Next We Take Tehran By Robert Dreyfuss

[kpete]

Next We Take Tehran

News: The confrontation with Iran has very little to do with nukes—and a lot with the agenda of empire

By Robert Dreyfuss

July/August 2006 Issue



President Bush may or may not order a massive aerial bombardment of Iran later this year. Or he may wait until 2007. Or he may simply escalate a risky confrontation with Iran through covert action and economic sanctions. But whatever the next act in the crisis, don’t be fooled by the assertion that the problem is Iran’s pursuit of nuclear arms.

Iran is a decade away from gaining access to the bomb, according to the administration’s own National Intelligence Estimate, and despite all the talk about the ugliness of the theocratic regime in Tehran, the likely showdown is, at bottom, driven by the geopolitics of oil. With one-tenth of the world’s petroleum reserves and one-sixth of its natural gas reserves, Iran sits in a strategic geographical position that makes it the cockpit for control of the entire Middle East. It straddles the Persian Gulf’s choke points, including the Strait of Hormuz; it has important influence among Shiites throughout Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf states; and it borders highly contested real estate to the north, from the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea to Central Asia.

The logic of the Bush administration is inexorable. Its ironclad syllogism is this: The United States is and must remain the world’s preeminent power, if need be by using its superior military might. One of the two powers with the ability to emerge as a rival—China—depends vitally on the Persian Gulf and Central Asia for its future supply of oil; the other—Russia—is heavily engaged in Iran, Central Asia, and the Caucasus region. Therefore, if the United States can secure a dominant position in the Gulf, it will have an enormous advantage over its potential challengers. Call it zero-sum geopolitics: Their loss is our gain.

much more at:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/07/next_we_take_tehran.html

[n2doc]

1. K and R, I hope he is wrong

but worry that he is right.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. saw him on BookTV this weekend

It was scary listening to him. He's probably right. :(


Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam

Robert Dreyfuss talks about the relationship between the U.S. government and the Islamic right in the Middle East. He explains that during the Cold War, the United States, looking to gain strategic advantage in the Middle East, aligned itself with the Islamic right in countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt even though more progressive groups existed. Mr. Dreyfuss discusses the consequences of these alignments and talks about how this is playing out today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

has written about Iraq, the war on terrorism, and national security for the Nation, the American Prospect, and Rolling Stone. He is also a commentator on NPR, MSNBC, and CNBC. For more information, visit: www.robertdreyfuss.com .