President Bush said yesterday to a national convention of the American Legion in Reno, Nevada that if Israel’s arch-foe Iran were to get nuclear weapons, the entire Middle East would be “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.”
Bush also repeated accusations that Iran was materializing instability in Iraq by supplying weapons and training fighters. It seems someone is really trying to build a case with the American public for a war with Iran.
My issue with President Bush’s remarks is that they are misleading and incredibly short-sighted.
First off, even if Iran were to get nuclear weapons, possessing does not equal usage. Of all the countries around the world with nuclear weapons, only one has actually used them (outside of a testing capacity): the United States. That means that Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel and South Africa (before voluntarily disarming) have never used them on another country. So where does Bush’s inherent rationale that Iran would use them if they had them come from?
Secondly, and this ties in with my previous point, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” as reported in U.S. media. Contrary to propaganda popular belief, that remark was never made. It should be noted that the Bush Administration has repeatedly used this remark — falsely — as a basis for many of their threats against Iran.
Finally, Bush’s remarks about an impending nuclear holocaust in the Middle East should Iran get nuclear weapons are far less from what a real-life scenario would entail. Granted, Bush is probably correct that if one nuclear weapon were to go off the region would be set ablaze with hellfire and radiation. However, it’s not likely to remain contained to that region. Bush and his cronies need to read up a little on the IR concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD), which is the best nuclear weapon deterrent. Under this MAD premise, one nation setting off nukes means retaliation from other nuke states leading to the destruction of everyone. Thus, were Iran to nuke Israel, Israel and the United States would surely nuke back. As a result of the United States nuking Iran, Russia or China would likely get involved, and the downward spiral goes ever deeper. The lesson from all this: Iran knows that nuking another country will only get itself destroyed, so it’s not going to do it.
It’s unfortunate that the government uses such deliberate manipulation of information to pursue its own secretive agendas (read: attacking Iran). It is extraordinarily unlikely that Iran would ever launch a first-strike nuclear weapon against Israel. Rather, the more plausible explanation is that Iran is seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon so that it can use MAD as a deterrent against countries seeking to nuke it.
5 Comments
Well, Bush obeys
these fuckin zionists that want a preemptive strike against Iran.
God will destroy Israel because it’s the land of the children of the devil. Make no mistake, I didn’t say jews !
All evil on this Earth come from there, and poor USA is only the puppet of the motherfucker zionists.
Fuck ‘em all
You are completely insane. He has been documented numerous times making that same claim, and worse, including in numerous speeches given in Iran. You people on the left live in a fantasy world in whcih you want the world to be just as you picture it should be….which simply isn’t the way the world really is. You liberals blame Bush for everythign and anything and completely ignore that there really are groups out there, growing stronger all the time, that want to literally end the western way of life. And you play right along with them with this inane pratter that essentially is more apologies for the bad guys and more blame on America. It is digusting, and you are sadly a disturbed imbalanced kool aid drinker.
@Phil- Israel is the promise land for the Jewish people so how is claiming that Israel is “the land of the children of the devil” not a direct attack at Jews?
I think you need to get your facts right there Jon, the Iranian president has made those remarks numerous times and he has not even deined them. You can look at these links to revise your facts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4384264.stm (not US media!)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2005/10/27/AR2005102702221.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1601413,00.html
He even played host to a conference that denied the holocuast. How do you describe a man who denies that the slaughter of 6 million Jews was not a holocaust? So to him its normal to kill 6 million jews. The question is, what would he do where he to possess the means to kill more Jews (in equal and even more proportions) given his clearly insane and dangerous mindset. Should the world allow Iran a country whose official position is that there was never any holocaust in history and whose foreign policy in the 21st century is that Israel (a sovereign nation) should be wiped off the map.?
Even if you can call it western media propaganda, the fact is he made those remarks (a fact) and has never denied them (another fact) and the western media recorded them for what ever purposes which are not important in this case. How can you call a fact propaganda? Does facts become propaganda when they come from wersten media? Then lets not have media houses in the west because everything they publish and broadcast is propaganda. I would consider soemthing as propaganda when there is a deliberate twisting and denial of facts to suit a particular view point and advance a certain agenda. To deny that the Iranian leader made those remarks when they have been well documented is propaganda.
A nation that calls for the distruction of another nation cannot be trusted at all and worse off to possess nuclear technology. Do not play his (the Iranian Leader) spin doctor . It is the Iranians and like minded terrorists who need to revise their strategy other wise the world can never feel safe especially if they come to possess dangerous weapons.
I won’t comment on Phil, except to suggest that he consults a mental doctor . He is seriuosly in need of one.
I tried to wipe out the Jews in Europe but failed because the world Jewish conspiracy defeated me. My spirit has entered and taken over the brain of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran. Now I am the puppet master and can finish my unfinished work by using nuclear bombs against Israel. By the way, thanks to the U.N., which created the state of Israel where Jews have gathered by the millions making it easier to accomplish my goal. Seig Heil!