Obama’s Covert Sabotage Of Iranian Regime Recalls Nixon’s Support For Allende Overthrow – OpEd

By

Israeli and western media are filled with stories about the collapse of Iran’s currency over the past week.  The articles contain a strong element of Schadenfreude, gloating at the suffering of others.  Specifically when those others are the Iranian “enemy.”  But are they?  More on this later in this post.

John Dickerson pointed me to a most interesting 2009 Truthout article which presciently noted that the then-new Pres. Obama had not renounced George Bush’s massive campaign of covert black ops directed against the Iranian regime.  One of the specific elements of subversion involved manipulation of Iran’s currency.  So one has to ask: in addition to strangling economic and financial sanctions which may be causing this nose dive, what other covert manipulations may be occurring?

President Obama
President Obama

For all those who cheer any pain inflicted on Iran, ask yourself who’s being hurt?  Is it the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij, the generals, ayatollahs, etc.?  Or is it the workers, the children, the poor?  Who will suffer first and most under these conditions?  Look at what we did to Iraq.  Sanctions there didn’t harm Saddam or his Baathist nomenklatura.  It starved the babies, the sick, the underclass.  They absorbed this blow and died in the hundreds of thousands.

There is little doubt that Obama, Netanyahu and western nations will have the cries of starving babies as a part of their political legacy.  These sanctions will likely not bring Iran to heel and not achieve their stated aim.  But they will kill real people.

We also have another parallel to invoke: Israel’s siege against Gaza, now six years old.  Though it is less severe than in the past, it still stymies economic development in Gaza.  Who did the siege hurt?  Hamas?  No. The Islamist group smuggled all its needs into the enclave using tunnels.  Did it stymie terrorists?  No again.  They too brought in weapons via the tunnels.  It DID hurt the pregnant mothers and newborns for whom there was little nourishment to be found.

Another important parallel between the Iran and Gaza blockades is that their goal is unclear.  Israel claims it laid siege to Gaza to prevent importing weapons for terror attacks, a bogus argument.  The U.S. claims its sanctions are designed to get Iran to renounce its entirely legal nuclear program.

But the Truthout article notes that the U.S. intensively destabilized another regime in the same way we’re now undermining Iran: the Salvador Allende government in Chile.  Which brings us around to the issue of regime change.  Clearly, Israel wants to topple the Iranian government.  It appears that the U.S. has a similar goal.  Or at least it’s offering that regime an either/or proposition: either you renounce your nuclear program or we bring you to your knees in hopes that your own people will topple you.

The question to consider is this: will Iranians blame their leaders for their hunger or the western nations strangling it?  That’s a no-brainer.  Countries under attack always unite against their foreign oppressors.  This makes the leaders stronger and less likely to fall.

This article appeared at Tikun Olam

Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein is an author, journalist and blogger, with articles appearing in Haaretz, the Jewish Forward, Los Angeles Times, the Guardian’s Comment Is Free, Al Jazeera English, and Alternet. His work has also been in the Seattle Times, American Conservative Magazine, Beliefnet and Tikkun Magazine, where he is on the advisory board. Check out Silverstein's blog at Tikun Olam, one of the earliest liberal Jewish blogs, which he has maintained since February, 2003.

One thought on “Obama’s Covert Sabotage Of Iranian Regime Recalls Nixon’s Support For Allende Overthrow – OpEd

  • October 2, 2012 at 11:11 pm
    Permalink

    Iran is a Country that Refuses to Prove To the World(Not just the US or Israel) on Very SMIPLE request- Prove To the World or at least Most of the Civil World you are Not Or Do Not Have a Nuclear Program. I learned that that have something to Hide -Hide It and those that Do Not will Show you anything you want to See. The World has been Very Patient and Diplomatic with the Iranian Regime which is Doing one of Two Things! Allowing it’s People to suffer and It’s Country to be degraded because 1) It has no Nuclear Prgram and wants to play power games with the Civil World and is willing to sacrifice it’s People and Country to do So or 2) It has a Nuclear Program it is hiding and it is willing to Destroy it’s Country and People to Hide and Not Disclose it’s Program. Now either way it is the Iranian Regimes Choice , Not the US -Israel’s or The UN or the IAEA Choice to degrade It’ s Currency or Country and Harm it’s People.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to David Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *