IAEA Refers Iran to UN Security Council for Nuke Program

The Islamic Republic of Iran is dedicating a great deal of time and money to the development of its nuclear program, a peaceful program it claims. The United States of America has vowed not to let Iran ever have The Bomb. A representative of the knuckle-dragging President of Iran has threatened “harm and pain” if the UN acts against it, while Vice President Dick “Elmer Fudd” Cheney threatened Iran with “meaningful consequences” if it didn’t cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. One wonders where the grown-ups are.

The escalation of passion and the diminution of thought have come as the IAEA has decided to refer Iran’s uncooperative behavior to the UN Security Council for consideration, remediation or threats of force. As noted by the journal before, the two sides are after mutually exclusive goals. Iran, a pile of dirt floating on an ocean of oil, has no need of a civilian nuclear program. Its energy problem stems from a lack of local refining capacity which can be had far quicker and cheaper than a nuclear plant can. Meanwhile, US policy has made clear that Iran’s government is part of the Axis of Evil with the Saddamites in Iraq and the sociopathocracy of North Korea. Tehran wants to deter an attack, and nukes work.

The shrieking of the children drowned out the few grown-ups involved. Mohammed El Baradei, Noble Peace Prize winner and head of the IAEA, has said, “we need cool-headed approaches.” He told Washington and Tehran to “lower the rhetoric.” He added, “We need to engage in political dialogue. We need to help Iran to get themselves out of the hole they’re in today.” His prescription is just the kind of slow talking and groping around that annoys the action-oriented White House. The Bush administration wants to give Iran 30 days to comply with IAEA demands, or else.

The “or else” is economic sanctions followed by force (or at least a hunting trip with the vice president). Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted, “That looks so déjà vu. I don’t believe that we should engage in something which might become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We are convinced that there is no military solution to this crisis. We should act in a way that would not risk losing the IAEA capacity and possibility to continue to work in Iran, to continue to clarify those questions which relate to the past Iranian nuclear program.”

Russia, China and France have vetoes in the Security Council, so sanctions and force aren’t on the table. However, as any parent knows, when a child doesn’t get what it wants, he grows more irritated and irrational. Washington and Tehran are likely to keep threatening one another, and all it takes is one ill-considered move by either party to set off a messy confrontation. As Sir Winston Churchill noted, jaw-jaw beats war-war. Of course, the neocons in DC probably labeled him as a coward. Meanwhile, the mullahs in Tehran know everything because they are following the will of Allah, who seems to want Iran to be badly ruled.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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