Iran Revisited

 

February 21, 2007 -- "The Color of Paradise" is a masterpiece made in 1999 by Iranian director Majid Majidi, who takes us on a journey through Iran's towering mountain ranges and flowering fields through the eyes of young Mohammed, a blind eight-year old boy whose wisdom, passion and natural sensitivity far surpass the vacant emotional sensibilities of his father, who languishes in shame of his son.

 

Revisiting this profound film, entranced by the extraordinary beauty of the country and it's people, I, too, languished in shame as I pondered those majestic countrysides potentially destroyed by a U.S. President determined to continue his administrations' imperialistic mayhem against Iran.

 

The choice of Navy Admiral William Fallon as head of Central Command, the positioning of two naval battle groups, extra Patriot missiles and minesweepers now awaiting orders in the Straits of Hormuz, the ratcheting up of U.S. attacks, both verbally and deadly, highlighting so-called "evidence" of Iran supplied weapons and so much more, the unthinkable seems to be taking shape. Ahmed al-Jar Allah, the Kuwait based Arab Times' Editor-in-chief suggests that the air strike on Iran may take place before April 2007. Ewan Macaskill, writing in The Guardian, concurs.

 

On October 7, 2002, President Bush gave a speech in Cincinnati about Iraq entitled "Iraq - Denial and Deception." Six months before "Shock and Awe", President Bush said the following:

 

"First, some ask why Iraq is different from other countries or regimes that also have terrible weapons. While there are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone -- because it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place . . . " Note: What he didn't mention were the two real reasons: geopolitical positioning and Texas crude.

 

"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his "nuclear mujahideen" -- his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons."

 

"Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."

 

Lies then. Lies now.

 

I pray an attack upon Iran does not happen, no matter how long the neo-conservatives have been salivating or the Likud party has been posturing or the Christian Right has been waiting.

 

Tim Rinne of Nebraskans for Peace has written an article that describes U.S Strategic Air Command -or StratCom - near Omaha, as having prepared for an Iranian offensive since November of 2003.

 

And targets have been revealed.

 

But it hasn't happened . . . yet. Let's do everything within our might to stop it. Mobilize your friends and family. Ask them to demand their Congressperson to support H.R. 770 a bill that will "prohibit the use of funds to carry out any covert action for the purpose of causing regime change in Iran or to carry out any military action against Iran in the absence of an imminent threat, in accordance with international law and constitutional and statutory requirements for congressional authorization." Join the protest in Washington on March 17th, or form your own - tomorrow.

 

In 2005, a National Intelligence Estimate reported that Iran was ten years away from having a nuclear weapon. The Washington Post article by Dafna Linzer states;

 

"The new estimate extends the timeline, judging that Iran will be unlikely to produce a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient for an atomic weapon, before "early to mid-next decade," according to four sources familiar with that finding. The sources said the shift, based on a better understanding of Iran's technical limitations, puts the timeline closer to 2015 and in line with recently revised British and Israeli figures."

 

Today's U.S. nuclear arsenal consists of at least 10,000 nuclear weapons. Iraq had none. Iran has none.

 

This is not a war on terror. It is a tragedy of errors. And it must stop - for our children’s sake, and for the children of Iran - like precious Mohammad and his sisters in The Color of Paradise.