[Foreign Policy]

From Iran's Side.

Not to belabor the point, but the discussion on yesterday's thread got me thinking a little more about Iran. Our foreign policy is a stew of projections--anyway, the justifications and rationales are. Iran has emerged as a threat in the past couple years, but why? Developing nukes is never a good thing, but come on--Iran's not a rival to the US. This isn't the cold war again. So what is threatening about Iran's nukes? If the US regards them as a danger, it must be because we think the mode of delivery will be via terrorism, not war. That fails the smell test: if Iran builds nukes, it's to strengthen its hand internationally. Were Iran interested in developing nukes to use in a terrorist war against the US, it would procure them through other means--like the vast, leaking network of failed Soviet states.

So instead of seeing black hats and beards and shivering, let's think a little. Long before the notion of Iranian nukes there was ... Bush's saber rattling. It was he who branded them dangerous, evil terrorists--and not loosely. Following that talk, he invaded Iraq, felling domino one of the axis of evil. If you get outside the FOX echo chamber, you might perceive Americans as something other than the source of goodness and light. Their threats to "democratize" your region and their subsequent invasions toward that end may look a whole lot like a superpower bent on world domination. From our side, bringing stability to the region (and eliminating threatening rivals). From their side, bringing shock, awe, death and instability.

The American narrative right now is that the Iranian nuclear program is the cause, not the effect. Our media dutifully report that Iran has suddenly grown bellicose. Yet pull the blinders off, and it looks like the obvious, rational response to US designs. If Iran had invaded Panama with the intent to "Islamize" North America--with all the attendent goodness and light Muslims might feel that would provide--what would the US do? Would we be "bellicose" to regard it as a threat?