Column no. 50 By Steven Jonas, MD, MPH - March 3, 2005
Not a day seems to pass without the Iranians changing their position on nuclear weapons development. One day, they are accepting European proposals for an agreement to suspend it; the next day they seem to be repudiating any agreement.
I happen to think that the scariest nation having nuclear weaponry at present is the United States under the Georgites. It is well-known that leading members of and top advisors to the Georgite regime have for some time openly talked about invading Iran. The U.S. is the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons, and since the time of Eisenhower American administration, (only under successor Republican ones to my knowledge) has actually considered using them again in one situation or another. Currently, in the Iraq situation Georgite sympathizers talked about “nuking” Falujah and it is only recently that cost-cutting Republicans in the Congress have eliminated, for the time-being at least, the Georgite program to develop “bunker-buster” nuclear weapons, designed to get at underground facilities of various kinds.
If I were in the Iranian leadership, given these facts and given that close-by Israel, presently under the Partition-rejectionist/Palestinians-ejectionist Sharonists, is estimated to have about 400 nuclear weapons, I would want to have them too. Unless a deal is made, given that the Iranian nuclear industry is widely decentralized, only a complete takeover of the whole country by the US could prevent that from otherwise happening eventually. The trade that the Iranians may be on their way to making with the Europeans and the Russians may be indeed to not acquire them, in return for a solid guarantee of protection against the US. Perhaps this is what the on-again/off-again nature of the public Iranian position is all about, as the various forces maneuver behind closed doors to provide those guarantees to the Iranians. Stranger alliances have occurred in history.
A friend, a very sharp political analyst and a strong anti-Georgite on most issues, sent me the following comment:
Steve: If you're really, truly more afraid of George Bush than of the theocrats in Teheran, I'm afraid we don't have anything to say to each other on this topic. If it's just rhetoric, I think it's ill-judged rhetoric.
I sent him the following response (and since, three days later, I have not had a reply from him, I guess he is sticking to his non-discuss position):
Hi. Yes, I am more afraid of George Bush and the theocrats/neocons who are running him than I am of the theocrats in Teheran (who are at least faced by a democratic opposition that has some real power). George Bush is rapidly turning our country into a fascist dictatorship, something the Iranians don't have the power to do. The negative impacts of that developing development not only for our country but for the human species as we know it are terrifying, in my view.
It is almost as if the Georgites are using as a script my book The 15% Solution: A Political History of American Fascism, 2001-2022, originally published in 1996. The political scenario of the book begins in 2000 with the election of a not-too-bright Republican totally beholden to the Christian Right. It continues with the victory in the 2004 election of something I called the 'Republican/Christian Alliance.' Sound familiar?
Further on the original subject, whether or not the Iranians acquire nuclear weapons, I am much more afraid that the Georgite theocratic/Armageddonists might use ours than that they would use theirs.
Junkie: The commentary above is taken from two pieces written by Dr. Jonas originally for Junkie Editor Michael Carmichael’s fabulous website, Planetary Movement. Both pieces can be found here: Dr. J.’s Short Shot No. 27: Iranian Nukes and Dr. J.’s Short Shot No. 31: Further on Iranian Nukes.