If you listen to the so-called mainstream media, Iran is the biggest threat to world peace since Adolph Hitler. Every night, journalists, analysts, and government officials bombard the airwaves with inflammatory rhetoric about how Iran is hell-bent on incinerating Israel and the United States. Naturally, the whole charade is packaged to instill fear in the average American that if Iran builds nuclear weapons it would be the end of Western Civilization as we know it. The daily barrage is reminiscent of the American media’s successful campaign in 2003 to beat the drums for war with Iraq by convincing Americans that Saddam Hussein was allied with Al Qaeda and possessed weapons of mass destruction. We know now that the allegations against Saddam were false and represented either incompetent journalism at best or fraudulence at worse.
In either case the same crusade is being played out today against Iran. What the discerning observer must ask is: who is really a threat to whom in this circumstance? A close look at the evidence should leave little doubt in anyone’s mind.
When it comes to military might the United States’ far exceeds the Iran’s capabilities. The comparison is so ridiculous that I won’t insult my readers’ intelligence by spewing already known facts. However, it is important to note that about 45-50 percent of Iran’s meager air force is grounded because of a lack of spare parts (owing mostly to the outdated aircraft in its fleet). The last time it saw action was in 1988 at the tail end of the Iran-Iraq War. It also lacks modern radar, communication, and electronic warfare equipment.
Iran’s navy fares no better. It boasts a few small frigates and three Russian shallow water Kilo-class submarines. This is undoubtedly not the kind of fleet that could ever pose a threat to any country. For the American media to talk up that Iran’s military poses a huge threat to the United States is ridiculous.
On the other hand, the best trained and equipped military in the world has Iran almost completely surrounded. The United States has military personnel and hardware on 44 bases around Iran. She maintains an invasion force in neighboring Afghanistan and has conducted air campaigns over other regional countries including Pakistan and Yemen.
In fact, the U.S. has even just recently violated Iranian airspace with at least one spy drone that the Iranians shot down. Additionally, the car bomb blast that killed an Iranian nuclear scientist inside Iran in January has U.S. and/or Israeli intelligence finger prints all over it.
Article comments
1 - Deano
Strangely enough both nations have an almost co-dependent parasitical relationship - the US finds it immensely advantageous at home and abroad politically to finger-point at the threat of Iran as a reason to maintain a large scale and continuing presence in the region.
In turn Iranian political and religious leaders find US attention to serve as a strong political distraction, a nationalist unifier and a good excuse to restrict internal political freedoms.
At this point with a US election year, I suspect neither side is interested in compromise or a reduction in the tensions, its just too politically valuable and, so long as both sides are aware of where the posturing line is drawn, I can't see it stopping anytime soon.
2 - Glenn Contrarian
It's not only America that's a problem. There's a story in the international issue of Time that illustrates the deep divide between Ahmedinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei...and the national elections are to be held March 2nd - tomorrow. Ahmedinejad is actually the more moderate of the two, whereas his former benefactor the Ayatollah has been taking more of a hard line in order to protect his authority over Shi'a Islam.
The article says that chances are the Ayatollah will win, and if he does, things look rather bleak for Ahmedinejad, since the Ayatollah's people have done things recently such as accusing Ahmedinejad's people of witchcraft and summoning djinn...which offenses tend to get one killed.
So it looks like Iran's going to become even more hardline in the months to come, assuming that the Ayatollah will replace the current prime minister with one that is more pliant.
3 - Igor
All too true.