanwhile, rumor has it Bush’s war of aggression against Iran has already begun.
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