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Iranian-American Scholar Fears War Within Months - Can He Help Stop It?
Here's how high Trita Parsi thinks the stakes are getting on the Iran question: "In the next couple of months, we may end up in a military conflict between these countries," the Iranian-American scholar said in San Francisco last week, referring to the United States, Israel, and Iran. Parsi, who supports diplomacy and thinks it has a fair shot, believes this type of conflict "would be an absolute shame," not to mention what a war between these nations would actually mean. For any attack to effectively reverse Iran's nuclear capability, Parsi said, "you would have to kill 6,000 Iranian nuclear scientists."
Speaking to a full house at the World Affairs Council just up Sutter Street from Mother Jones' headquarters, Parsi unpacked the thesis of his new book, Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States, which came out in August. The book provides reason for hope that we aren't—or at least don't need to be—bound for World War III. His thesis is that rhetoric and ideology, while important, have been overemphasized in most analyses of Iranian-American-Israeli relations. The key to understanding both the present and history of the trilateral relationship, instead, is good old-fashioned geopolitics. Iran is not Nazi Germany reincarnate, Parsi argues; it is not hell-bent on destroying America. Why, he offers as one example, did the Iranians assist the U.S. "tremendously" in Afghanistan after 9/11? Well, Iran had been supporting the Northern Alliance for over a decade. And it was in their strategic interest to get rid of the Taliban. That "showed that when neither the United States or Iran are trying to exclude the other from the process, they could actually work well together," Parsi said. He lays out some important points in a recent Nation article. And before you pigeonhole Parsi as a man of the left, read his essay on Mideast power politics in the American Conservative.
Parsi has lately been filling a gaping void in the commentariat for a sensible Iran expert who understands that it's 2007, not 1938. In just the past few weeks he's been quoted in the New York Times and the Los Angles Times, been interviewed on Diane Rehm and Morning Edition, and garnered links online. Parsi has sterling establishment credentials as well. (Interestingly, his doctoral thesis adviser at John Hopkins was ex-neocon Francis Fukuyama.) But more importantly, Parsi is articulate and TV-ready. And, as a charismatic young Iranian-American, he is a visible reminder that Bush & Co.'s tough talk is aimed at a real country populated by real people. Here's to hoping we start seeing Parsi's friendly face much more often.
—Justin Elliott
Is it possible cooler heads will prevail?
from:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKN2yiOeJG-S9dHCswW1FqWembNw
Admiral says US attack on Iran not 'in the offing': report
LONDON (AFP) ? The United States is not about to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran despite increasingly tense rhetoric between Washington and Tehran, the head of US Central Command was quoted as saying Monday.
Admiral William Fallon did not rule out strikes at some point, but said such military action was not "in the offing."
Is it possible cooler heads will prevail?
from:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKN2yiOeJG-S9dHCswW1FqWembNw
Admiral says US attack on Iran not 'in the offing': report
LONDON (AFP) ? The United States is not about to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran despite increasingly tense rhetoric between Washington and Tehran, the head of US Central Command was quoted as saying Monday.
Admiral William Fallon did not rule out strikes at some point, but said such military action was not "in the offing."
I attended Parsi's speech in Seattle. Extremely articulate and savvy, and very balanced. I expected a pretty anti-Israeli analysis, but in essence he seems to deliberately avoid moralizing politics and instead focuses on clearcut geopolitical analysis. I found him very convincing - but perhaps a bit too smart for his own good. I'm not as sure as Justin that Washington will welcome such a balanced voice...
Is it possible cooler heads will prevail?
from:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKN2yiOeJG-S9dHCswW1FqWembNw
Admiral says US attack on Iran not 'in the offing': report
LONDON (AFP) The United States is not about to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran despite increasingly tense rhetoric between Washington and Tehran, the head of US Central Command was quoted as saying Monday.
Admiral William Fallon did not rule out strikes at some point, but said such military action was not "in the offing."
We all know that Israel is the one that is paranoid on this. Israel wants to maintain their illegal nuclear monopoly in the middle east. AIPAC and their friends give money to the politicians. The question is, will the politicians perform for the money, or will they double cross the donors and just pray upon their fears?
The next big GOP viral email we will see is a picture of Obama with Parsi with a frightening caption along the lines of "Plotting to establish an American Caliphate."
Meanwhile, America's (and Mother Jones') apathy toward the suffering of Iraqis is a mere consequence of the fact that Iraq is not a real country populated by real people.
Far too few Americans are knowledgable about Iran, leading to a great deal of ignorance and fear about this country. The mainstream U.S. media and Bush Administration has effectively demonized Iran, with little or no analysis of recent historical events which have led to the present crisis (CIA overthrow of Mossedegh in '53, the US support of Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war,etc.) The U.S. and Iran should immediately re-establish normal diplomatic relations without preconditions, and the U.S. should stop its belligerent military threats concerning Iran's nuclear power plants. Iran poses no strategic threat to the U.S. and never has posed a threat. Our foreign policy and that of the Israeli government should not be considered one and the same.
Hey Egalitare,
The GOP may fabricate a picture of Obama with Parsi with a frightening caption along the lines of "Plotting to establish an American Caliphate." The only problem is that Parsi is not is not even a muslim. He is a Zoroastrian. Zoroastrianism was the religion of Iran before the Arabs invaded Iran and forced the Iranians (or Persians at that time) to become muslims. So, the GOP fabrication would be only that--a fabrication. But our gullible public would buy anything it seems, when it is related to a foreign country. A good portion of our pupulation still belives that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and had weapons of mass destruction!
So, to curb Iran's Nuclear ambitions, it'd be neccessary to kill 6,000 sientists ?
Yeah ? So what ?
The U.S. has killed in excess of a million people in Iraq so far, I can't see a measly 6,000 being too much of a problem for them.
With all due respect.
There is a significant fact that is missing in discusssions about the possibility of war with Iran. That fact is actually what the whole issue hinges upon and if it were resolved, there would be no chance of war. The fact I speak of is American aggression. It is America that is pushing, clamouring, begging for any reason to start a war with Iran. If the International Community would address that issue this whole thing would disappear. Iran was wronged by the USA in the 50's and they have been unjustly treated since that time simply because they had the courage to overthrow the US puppet dictator, the Shah. They therefore have every justification to be an enemy of the USA and IF they are supplying weapons to the conflict in Iraq it is hardly surprising. Let's not forget the origins of the anti-Russian forces of the Taleban and the creation of Al'Qaida in Afgahnistan!
However, Iran is smart. On the one hand they MUST gain nuclear weapon capability if they are ever to be totally safe from American and Israeli aggression. More importantly, they are smart enough to know that if they ever use nukes in conflict they will be wiped out by the rest of the world. Considering that fact, the issue of Iranian nuclear weapons becomes a moot point.
Having said that, we should ask ourselves now, before it is too late, is the world prepared to take action against America when (not, IF) they use nukes on the nation of Iran?
-d.
Persian people are peaceful people. The Iranian President does not have any Constitutional power over the regular military. He does not have power to declare war on Israel, nor to lunch rockets on Israel. He does have power to say any ridiculous thing that he wants. Americans should just view the Iranian President as a stand up comic making jokes, because he has no real power to do anything to Israel except to insult them like a stand up comic does.