Remember the World War I Zimmerman Telegram that warned if the U.S. entered the war, the German Empire would unleash unrestricted submarine warfare? Of course you don’t, unless you’re nearly 100 years old.
The recent discovery that Iran has a “secret” nuclear weapons program is nothing like that. Believe us when we say we would love to draw comparisons. It would make for an enticing editorial, but things just aren’t like that anymore. We don’t want to go to war. It isn’t even about war. Trust us, we know.
Last Tuesday the International Atomic Energy Agency notified two senior advisors to President Barack Obama that the Iranian government had sent them a letter declaring a small nuclear facility located on a mountain near the city of Qum.
This would have been a step toward a transparent Iranian nuclear program if the U.S. and its allies didn’t already know and weren’t already suspicious of this once-covert facility.
The White House had withheld this information from the rest of the world because, according to Obama, it sought “to make sure the intelligence was right.”
Iran, however, realized that the facility had been discovered by American intelligence and rushed to declare it to the IAEA. This, in turn, forced the U.S. and its allies to declassify intelligence — insisting the facility was not for peaceful activity, as Iran was quick to suggest.
So, last Friday the Pittsburgh Convention Center was met with warnings from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Obama that Iran’s program was unacceptable.
No bombs. No threats. No war. See we told you so; things just aren’t like that anymore. The United States has no interest in invading Iran. This is a public relations struggle; a struggle of influence. We’d draw comparisons to the Cold War but that’s just not our style.
Iran and the United States are both seeking to become hegemonic powers in the Middle East. They push and shove not with the tanks, submarines and aircraft of WWI, but with the strategic banter of a much more devious world order.
Thus, when we saw Obama flanked by Gordon and Sarkozy at Pittsburgh’s economic summit, we knew this was just another media stunt, a sort of rushed urgency, one that only sought to outsmart and outwit an enemy in the eyes of the world.
Iran is no Soviet Union. It just doesn’t have the kind of clout the Soviets had. Still, it seeks it; not to go to war; not to destroy America, but to gain influence in a world that it sees the West dominate.
Believe us when we say we’re not sympathizing with the crazies, but we do want you to understand the nature of this struggle. It involves nuclear bombs, but it’s not about them because it runs deeper than the enrichment of uranium. This is about the future of the Middle East and the world.
A nuclear facility in the mountains of Iran doesn’t affect the interests of an American citizen. He goes to work, she eats and we sleep. However, it does affect the interests of our government.
Now, whether or not these interests are necessarily in our favor, we’ll leave that for you to ponder. We’re just here to let you know everything is going to be OK. And, that just like most things in the news, this doesn’t change much. In other words, the facility was there before we knew about and it’ll be there long after.
So, go work. Go eat. Go sleep and rest in peace.