Sanctions: Another Step in the Shock and Awe of Iran

Kurt Nimmo
Sep. 01, 2006

John Bolton, the “interim,” that is to say installed, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has announced there is no doubt Iran plans to build nuclear bombs. Although there is no evidence of this, it of course makes perfect sense for Iran to hanker after nukes, as nations with nukes, or believed to have nukes, such as North Korea, are not invaded by the United States.

Iran fully understands what the U.S. under the rule of the perfidious neocons plans to do—all they need do is look west toward Iraq.

It should be obvious what the neocons have in mind for Iran—and all Muslim nations in the Middle East—complete social and cultural destruction, a process well underway in the hell hole of Iraq, at one time a first world country with a modern health care and educational system, now a smoldering wreck on par with ruined states in Africa.

Iran understands well this is the plan for them, as the Muslim hating neocons will not rest until Israel’s enemies are diseased, malnourished, without electricity or clean water, and wracked by tribal and ethnic violence.

Ahmadinejad understands the threat—for now comprised of sanctions against Iran—and told a large crowd in Tehran that “the Iranian nation will not accept for one moment any bullying, invasion and violation of its rights,” according to the Associated Press. Ahmadinejad knows the CIA, Pentagon, and Israeli military intelligence are at work in his country, stirring up trouble, as they did in Iraq prior to the invasion. “He also said enemies of the country were trying to stir up differences among the Iranian people.’”

In Russia, Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the upper house of parliament’s committee for international affairs, released a statement declaring sanctions against Iran would be futile. “Margelov said sanctions against the Islamic Republic would not necessarily cause a change of power within the country, which is what proponents of sanctions are hoping for…. ‘The stick, which has already been used against Iran, doesn’t seem to have frightened anyone there. The size of a carrot capable of outweighing Iran’s ambition to become a regional leader is hard to imagine,’” said Margelov.

Of course, the neocons are not interested in sanctions—they intend to use the stick extravagantly, want full tilt shock and awe and sanctions are but one step in that direction, a curtain of legitimacy draped over their true and manifestly murderous intentions.

It is a slow process, as reluctant Europeans call “for more dialogue with Iran before any talk of sanctions,” according to Reuters.

“For the EU, diplomacy remains the Number One way forward,” declared Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja. “The time is always for diplomacy. We need patience, we need a lot of patience, and we need clarity,” Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik told reporters. “German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it was too soon to talk of sanctions, which was up to the U.N. Security Council, but there was no contradiction in talking to Iran while working to build consensus at the United Nations.” Said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, “I am the person who is going to talk to Iran soon, so I don’t want to put myself in a position of failure.”

It would seem these bureaucrats never learn. Javier Solana will eventually fail—and miserably, as the neocons will settle for nothing less than a massive shock and awe campaign against Iran, sooner before later, but certainly before Bush leaves office, that is if he ever leaves office, as it would be much easier if this was a dictatorship.

“The power structure is obviously divided on the Iran issue, if not as deeply as one might hope,” writes Gary Leupp. “Democratic Party leaders have indeed competed with the Bush administration to embrace a hard line on Iran. The president’s recent visit to the Hoover Institution to talk with foreign policy wonks who favor an attack suggests the plan’s still on track. But recently there’s been a trend towards advocating negotiations. I would just suggest those doing so note that such negotiations might have begun three years ago—had Cheney and his neocon acolytes (still dangerously occupying key positions) not sabotaged any diplomatic initiatives standing in the way of their imperial ambitions.”

“I smell an expanded war in the Middle East, and pray that I’m wrong,” Ron Paul of Texas told the U.S. House of Representatives in April. “I sense that circumstances will arise that demand support regardless of the danger and cost. Any lack of support, once again, will be painted as being soft on terrorism and al Qaeda. We will be told we must support Israel, support patriotism, support the troops, and defend freedom. The public too often only smells the stench of war after the killing starts. Public objection comes later on, but eventually it helps to stop the war…. This time there will be a greater pretense of an international effort sanctioned by the UN before the bombs are dropped. But even without support from the international community, we should expect the plan for regime change to continue.”

“Sanctions, along with financial and political support to persons and groups dedicated to the overthrow of the Iranian government, are acts of war,” Paul continued. “Once again we’re unilaterally declaring a pre-emptive war against a country and a people that have not harmed us and do not have the capacity to do so. And don’t expect Congress to seriously debate a declaration of war resolution. For the past 56 years Congress has transferred to the executive branch the power to go to war as it pleases, regardless of the tragic results and costs…. Just as the invasion of Iraq inadvertently served the interests of the Iranians, military confrontation with Iran will have unintended consequences. The successful alliance engendered between the Iranians and the Iraqi majority Shia will prove a formidable opponent for us in Iraq as that civil war spreads. Shipping in the Persian Gulf through the Straits of Hormuz may well be disrupted by the Iranians in retaliation for any military confrontation. Since Iran would be incapable of defending herself by conventional means, it seems logical that some might resort to a terrorist attack on us. They will not passively lie down, nor can they be destroyed easily.”

This is precisely what the neocons want. We are told they are stumbling blindly into a dangerous confrontation with Iran, oblivious to their “failure” in Iraq, blinkered by hubris.

In fact, the neocons are not interested in delivering “democracy” to Iran or any other Muslim country in the Middle East—the point is to destroy these countries, reduce them to their ethnic and tribal components, and make certain they do not challenge Israel. The “objective is the perpetuation of Arab disunity,” as Pepe Escobar notes, making reference to the situation in Iraq. It is a plan that will be unleashed against primarily non-Arab Iran, as well.

It should be remembered the main neocon players angling the United States toward a devastating shock and awe campaign of Iran—devastating not only for Iran, but also for the people of the United States—are protégés of Leo Strauss and the fascist polemicist, Carl Schmitt.

“The hallmark of Strauss’ approach to philosophy was his hatred of the modern world, his belief in a totalitarian system, run by ‘philosophers,’ who rejected all universal principles of natural law, but saw their mission as absolute rulers, who lied and deceived a foolish ‘populist’ mass, and used both religion and politics as a means of disseminating myths that kept the general population in clueless servitude,” writes Jeffrey Steinberg.

For the Straussians, tutored by Strauss and the philosophy of the Nazi totalitarian Carl Schmitt and the Hegelian political philosopher Alexandre Kojève, the idea that “man’s humanity depend[s] on his willingness to rush naked into battle and headlong to his death,” as Shadia Drury told Danny Postel, reigns predominate.

“The combination of religion and nationalism is the elixir that Strauss advocates as the way to turn natural, relaxed, hedonistic men into devout nationalists willing to fight and die for their God and country,” and, of course, for the Zionist project, near and dear to the likes of the Jewish neocon hierarchy.

Strauss may have gone through life as a nihilist and atheist, not particularly enamored with Israel or Zionism, but his acolytes have other ideas in mind.

For the Zionist neocons, the fact a shock awe campaign against Iran will capsize the American economy and possibly usher in a new era of terrorism (more accurately defined as an asymmetrical response to state-sponsored terrorism) translates into a near perfect situation, as it will turn “natural, relaxed, hedonistic men into devout nationalists willing to fight and die” in the “clash of civilizations,” what Newt Gingrich, a goyim neocon, calls World War Three.

For the Straussian neocons, sanctions are but a necessary, albeit irksome, tap dance on the way to Armageddon.













All original InformationLiberation articles CC 4.0



About - Privacy Policy