Resource nationalism has US empire in global retreat
18/01/2012 00:00:00
by Garikai Chengu
SINCE World War II, the United States has been involved in the overthrow of 52 foreign leaders, some of them democratically elected. The common thread amongst these leaders has been resource nationalism: Lumumba, Nkrumah, João Goulart, Salvador Allende, Isabel Martínez de Perón and Gaddafi, to name but a few.
To this day, the leaders under the most pressure from America are not necessarily the most corrupt or undemocratic – they are resource nationalists. A roll call of some of America’s top enemies illustrates this: Hugo Chavez and his agrarian reform and pro-poor oil policies in Venezuela; Robert Mugabe and his land reform and indigenisation programme in Zimbabwe; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his nationalised oil industry and quest for nuclear capability for domestic energy needs in Iran and North Korea’s Kim Jong II and his non free market system and “Juche” system of self reliance.
The reason for US pressure on these leaders is simple: the biggest threat to America's capitalist imperialist economic model is lack of access to foreign markets. Or put simply, resource nationalism.
If these leaders and their policies succeed, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Iran would encourage other Latin American, African and Middle Eastern nations to follow suit, thereby hindering American access to 35% of the global market.
A prime example of how one nation's resource nationalism can reshape an entire continent to the betterment of the poor and the detriment of US corporate interests is Venezuela. Chavez has nationalised oil to promote free health care and education. He has also dished out land to the poor. These resource nationalist policies have seen poverty tumble from 70 per cent when Chavez took office to just under 20 per cent today. Venezuela now has the most equitable income distribution of any nation in Latin America.
Largely thanks to Venezuela's sharp reduction in poverty, unemployment and inequality, resource nationalism is sweeping across Latin America like wildfire. Unsurprisingly, Chavez has been singled out for an attempted CIA-backed coup in 2002 and has been demonised by western media left, right and centre.
Just recently, Chavez launched the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Thirty three Heads of State from across the Americas came together to mark the monumental occasion. The importance of this new institution in world politics cannot be overstated. The combined gross domestic product of the countries within CELAC makes it the third-largest economic powerhouse in the world.
CELAC is also home to the world’s largest oil reserves and the first and third largest global producers of food and energy, respectively. Most notably, America and Canada are explicitly excluded from CELAC. Clearly, Washington is losing control of Latin America.
For the West, whose ties to Arab dictators once gave it great clout in the Middle East, events in the region have also spun way out of control. By removing her veil of fear, the Arab Street is now able to stare down and overthrow the true dictatorship of the region - Washington. In fact western backed dictators have been toppled in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen; Syria is convulsing from civil war; and rebellion is smouldering in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait.
But it is Iran, the richest and oldest civilisation in the region, that has suddenly found a new prominence to match its craving for recognition as a regional power. By the time the Arab Spring is complete, Iran could emerge with a sphere of influence stretching from Afghanistan's eastern tip to the edge of the Mediterranean. A newly unshackled Arab street, and the Islamist governments they are electing, are moving closer to Iran's Islamism, anti-imperialism, anti-Zionism, pro-Palestine stance and inevitably petro-resource nationalism.
American animosity towards North Korea has next to nothing to do with her nuclear arsenal. On the contrary, North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is a direct consequence of years of American animosity. This 70-year-old aggression is about putting an end to North Korea's Juche ideology – a doctrine of self reliance, non-free market system and self-directed economic development. Clearly, this is a system that offers little opportunity for American profit-making at North Korea's expense. Hence the ridicule, sanctions and demonisation of North Korea and its leaders!
In Africa, Mugabe has also been singled out for economic sanctions and round the clock demonisation in the western media, we are told for human rights abuses. In reality, it is the Empire fighting back after Mugabe regained 42 per cent of Zimbabwe's land area – controlled by 4,000 farmers – and dishing it out to 400,000 black families, the vast majority of whom were poor.
The single biggest cause of Zimbabwe's economic nosedive has been an all-out economic war and embargo from the West. The single biggest incentive to slap Zimbabwe with sanctions has not been to promote human rights and freedom, nor has it been simply a ploy to bring about regime change. Sanctions are designed to send a clear signal to the continent's landless and economically disempowered that resource nationalism is not the way to go otherwise “you will end up like Zimbabwe”. It’s a signal that is principally aimed at the West's biggest prize on the continent: South Africa.
In South Africa, only nine per cent of the population are white, and yet this group enjoys 80 per cent of the wealth. ANC Youth League president Julius Malema was becoming too much of a resource nationalist, with popular appeal. His demands for nationalisation of mines and redistribution of land without compensation opened him to demonisation. Thus, at the behest of western capitals, the minority owned media discredited him, the black political elite silenced him and now the predominantly apartheid era judicial bench wants to put him out of circulation.
The west knows that if Zimbabwe's land democratisation is allowed to proceed without the hindrance of sanctions and thus succeed, every landless black from the Cape to Cape Verde will be demanding their fair share. If indigenisation redistributes income and gives a boost to employees and communities – as it is poised to do – workers and communities across SADC will demand their fare share.
The stakes are huge for America. A stubborn group of resource nationalist leaders – bent on putting their poor before profiteers – are a bigger threat to American interests than a headless and largely degraded Al-Qaeda or a seemingly peaceful, rising China.
Garikai Chengu is a research scholar at Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Labels: IRAN, MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, ROBERT MUGABE
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Guide to why US seeks to make Iran a global pariah
Saturday, 19 November 2011 00:00
Stephen Gowans
Flipping idly through my morning newspaper, my eyes fell upon a headline, which, given its significance, should have appeared on the front page, but instead was tucked away at the back, on page A9. "Israel won't rule out attack on Iran".
Now, it's true that Israel's threatening to attack Iran is hardly news. Here was Ehud Barak, Israeli defence minister, over two years ago, talking about measures to dissuade Iran from continuing to process uranium: "We clearly believe that no option should be removed from the table. This is our policy. We mean it." And here was Barak just the other day: "We strongly believe that . . . no option should be removed from the table." Same defence minister. Same words. Same threat.
Yet while the threat may be old, its significance remains undiminished. One country is threatening to commit the supreme international crime: to attack another even though it, itself, has not been attacked by the country it rattles its sabre at. Were Iran to threaten Israel, the headline "Iran won't rule out attack on the Jewish state" wouldn't be tucked away inconspicuously in the back pages of my newspaper. Instead, it would be shouted in bold letters across the front page. "My God!", NATO state officials and editorialists would cry. "Iran is threatening to attack the Jewish state. Something must be done!"
But in this case it is Israel - which the Western media and governments have long embraced and set forth as the land of the good guys - that is issuing the threat against a country which has, since its escape from US domination in 1979, been limned as dark and menacing, and so while no one wants war, surely it's all perfectly understandable that the plucky Israelis should be declaring their determination to stand against the Judeophobic menace of the Islamic Republic. After all, isn't Iran building nuclear weapons to wipe Israel off the map? Well, if you listen to the Israelis and their US protector, the answer is yes.
The Strangelovian Israeli historian Benny Morris declares that Israel is "threatened almost daily with destruction by Iran's leaders." To eclipse this threat, Iran must be wiped off the map before Iran does any wiping of its own. "Israel has no option," Morris chillingly says, "but to use its nuclear arsenal to destroy Iran, unless the US uses its formidable military to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities first."
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns: "Iran is even arming itself with nuclear weapons to realise that goal (the obliteration of the Jewish state), and until now the world has not stopped it. The threat to our existence, is not theoretical. It cannot be swept under the carpet; it cannot be reduced. It faces us and all humanity, and it must be thwarted."
Ominous. But the idea that Iran intends to acquire nuclear weapons to obliterate Israel is pure flummery, as real as the threat King Kong poses to Manhattan; a work of fiction, intended to create a frisson of fear.
So, why do I say this? First, we don't know whether Iran intends to acquire nuclear
weapons, or only the capability of producing them, or even that. An International Atomic Energy Agency report, released yesterday, tables evidence that Iran is secretly working on a nuclear bomb. So let's assume for the moment that Iran's leaders do indeed intend to build nuclear weapons.
It's widely agreed that it's highly unlikely that Iran would be able to build nuclear weapons while its nuclear energy program is still under the scrutiny of UN inspectors.
A more likely scenario is that Tehran would develop the capability to produce a bomb from within the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and once it had reached the point of being able to do so, would turn its capability into reality by withdrawing from the treaty, ejecting inspectors, and making a mad dash to develop a rudimentary arsenal. That's what North Korea did, when, following the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States decided to re-target some its nuclear missiles from its old nemesis to the DPRK.
But would Iran ever get as far as being able to make a mad dash to status as the world's newest nuclear-weapons state? The United States and Israel have made plenty of noise about bombing Iran's nuclear facilities before Iran's nuclear scientists ever reach the point of having the capability of producing nuclear weapons.
Indeed, one of the reasons why the threat to attack Iran's nuclear facilities has been trotted out anew is because the steps the United States and Israel have taken to sabotage Iran's nuclear program - from the Stuxnet computer virus to the assassination of Iran's nuclear scientists to punitive sanctions - haven't stopped the program's development - although they have certainly slowed it. But let's make another assumption. Let's assume that despite US and Israeli efforts to cripple Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons, that Iran, despite these impediments, brings this capability to fruition, and furthermore, manages against the concerted opposition of the United States and Israel to develop a few nuclear warheads. Does the possession of warheads mean that Iran will use them - either to wipe Israel off the map or attack the United States?
No, it does not.
The idea that Iran is an "existential" threat to Israel comes from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's alleged promise to wipe Israel off the map. US and Israeli political leaders have been invoking this chestnut for years to justify the assassinations, economic warfare, covert destabilisation, and threats of military intervention used to undermine Iran's nuclear energy program. The problem is, the allegation is groundless.
The firestorm started when Nazila Fathi, then the Tehran correspondent of The New York Times, reported a story almost six years ago that was headlined: "Wipe Israel ‘off the map' Iranian says." The article attributed newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remarks to a report by the ISNA press agency.
Then, specialists such as Juan Cole of the University of Michigan and Arash Norouzi of the Mossadegh Project pointed out that the original statement in Persian did not say that Israel should be wiped from the map, but instead that it would collapse.
Khamenei stated, "Iran's position, which was first expressed by the Imam (Khomeini) and stated several times by those responsible, is that the cancerous tumor called Israel must be uprooted from the region." He went on to say in the same speech that
"Palestinian refugees should return and Muslims, Christians and Jews could choose a government for themselves, excluding immigrant Jews."
Khamenei has been consistent, stating repeatedly that the goal is not the military destruction of the Jewish state but "the defeat of Zionist ideology and the dissolution of Israel through a ‘popular referendum.'"
To be sure, anyone who regards Israel as a "cancerous tumor" that "must be uprooted from the region" and replaced by a government freely chosen by the people who lived in Palestine prior to its conquest by Zionist settlers, is an existential threat to Zionism, as a living, breathing idea implanted in the soil of Palestine.
But while the designation of Iran as an existential threat to Israel is literally true (in the sense that Iran doesn't accept Zionism and therefore works against it by supporting such anti-Zionist groups as Hamas and Hezbollah), the phrase "existential threat" is twisted to mean something more than intended: military destruction rather than collapse through a referendum.
Political leaders are in the habit of turning non-threats into dire ones in order to manipulate public opinion to clear a path to get what they want. In other words, they manufacture consent for their policies by lying. A not particularly egregious example of this is provided by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who, needing to defend the Pentagon's Brobdignagian budget against possible cuts, recently "cited North Korea and Iran as persistent threats, and said that the military had to maintain ‘the ability to deter and defeat them.'"
North Korea and Iran are not threats to the physical safety and welfare of a single US civilian, and anyone who says they are is using a trowel to liberally spread a thick film of bullshit upon the face of public discourse.
First, it should be noted that Iran's military is built for self-defence. It doesn't have aircraft carriers, a large fleet of warships, strategic bombers or foreign military bases. The United States, by contrast, bases its Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, within shouting distance of Iran, directly across the Persian Gulf. You won't find Iranian warships lingering menacingly in the Gulf of Mexico or patrolling the Atlantic and Pacific on the edges of US territorial waters, but the United States does the equivalent in Tehran's neighorhood.
Second, Iran's military spending, at US$20 billion per annum, pales in comparison to the budgets of the United States (US$700billion) and even that of the United States' regional allies (US$102 billion).
The US military budget is 35 times larger than Iran's, and the sum of that of the United States, its invariable military side-kick, the United Kingdom, and Washington's regional allies, is 43 times larger. The gulf in fighting ability supported by these expenditures is as yawning as the one between the New York City Police Department tactical squadron and a troop of Boy Scouts armed with BB guns.
As regards North Korea, the charge that it is a threat to the security of a single US civilian is even more absurd. Like Iran, North Korea's military is built for defence, and it too has no foreign military bases, no aircraft carriers, no nuclear armed submarines and no strategic bombers, and it has never - unlike its compatriot neighbour to the south - sent troops abroad to fight in other country's wars (South Korean troops fought in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan on behalf of its patron, the United States.)
North Korean military expenditures are even more modest than Iran's. Pyongyang spends an estimated US$10 billion on its military (and that's probably stretching it), many of whose members are engaged in agriculture and other civilian activities. By comparison, South Korea (on whose soil are resident close to 30 000 US troops), spends US$39 billion, while nearby Japan (home to 40 000 US troops) spends US$34 billion. Together, these two US allies outspend Pyongyang on their militaries by a factor of 7 to 1.
Add to this US defence expenditures and those of Britain - a country that can be counted on to docilely follow the United States into any war, no matter whether the Conservatives or Labour are in power - and North Korea, surrounded by US troops and warships and whose air borders are incessantly menaced by the US Air Force, is outspent over 80 to 1. A threat? The claim is laughable.
And that understates the imbalance. What military budgets don't reveal is the vastly superior destructive power of US military hardware (and that of many of its allies) compared to Iran's and North Korea's. The kill capacity of US strike aircraft, cruise missiles, and battleships is far in excess of the heavy artillery that figures so prominently in the North Korean armamentarium, for example.
And then there's nuclear weapons. North Korea may (or may not) have an arsenal of a few warheads, and Iran may (or may not) be seeking one, but these rudimentary collections pale in comparison with the US, British, and Israeli arsenals arrayed against them. Would Iran attack Israel, or North Korea attack South Korea, with one or two nuclear missiles, knowing that to do so would invite a retaliatory tsunami of missiles from the target (in the case of an attack on Israel) or its hyper-armed patron, the United States, or both? The outcome of so foolhardy an attack would be game-over for either country.
"During the Democratic primaries, then candidate Hilary Clinton (now US Secretary of State) warned that if Iran attacked Israel, the United States would ‘totally obliterate' Iran."
Three years ago, Israeli "Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer went on record saying, ‘We must tell them: ‘If you so much as dream of attacking Israel, before you even finish dreaming there won't be an Iran anymore.'" It's doubtful that the Iranians and North Koreans failed to get the message.
And then there's the matter of Washington's 2010 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). If read superficially, the NPR would lead you to believe that US policy makers have finally figured out that the cardinal rule of nonproliferation is to abjure military aggression against non-nuclear states.
Countries that aren't threatened by nuclear powers have no need to develop nuclear weapons for self-defence. However, a closer reading of the review shows that nothing has changed. US president Barack Obama has stayed true to form, obscuring his pursuit of his predecessors' policies beneath honeyed phrases that create the impression of change, where no change of substance exists.
The NPR declares "that the United States will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states", even if they attack the United States, its vital interests or allies and partners with chemical or biological weapons.
This differs, but only on the surface, from the policy of preceding administrations which refused to renounce the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states. There are a number of reasons why the difference is apparent only.
While nuclear weapons are widely regarded as being unparalleled in their destructive power (and they are), the United States is able to deliver overwhelming destructive force through its conventional military capabilities.
A promise not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states is not the same as an assurance not to use or threaten to use devastating military force. Six decades ago it was possible to obliterate a city through conventional means, as the Western Allies demonstrated in the firebombing of Dresden.
If a city could be destroyed by conventional means more than half a century ago, imagine what the Pentagon could do today through conventional forces alone. Indeed, the NPR makes clear that the United States is prepared to shrink its nuclear arsenal partly because "the growth of unrivalled US conventional military capabilities" allows Washington to fulfill its geostrategic goals "with significantly lower nuclear force levels and with reduced reliance on nuclear weapons."
The NPR also provides a number of escape hatches that allow Washington to continue to dangle a nuclear sword of Damocles over the heads of Iran and North Korea. One is that nuclear weapons can be used, or their used threatened, against a country that is not "party to the NPT" even if the country doesn't yet have nuclear weapons, or it is unclear whether it does.
This is the North Korea escape clause. It allows Washington to continue to threaten North Korea with nuclear obliteration, just as it has done since the early 1990s when the US Strategic Command announced it was re-targeting some of its strategic nuclear missiles on the DPRK (the reason why North Korea withdrew from the NPT.)
Another escape clause allows Washington to reach for the nuclear trigger whenever it deems a country to have fallen short of "compliance with [its] nuclear non-proliferation obligations," even if the country doesn't have nuclear weapons and is a party to the NPT. This is the Iran escape hatch, intended to allow Washington to maintain the threat of nuclear annihilation vis-à-vis Iran or any other country Washington unilaterally declares to be noncompliant with the treaty's obligations.
As for the United States' commitment to refrain from reaching for its nuclear arsenal in response to a chemical or biological attack on itself, its vital interests (a term that defies geography and democracy, for how is it that the United States' vital interests extend to other people's countries?) its allies and its partners, this too is verbal legerdemain. As a careful reading of the NPR makes clear, the truth of the matter is that the United States will attack any country with nuclear weapons if such an attack is deemed necessary by Washington to protect its interests, which is to say, the interests of the corporations, banks and investors whose senior officials and representatives dominate policy formulation in Washington and provide the major funding, and post-political jobs, to the country's politicians. According to the NPR, "the United States reserves the right to make any adjustment in [its commitment] that may be warranted..." Translation: We won't attack non-nuclear weapons states with nuclear weapons unless we decide it's in our interests to do so.
Finally, we need to ask whether either Iran or North Korea have a motive to attack the United States, and whether Iran has a motive to attack Israel. Iran's leaders may abhor the Zionist conquest of what they see as territory important to Islam, but that doesn't mean they're willing to take on a suicide mission to deal a one- or two-nuclear missile blow to Israel-one which, by the way, probably wouldn't completely destroy Israel, but would incinerate Iran in the hail of retaliatory blows that followed. As for tangling with the United States, neither country wants that. What they want is peaceful coexistence-to be left alone to develop in their own way.
The trouble is, the United States hasn't the barest interest in peaceful coexistence, and the reason why is the key, not only to understanding US foreign policy, but to understanding why a US-led NATO spent months bombing Libya to drive the former regime from power.
But first, a digression. As a matter for inquiry, the approaches critics of US foreign policy take to explain their subject-if they explain it at all-is as interesting as US foreign policy itself. The usual tack is to expose US hypocrisy.
For example, critics might point out that the United States defends Israel, which has nuclear weapons and doesn't belong to the NPT, while threatening to attack Iran, which belongs to the NPT, and doesn't have nuclear weapons. Or that NATO bombed Libya to prevent the government there from using its military to put down an uprising but allowed Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to use their militaries to put down an uprising in Bahrain. Some critics stop there, reasoning that if they're going to muster opposition to US foreign policy, it's enough to show that it's built on hypocrisy. Or they denounce US behavior as immoral, undemocratic or against international law, because it is, and they figure that showing this will rouse the indignation of people of good conscience. Other US foreign policy critics cogently show why US foreign policy couldn't possibly be guided by the objectives US leaders say it is guided by. But they stop there, leaving their audiences to scratch their heads, wondering, if not for the reasons stated, then why?
Liberals insist that US foreign policy makes no sense and the reason why is because US leaders are confused, myopic, poorly motivated, or just plain dumb. An example of this point of view is offered by former US president Jimmy Carter, who contends that the conflict with North Korea can be resolved in half a day. Apparently US leaders have neither the political will nor smarts to do so.
The truth of the matter is that there is nothing to be gained for the corporations, investors and banks that dominate US foreign policy-the one percent who really matter in the United States-from peaceful coexistence with North Korea. For one thing, peaceful coexistence implies that each side poses a threat to the other, but North Korea, despite the rhetorical nonsense of political leaders seeking to justify Pentagon budgets, poses no threat to the United States. A $10B defense budget against a $700B one; aging aircraft whose pilots are grounded most of the time due to shortages of fuel; a puny arsenal of nuclear weapons; an army whose training time is partly displaced by engagement in farming; the most sanctioned country on earth, whose economy has been crippled by six decades of US economic warfare; a country of 24 million hemmed in to the south and east by the troops of a country of 300 million; no, North Korea is not a threat.
So how is it that peaceful coexistence would deliver anything in the way of improved security for Americans, which they already have in abundance anyway? It wouldn't. The demand for peaceful coexistence is little more than a Quixotic plea from Pyongyang to be left alone to develop in a self-directed manner in exchange for giving up a few nuclear weapons that at best, are, to use an Edward Herman term, a "threat of self-defense." The benefits of peaceful coexistence are all on the North Korean side.
After all, what does the United States get for promising to leave North Korea to develop in its own way? An open door for exports and investments? Hardly. North Korea's integration into a US-dominated system of global capitalism? No. US troops on North Korean soil? Absolutely not. North Korea's incorporation into a US-led military alliance against China? No possibility. What it gets is North Korea giving up a deterrent to attack in exchange for the United States promising not to attack. This is a one-sided deal. No wonder North Korea wants it, and Washington keeps turning it down. David Straub, director of the US State Department's Korea desk from 2002 to 2004 sums up nicely why peaceful coexistence isn't on Washington's Korea agenda.
"North Korea's closed economic and social system means the country has virtually nothing of value to offer the United States." (12) What the United States wants from North Korea (an open door to investment, exports, ownership and political influence) is the opposite of what North Korea offers (a closed door and a prickly sense of independence-both political and economic). Washington abandoned the policy of peaceful coexistence with the USSR, which was militarily strong enough to make the US a miserable place in which to live if the Pentagon ever decided to start a US-Soviet war. So why would it accept peaceful coexistence with a hated closed system that poses a minor threat at best?
Other critics of US foreign policy explain their subject in terms of power. US leaders want to preserve or expand US power (or primacy or hegemony) against such "peer competitors" as China or Russia or such regional powers as Iran. Of course, it's never said what US leaders (or Chinese or Russian leaders) want power for. To believe these critics, power is what everyone wants, and the quest for it, as an end in itself, is what makes the world go around. But the trick here is to inquire into why power is sought. Washington doesn't seek to enlarge its power so that it can strong-arm governments around the world into furnishing their citizens with public healthcare, guaranteed employment and free education. On the contrary, it seeks power to do the very opposite. Power serves some end, and in the case of US state power, it serves the end of protecting and enlarging the big business interests of the big business people who run the state of a big business country; it protects profits and establishes the conditions that allow them to grow-both at home and overseas.
It's curious that the power-is-the-alpha-and-omega-of-world-politics view should hold such a strong sway among some critics of US foreign policy, when in the internal affairs of capitalist countries the organizing principle is private business, and the alpha and omega of private business, is profits. Sure, it's understood that business leaders want power, but not so they can lord it over others, and take pleasure in its trappings, but so they can enlarge their capital. Power is a means to an end.
So why should foreign policy be any different? The moment Gaddafi was toppled by NATO bombs, a stream of NATO foreign ministers traipsed to Benghazi, their countries' corporate CEOs in tow, to line up new business deals. It was clear the National Transitional Council (NTC), whose key members-one, an exile who had been teaching economics in the United States for years; another, who earned his PhD in 1985 from the University of Pittsburgh under the late Richard Cottam, a former US intelligence official in Iran; and a third, who had been living within hailing distance of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, before being spirited back to Libya- would be a good deal more accommodating of US business interests than Gaddafi had ever been. For all his turning over a new leaf to befriend the West, Gaddafi had irked the US State Department by practicing "resource nationalism" and trying to "Libyanize" the economy, which is to say, turn foreign investment to the advantage of Libyans. His threat in 2009 to re-nationalize Libya's oil fields, stirred up old fears. Now, the NTC-with its US-friendly principals-was promising juicy plums to the countries whose bombs had ousted Gaddafi.
The US ambassador to Libya, Gene A. Cretz, channeling the ghost of uber-imperialist, Cecil Rhodes, acknowledged that Libyan oil was "the jewel in the crown" but that there would be broader profit-making opportunities to lay hold of, now that Gaddafi had been bombed from power. Even "in Qaddafi's time," he observed, the Libyans "were starting from A to Z in terms of building infrastructure and other things. If we can get American companies here on a fairly big scale, which we will try to do everything we can to do that, then this will redound to improve the situation in the United States with respect to our own jobs." US Senator John McCain, for his part, noted that "American investors were watching Libya with keen interest and wanted to do business" in Libya as soon the country was pacified.
The New York Times' Scott Shane summed up the excitement.
Western security, construction and infrastructure companies that see profit-making opportunities receding in Iraq and Afghanistan have turned their sights on Libya, now free of four decades of dictatorship. Entrepreneurs are abuzz about the business potential of a country with huge needs and the oil to pay for them, plus the competitive advantage of Libyan gratitude toward the United States and its NATO partners.
A week before Colonel Qaddafi's death on Oct. 20, a delegation from 80 French companies arrived in Tripoli to meet officials of the Transitional National Council, the interim government. Last week, the new British defense minister, Philip Hammond, urged British companies to "pack their suitcases" and head to Tripoli.
Shane's summing up provides a pretty good account of what the NATO bombing campaign had been all about, with one exception. Western security, construction and infrastructure companies aren't turning their sights on Libya, because it is now free of four decades of dictatorship, but because it is now free of four decades of economic nationalism-an economic nationalism that once privileged Libyans over Western banks, investors and corporations. The country is now open for business...on the West's terms.
The view that US foreign policy is shaped by considerations related to preserving and enlarging profit-making opportunities for investors, banks and corporations headquartered in the United States is based on two realities.
• The formulation of US foreign policy is dominated by the CEO's, corporate lawyers and major investors who circulate between Wall Street and Washington.
• The countries that the United States has singled out for regime change, without exception, pursue self-directed economic policies aimed at fostering self-development and therefore deny or limit US investment and export opportunities.
Every rich country, with the exception of Britain, became rich through active state intervention in their economies to create industries, subsidize them and protect them from competition while they grew. The United States, as much as Germany, Japan, and other now rich industrialized countries, followed this path. At one point, the United States had the world's highest tariff barriers, which it used to shelter its nascent manufacturing industries against competition from established British firms. As protected industries matured under the guiding hand of a dirigiste state, they naturally sought to expand beyond their borders, as the possibilities offered by national markets were exhausted. Now, the policies that served their development so ably in the past, became fetters. Rather than protected markets at home, they needed open markets abroad. Poor countries couldn't be allowed to emulate the policies that made the rich countries rich, because state-ownership, subsidies and trade barriers would eclipse the further development of the once protected industries of the rich countries. Poor countries would have to open themselves up as fields for exploitation by the banks, investors and corporations of the rich countries that had grown fat on the dirigiste policies some poor countries were now seeking to emulate.
A glance through the US Library of Congress's country study on Iran reveals a truth that US officials never mention and that US foreign policy critics seem unaware of. Iran is not the kind of place an enterprising US business can hope to make money in. "The public sector dominates the economic scene, and the subordination of the private sector is observed in all industries and commerce." Worse, "Public-sector investments in transportation...utilities, telecommunications, and other infrastructure have grown over time." "The government plays a significant role in Iran's economy, either directly through participation in the production and distribution of goods and services, or indirectly through policy intervention." Indeed, Iran's constitution defines the public sector as primary, and "the private sector as the means of furnishing the government's needs rather than responding to market requirements."
Democratic socialists will be shocked to discover that this is the very same economic model that such New Left socialists as Ralph Miliband defined as emblematic of what a democratic socialism ought to be (which isn't to say that Iran is a democratic socialist state, only that economically it is very close to what many socialist thinkers have envisaged for Western socialism.) In any event, it will be conceded that any economy that bears even a passing resemblance to that favored by radical democratic socialists is not likely to get a ringing endorsement from the kinds of people who formulate US foreign policy.
Other reasons why Iran's economic policies are likely to have provoked the animosity of the US State Department: Despite its leaders making noises about going on a privatizing binge, Iran's public sector has soberly grown rather than shrunk. What's more, large sectors of Iran's economy remain off-limits to private ownership. "Since the Revolution, the government has retained monopoly rights to the extraction, processing, and sales of minerals from large and strategic mines." Iran's "agricultural policy is intended to support farmers and encourage production of strategically important crops", not to open doors to US agribusiness. "After the Revolution, many transportation companies, banks, and insurance companies were nationalized" while price controls and subsidies have been used to make important consumer goods affordable (though many subsidies have been lifted recently.)
Wall Street and the US State Department dislike state-owned enterprises that serve the self-directed development goals of independent foreign countries, because they displace private investment by US capital. They abhor the practice of foreign governments subsidizing and protecting local business enterprises because it makes the task of US firms competing in overseas markets more difficult, and thereby limits the overseas profits of US firms. They revile regulations that protect local populations from pollution, desperation wages and deplorable working conditions, because they cut into profits. Some or all of these practices form significant parts of the economic policies of every country in the cross-hairs of US foreign policy, including Libya under Gaddafi and Iran today.
Washington doesn't want to bring about a change of regime in Tehran to install a pliant government that will help expand US power. It wants to bring about a change of regime in Tehran that will cancel economic policies aimed at Iran's self-development and replace them with policies that will open up the country's resources, markets, labor and land to US banks, corporations and investors. It wants the holy trinity
Labels: IRAN, ISRAEL, MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, STEPHEN GOWANS
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Wars for Profits: A No-Nonsense Guide to Why the United States Seeks to Make Iran an International Pariah
by gowans on November 9, 2011
By Stephen Gowans
Flipping idly through my morning newspaper, my eyes fell upon a headline, which, given its significance, should have appeared on the front page, but instead was tucked away at the back, on page A9.
“Israel won’t rule out attack on Iran”. (1)
Now, it’s true that Israel’s threatening to attack Iran is hardly news. Here was Ehud Barak, Israeli defense minister, over two years ago, talking about measures to dissuade Iran from continuing to process uranium: “We clearly believe that no option should be removed from the table. This is our policy. We mean it.” (2) And here was Barak just the other day: “We strongly believe that…no option should be removed from the table.” (3) Same defense minister. Same words. Same threat.
Yet while the threat may be old, its significance remains undiminished. One country is threatening to commit the supreme international crime: to attack another even though it, itself, has not been attacked by the country it rattles its saber at. Were Iran to threaten Israel, the headline “Iran won’t rule out attack on the Jewish state” wouldn’t be tucked away inconspicuously in the back pages of my newspaper. Instead, it would be shouted in bold letters across the front page. “My God!”, NATO state officials and editorialists would cry. “Iran is threatening to attack the Jewish state. Something must be done!”
But in this case it is Israel–which the Western media and governments have long embraced and set forth as the land of the good guys—that is issuing the threat against a country which has, since its escape from US domination in 1979, been limned as dark and menacing, and so while no one wants war, surely it’s all perfectly understandable that the plucky Israelis should be declaring their determination to stand against the Judeophobic menace of the Islamic Republic. After all, isn’t Iran building nuclear weapons to wipe Israel off the map? Well, if you listen to the Israelis and their US protector, the answer is yes.
The Strangelovian Israeli historian Benny Morris declares that Israel is “threatened almost daily with destruction by Iran’s leaders.” To eclipse this threat, Iran must be wiped off the map before Iran does any wiping of its own. “Israel has no option,” Morris chillingly says, “but to use its nuclear arsenal to destroy Iran, unless the US uses its formidable military to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities first.” (4)
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warns: “Iran is even arming itself with nuclear weapons to realize that goal (the obliteration of the Jewish state), and until now the world has not stopped it. The threat to our existence, is not theoretical. It cannot be swept under the carpet; it cannot be reduced. It faces us and all humanity, and it must be thwarted.” (5)
Ominous. But the idea that Iran intends to acquire nuclear weapons to obliterate Israel is pure flummery, as real as the threat King Kong poses to Manhattan; a work of fiction, intended to create a frisson of fear.
So, why do I say this? First, we don’t know whether Iran intends to acquire nuclear weapons, or only the capability of producing them, or even that. An International Atomic Energy Agency report, released yesterday, tables evidence that Iran is secretly working on a nuclear bomb. So let’s assume for the moment that Iran’s leaders do indeed intend to build nuclear weapons.
It’s widely agreed that it’s highly unlikely that Iran would be able to build nuclear weapons while its nuclear energy program is still under the scrutiny of UN inspectors. A more likely scenario is that Tehran would develop the capability to produce a bomb from within the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and once it had reached the point of being able to do so, would turn its capability into reality by withdrawing from the treaty, ejecting inspectors, and making a mad dash to develop a rudimentary arsenal. That’s what North Korea did, when, following the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States decided to re-target some its nuclear missiles from its old nemesis to the DPRK.
But would Iran ever get as far as being able to make a mad dash to status as the world’s newest nuclear-weapons state? The United States and Israel have made plenty of noise about bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities before Iran’s nuclear scientists ever reach the point of having the capability of producing nuclear weapons. Indeed, one of the reasons why the threat to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities has been trotted out anew is because the steps the United States and Israel have taken to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program–from the Stuxnet computer virus to the assassination of Iran’s nuclear scientists to punitive sanctions–haven’t stopped the program’s development—although they have certainly slowed it.
But let’s make another assumption. Let’s assume that despite US and Israeli efforts to cripple Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons, that Iran, despite these impediments, brings this capability to fruition, and furthermore, manages against the concerted opposition of the United States and Israel to develop a few nuclear warheads. Does the possession of warheads mean that Iran will use them–either to wipe Israel off the map or attack the United States?
No, it does not.
The idea that Iran is an “existential” threat to Israel comes from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s alleged promise to wipe Israel off the map. US and Israeli political leaders have been invoking this chestnut for years to justify the assassinations, economic warfare, covert destabilization, and threats of military intervention used to undermine Iran’s nuclear energy program. The problem is, the allegation is groundless.
The firestorm started when Nazila Fathi, then the Tehran correspondent of The New York Times, reported a story almost six years ago that was headlined: “Wipe Israel ‘off the map’ Iranian says.” The article attributed newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks to a report by the ISNA press agency.
Then, specialists such as Juan Cole of the University of Michigan and Arash Norouzi of the Mossadegh Project pointed out that the original statement in Persian did not say that Israel should be wiped from the map, but instead that it would collapse.
Khamenei stated, “Iran’s position, which was first expressed by the Imam [Khomeini] and stated several times by those responsible, is that the cancerous tumor called Israel must be uprooted from the region.” He went on to say in the same speech that “Palestinian refugees should return and Muslims, Christians and Jews could choose a government for themselves, excluding immigrant Jews.”
Khamenei has been consistent, stating repeatedly that the goal is not the military destruction of the Jewish state but “the defeat of Zionist ideology and the dissolution of Israel through a ‘popular referendum.’” (6)
To be sure, anyone who regards Israel as a “cancerous tumor” that “must be uprooted from the region” and replaced by a government freely chosen by the people who lived in Palestine prior to its conquest by Zionist settlers, is an existential threat to Zionism, as a living, breathing idea implanted in the soil of Palestine. But while the designation of Iran as an existential threat to Israel is literally true (in the sense that Iran doesn’t accept Zionism and therefore works against it by supporting such anti-Zionist groups as Hamas and Hezbollah), the phrase “existential threat” is twisted to mean something more than intended: military destruction rather than collapse through a referendum.
Political leaders are in the habit of turning non-threats into dire ones in order to manipulate public opinion to clear a path to get what they want. In other words, they manufacture consent for their policies by lying. A not particularly egregious example of this is provided by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who, needing to defend the Pentagon’s Brobdignagian budget against possible cuts, recently “cited North Korea and Iran as persistent threats, and said that the military had to maintain ‘the ability to deter and defeat them.’” (7) North Korea and Iran are not threats to the physical safety and welfare of a single US civilian, and anyone who says they are is using a trowel to liberally spread a thick film of bullshit upon the face of public discourse.
First, it should be noted that Iran’s military is built for self-defense. It doesn’t have aircraft carriers, a large fleet of warships, strategic bombers or foreign military bases. The United States, by contrast, bases its Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, within shouting distance of Iran, directly across the Persian Gulf. You won’t find Iranian warships lingering menacingly in the Gulf of Mexico or patrolling the Atlantic and Pacific on the edges of US territorial waters, but the United States does the equivalent in Tehran’s neighorhood.
Second, a graph nearby shows that Iran’s military spending, at $20B per annum, pales in comparison to the budgets of the United States ($700B) and even that of the United States’ regional allies ($102B). The US military budget is 35 times larger than Iran’s, and the sum of that of the United States, its invariable military side-kick, the United Kingdom, and Washington’s regional allies, is 43 times larger. The gulf in fighting ability supported by these expenditures is as yawning as the one between the New York City Police Department tactical squadron and a troop of Boy Scouts armed with BB guns.
As regards North Korea, the charge that it is a threat to the security of a single US civilian is even more absurd. Like Iran, North Korea’s military is built for defense, and it too has no foreign military bases, no aircraft carriers, no nuclear armed submarines and no strategic bombers, and it has never—unlike its compatriot neighbor to the south—sent troops abroad to fight in other country’s wars (South Korean troops fought in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan on behalf of its patron, the United States.)
North Korean military expenditures are even more modest than Iran’s. Pyongyang spends an estimated $10B on its military (and that’s probably stretching it), many of whose members are engaged in agriculture and other civilian activities. (8) By comparison, South Korea (on whose soil are resident close to 30,000 US troops), spends $39B, while nearby Japan (home to 40,000 US troops) spends $34B. Together, these two US allies outspend Pyongyang on their militaries by a factor of 7 to 1. Add to this US defense expenditures and those of Britain—a country that can be counted on to docilely follow the United States into any war, no matter whether the Conservatives or Labour are in power–and North Korea, surrounded by US troops and warships and whose air borders are incessantly menaced by the US Air Force, is outspent over 80 to 1. A threat? The claim is laughable.
And that understates the imbalance. What military budgets don’t reveal is the vastly superior destructive power of US military hardware (and that of many of its allies) compared to Iran’s and North Korea’s. The kill capacity of US strike aircraft, cruise missiles, and battleships is far in excess of the heavy artillery that figures so prominently in the North Korean armamentarium, for example.
And then there’s nuclear weapons. North Korea may (or may not) have an arsenal of a few warheads, and Iran may (or may not) be seeking one, but these rudimentary collections pale in comparison with the US, British, and Israeli arsenals arrayed against them. Would Iran attack Israel, or North Korea attack South Korea, with one or two nuclear missiles, knowing that to do so would invite a retaliatory tsunami of missiles from the target (in the case of an attack on Israel) or its hyper-armed patron, the United States, or both? The outcome of so foolhardy an attack would be game-over for either country.
“During the Democratic primaries, then candidate Hilary Clinton (now US Secretary of State) warned that if Iran attacked Israel, the United States would ‘totally obliterate’ Iran.” (9) Three years ago, Israeli “Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer went on record saying, ‘We must tell them: ‘If you so much as dream of attacking Israel, before you even finish dreaming there won’t be an Iran anymore.’” (10) It’s doubtful that the Iranians and North Koreans failed to get the message.
And then there’s the matter of Washington’s 2010 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). If read superficially, the NPR would lead you to believe that US policy makers have finally figured out that the cardinal rule of nonproliferation is to abjure military aggression against non-nuclear states. Countries that aren’t threatened by nuclear powers have no need to develop nuclear weapons for self-defense. However, a closer reading of the review shows that nothing has changed. US president Barack Obama has stayed true to form, obscuring his pursuit of his predecessors’ policies beneath honeyed phrases that create the impression of change, where no change of substance exists.
The NPR declares “that the United States will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states”, even if they attack the United States, its vital interests or allies and partners with chemical or biological weapons. This differs, but only on the surface, from the policy of preceding administrations which refused to renounce the use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states. There are a number of reasons why the difference is apparent only.
While nuclear weapons are widely regarded as being unparalleled in their destructive power (and they are), the United States is able to deliver overwhelming destructive force through its conventional military capabilities. A promise not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states is not the same as an assurance not to use or threaten to use devastating military force. Six decades ago it was possible to obliterate a city through conventional means, as the Western Allies demonstrated in the firebombing of Dresden. If a city could be destroyed by conventional means more than half a century ago, imagine what the Pentagon could do today through conventional forces alone. Indeed, the NPR makes clear that the United States is prepared to shrink its nuclear arsenal partly because “the growth of unrivalled U.S. conventional military capabilities” allows Washington to fulfill its geostrategic goals “with significantly lower nuclear force levels and with reduced reliance on nuclear weapons.”
The NPR also provides a number of escape hatches that allow Washington to continue to dangle a nuclear sword of Damocles over the heads of Iran and North Korea. One is that nuclear weapons can be used, or their used threatened, against a country that is not “party to the NPT” even if the country doesn’t yet have nuclear weapons, or it is unclear whether it does. This is the North Korea escape clause. It allows Washington to continue to threaten North Korea with nuclear obliteration, just as it has done since the early 1990s when the US Strategic Command announced it was re-targeting some of its strategic nuclear missiles on the DPRK (the reason why North Korea withdrew from the NPT.)
Another escape clause allows Washington to reach for the nuclear trigger whenever it deems a country to have fallen short of “compliance with [its] nuclear non-proliferation obligations,” even if the country doesn’t have nuclear weapons and is a party to the NPT. This is the Iran escape hatch, intended to allow Washington to maintain the threat of nuclear annihilation vis-à-vis Iran or any other country Washington unilaterally declares to be noncompliant with the treaty’s obligations.
As for the United States’ commitment to refrain from reaching for its nuclear arsenal in response to a chemical or biological attack on itself, its vital interests (a term that defies geography and democracy, for how is it that the United States’ vital interests extend to other people’s countries?) its allies and its partners, this too is verbal legerdemain. As a careful reading of the NPR makes clear, the truth of the matter is that the United States will attack any country with nuclear weapons if such an attack is deemed necessary by Washington to protect its interests, which is to say, the interests of the corporations, banks and investors whose senior officials and representatives dominate policy formulation in Washington and provide the major funding, and post-political jobs, to the country’s politicians. According to the NPR, “the United States reserves the right to make any adjustment in [its commitment] that may be warranted…” Translation: We won’t attack non-nuclear weapons states with nuclear weapons unless we decide it’s in our interests to do so.
Finally, we need to ask whether either Iran or North Korea have a motive to attack the United States, and whether Iran has a motive to attack Israel. Iran’s leaders may abhor the Zionist conquest of what they see as territory important to Islam, but that doesn’t mean they’re willing to take on a suicide mission to deal a one- or two-nuclear missile blow to Israel—one which, by the way, probably wouldn’t completely destroy Israel, but would incinerate Iran in the hail of retaliatory blows that followed. As for tangling with the United States, neither country wants that. What they want is peaceful coexistence—to be left alone to develop in their own way.
The trouble is, the United States hasn’t the barest interest in peaceful coexistence, and the reason why is the key, not only to understanding US foreign policy, but to understanding why a US-led NATO spent months bombing Libya to drive the former regime from power.
But first, a digression. As a matter for inquiry, the approaches critics of US foreign policy take to explain their subject—if they explain it at all-is as interesting as US foreign policy itself. The usual tact is to expose US hypocrisy. For example, critics might point out that the United States defends Israel, which has nuclear weapons and doesn’t belong to the NPT, while threatening to attack Iran, which belongs to the NPT, and doesn’t have nuclear weapons. Or that NATO bombed Libya to prevent the government there from using its military to put down an uprising but allowed Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to use their militaries to put down an uprising in Bahrain. Some critics stop there, reasoning that if they’re going to muster opposition to US foreign policy, it’s enough to show that it’s built on hypocrisy. Or they denounce US behavior as immoral, undemocratic or against international law, because it is, and they figure that showing this will rouse the indignation of people of good conscience. Other US foreign policy critics cogently show why US foreign policy couldn’t possibly be guided by the objectives US leaders say it is guided by. But they stop there, leaving their audiences to scratch their heads, wondering, if not for the reasons stated, then why?
Liberals insist that US foreign policy makes no sense and the reason why is because US leaders are confused, myopic, poorly motivated, or just plain dumb. An example of this point of view is offered by former US president Jimmy Carter, who contends that the conflict with North Korea can be resolved in half a day (11). Apparently US leaders have neither the political will nor smarts to do so.
The truth of the matter is that there is nothing to be gained for the corporations, investors and banks that dominate US foreign policy—the one percent who really matter in the United States–from peaceful coexistence with North Korea. For one thing, peaceful coexistence implies that each side poses a threat to the other, but North Korea, despite the rhetorical nonsense of political leaders seeking to justify Pentagon budgets, poses no threat to the United States. A $10B defense budget against a $700B one; aging aircraft whose pilots are grounded most of the time due to shortages of fuel; a puny arsenal of nuclear weapons; an army whose training time is partly displaced by engagement in farming; the most sanctioned country on earth, whose economy has been crippled by six decades of US economic warfare; a country of 24 million hemmed in to the south and east by the troops of a country of 300 million; no, North Korea is not a threat.
So how is it that peaceful coexistence would deliver anything in the way of improved security for Americans, which they already have in abundance anyway? It wouldn’t. The demand for peaceful coexistence is little more than a Quixotic plea from Pyongyang to be left alone to develop in a self-directed manner in exchange for giving up a few nuclear weapons that at best, are, to use an Edward Herman term, a “threat of self-defense.” The benefits of peaceful coexistence are all on the North Korean side.
After all, what does the United States get for promising to leave North Korea to develop in its own way? An open door for exports and investments? Hardly. North Korea’s integration into a US-dominated system of global capitalism? No. US troops on North Korean soil? Absolutely not. North Korea’s incorporation into a US-led military alliance against China? No possibility. What it gets is North Korea giving up a deterrent to attack in exchange for the United States promising not to attack. This is a one-sided deal. No wonder North Korea wants it, and Washington keeps turning it down. David Straub, director of the US State Department’s Korea desk from 2002 to 2004 sums up nicely why peaceful coexistence isn’t on Washington’s Korea agenda. “North Korea’s closed economic and social system means the country has virtually nothing of value to offer the United States.” (12) What the United States wants from North Korea (an open door to investment, exports, ownership and political influence) is the opposite of what North Korea offers (a closed door and a prickly sense of independence—both political and economic). Washington abandoned the policy of peaceful coexistence with the USSR, which was militarily strong enough to make the US a miserable place in which to live if the Pentagon ever decided to start a US-Soviet war. So why would it accept peaceful coexistence with a hated closed system that poses a minor threat at best?
Other critics of US foreign policy explain their subject in terms of power. US leaders want to preserve or expand US power (or primacy or hegemony) against such “peer competitors” as China or Russia or such regional powers as Iran. Of course, it’s never said what US leaders (or Chinese or Russian leaders) want power for. To believe these critics, power is what everyone wants, and the quest for it, as an end in itself, is what makes the world go around. But the trick here is to inquire into why power is sought. Washington doesn’t seek to enlarge its power so that it can strong-arm governments around the world into furnishing their citizens with public healthcare, guaranteed employment and free education. On the contrary, it seeks power to do the very opposite. Power serves some end, and in the case of US state power, it serves the end of protecting and enlarging the big business interests of the big business people who run the state of a big business country; it protects profits and establishes the conditions that allow them to grow—both at home and overseas.
It’s curious that the power-is-the-alpha-and-omega-of-world-politics view should hold such a strong sway among some critics of US foreign policy, when in the internal affairs of capitalist countries the organizing principle is private business, and the alpha and omega of private business, is profits. Sure, it’s understood that business leaders want power, but not so they can lord it over others, and take pleasure in its trappings, but so they can enlarge their capital. Power is a means to an end.
So why should foreign policy be any different? The moment Gaddafi was toppled by NATO bombs, a stream of NATO foreign ministers traipsed to Benghazi, their countries’ corporate CEOs in tow, to line up new business deals. It was clear the National Transitional Council (NTC), whose key members—one, an exile who had been teaching economics in the United States for years; another, who earned his PhD in 1985 from the University of Pittsburgh under the late Richard Cottam, a former US intelligence official in Iran; and a third, who had been living within hailing distance of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, before being spirited back to Libya– would be a good deal more accommodating of US business interests than Gaddafi had ever been. For all his turning over a new leaf to befriend the West, Gaddafi had irked the US State Department by practicing “resource nationalism” and trying to “Libyanize” the economy, (13) which is to say, turn foreign investment to the advantage of Libyans. His threat in 2009 to re-nationalize Libya’s oil fields, stirred up old fears. (14) Now, the NTC—with its US-friendly principals–was promising juicy plums to the countries whose bombs had ousted Gaddafi.
The US ambassador to Libya, Gene A. Cretz, channeling the ghost of uber-imperialist, Cecil Rhodes, acknowledged that Libyan oil was “the jewel in the crown” but that there would be broader profit-making opportunities to lay hold of, now that Gaddafi had been bombed from power. Even “in Qaddafi’s time,” he observed, the Libyans “were starting from A to Z in terms of building infrastructure and other things. If we can get American companies here on a fairly big scale, which we will try to do everything we can to do that, then this will redound to improve the situation in the United States with respect to our own jobs.” (15) US Senator John McCain, for his part, noted that “American investors were watching Libya with keen interest and wanted to do business” in Libya as soon the country was pacified. (16)
The New York Times’ Scott Shane summed up the excitement.
Western security, construction and infrastructure companies that see profit-making opportunities receding in Iraq and Afghanistan have turned their sights on Libya, now free of four decades of dictatorship. Entrepreneurs are abuzz about the business potential of a country with huge needs and the oil to pay for them, plus the competitive advantage of Libyan gratitude toward the United States and its NATO partners.
A week before Colonel Qaddafi’s death on Oct. 20, a delegation from 80 French companies arrived in Tripoli to meet officials of the Transitional National Council, the interim government. Last week, the new British defense minister, Philip Hammond, urged British companies to “pack their suitcases” and head to Tripoli. (17)
Shane’s summing up provides a pretty good account of what the NATO bombing campaign had been all about, with one exception. Western security, construction and infrastructure companies aren’t turning their sights on Libya, because it is now free of four decades of dictatorship, but because it is now free of four decades of economic nationalism—an economic nationalism that once privileged Libyans over Western banks, investors and corporations. The country is now open for business…on the West’s terms.
The view that US foreign policy is shaped by considerations related to preserving and enlarging profit-making opportunities for investors, banks and corporations headquartered in the United States is based on two realities.
• The formulation of US foreign policy is dominated by the CEO’s, corporate lawyers and major investors who circulate between Wall Street and Washington.
• The countries that the United States has singled out for regime change, without exception, pursue self-directed economic policies aimed at fostering self-development and therefore deny or limit US investment and export opportunities.
Every rich country, with the exception of Britain, became rich through active state intervention in their economies to create industries, subsidize them and protect them from competition while they grew. The United States, as much as Germany, Japan, and other now rich industrialized countries, followed this path. (18) At one point, the United States had the world’s highest tariff barriers, which it used to shelter its nascent manufacturing industries against competition from established British firms. As protected industries matured under the guiding hand of a dirigiste state, they naturally sought to expand beyond their borders, as the possibilities offered by national markets were exhausted. Now, the policies that served their development so ably in the past, became fetters. Rather than protected markets at home, they needed open markets abroad. Poor countries couldn’t be allowed to emulate the policies that made the rich countries rich, because state-ownership, subsidies and trade barriers would eclipse the further development of the once protected industries of the rich countries. Poor countries would have to open themselves up as fields for exploitation by the banks, investors and corporations of the rich countries that had grown fat on the dirigiste policies some poor countries were now seeking to emulate.
A glance through the US Library of Congress’s country study on Libya reveals a truth that US officials never mention and that US foreign policy critics seem unaware of. Iran is not the kind of place an enterprising US business can hope to make money in. “The public sector dominates the economic scene, and the subordination of the private sector is observed in all industries and commerce.” (19) Worse, “Public-sector investments in transportation…utilities, telecommunications, and other infrastructure have grown over time.” (20) “The government plays a significant role in Iran’s economy, either directly through participation in the production and distribution of goods and services, or indirectly through policy intervention.” (21) Indeed, Iran’s constitution defines the public sector as primary, and “the private sector as the means of furnishing the government’s needs rather than responding to market requirements.” (22) Democratic socialists will be shocked to discover that this is the very same economic model that such New Left socialists as Ralph Miliband defined as emblematic of what a democratic socialism ought to be (which isn’t to say that Iran is a democratic socialist state, only that economically it is very close to what many socialist thinkers have envisaged for Western socialism.) In any event, it will be conceded that any economy that bears even a passing resemblance to that favored by radical democratic socialists is not likely to get a ringing endorsement from the kinds of people who formulate US foreign policy.
Other reasons why Iran’s economic policies are likely to have provoked the animosity of the US State Department: Despite its leaders making noises about going on a privatizing binge, Iran’s public sector has soberly grown rather than shrunk. (23) What’s more, large sectors of Iran’s economy remain off-limits to private ownership. ”Since the Revolution, the government has retained monopoly rights to the extraction, processing, and sales of minerals from large and strategic mines.” (24) Iran’s “agricultural policy is intended to support farmers and encourage production of strategically important crops” (25), not to open doors to US agribusiness. ”After the Revolution, many transportation companies, banks, and insurance companies were nationalized” (26) while price controls and subsidies have been used to make important consumer goods affordable (though many subsidies have been lifted recently.)
Wall Street and the US State Department dislike state-owned enterprises that serve the self-directed development goals of independent foreign countries, because they displace private investment by US capital. They abhor the practice of foreign governments subsidizing and protecting local business enterprises because it makes the task of US firms competing in overseas markets more difficult, and thereby limits the overseas profits of US firms. They revile regulations that protect local populations from pollution, desperation wages and deplorable working conditions, because they cut into profits. Some or all of these practices form significant parts of the economic policies of every country in the cross-hairs of US foreign policy, including Libya under Gaddafi and Iran today.
Washington doesn’t want to bring about a change of regime in Tehran to install a pliant government that will help expand US power. It wants to bring about a change of regime in Tehran that will cancel economic policies aimed at Iran’s self-development and replace them with policies that will open up the country’s resources, markets, labor and land to US banks, corporations and investors. It wants the holy trinity of free-trade, free-enterprise and free-markets at the center of poor countries’ economic policies, not protected trade, not state-owned and subsidized enterprises, and not trade barriers. (But while preaching the holy trinity abroad, the United States reserves the right to deploy subsidies, impede imports, and rely on state-intervention to support key industries at home. Consistency doesn’t matter. Profits do.)
To reach the goal of turning Iran into a country that can disgorge a bonanza of profits to US corporations and investors, Iran must first be denied the capability of mounting an effective defense against military intervention by the United States and its allies. It is for this reason that the United States and its Middle Eastern Doberman, Israel, have embarked upon a program of sabotage, assassinations and threats of aerial bombing aimed at crippling even the possibility of Iran acquiring a nuclear deterrent. The idea that Tehran is bent on lobbing a few nuclear-tipped missiles toward Israel, to complete what the Fuhrer had left undone, is demagogic nonsense, intended to provide a compelling justification for aggression against Iran. Evoking Hitler’s campaign of genocide against the Jews to invest contrived existential threats with gravitas has been a standard operating procedure of Zionist leaders dating to 1948. (27) Iran has no intention of attacking Israel, and would commit suicide if it did, a reality we can be certain has not escaped its leaders’ ken.
All of this to say that in order to understand US foreign policy it’s necessary to examine who rules in the United States, who formulates its foreign policy, and how the policy the rulers formulate intersects with their economic interests. (28) This is an inquiry into class. For if an economic elite dominates foreign policy, we should expect to find that the outcomes of foreign policy favor elite economic interests, and that foreign countries that pursue economic policies that are not agreeable to those interests will be harassed, sabotaged, sanctioned, destabilized, and possibly bombed or invaded, until the policies are changed.
It may be objected that the cost to the United States of military intervention in Iran would surely exceed any economic gain that would accrue to the country as a whole. For liberals, this would count as evidence that US foreign policy makers had once again made an error. For others, it would stand as a challenge to the idea that a war on Iran would be a war for profits.
But the costs of military intervention are what economists call externalities—costs created by a firm, an industry or a class, but borne by others. Hydraulic fracturing—the high-pressure injection of fluids into rock to release fossil fuels—creates costs in water pollution and wear and tear on roads used by trucks and heavy machinery. If these costs are internalized—borne by the oil companies whose activities have created them—then hydraulic fracturing makes no sense economically–its costs exceed its returns. But if the costs are externalized—left to society as a whole to absorb—hydraulic fracturing becomes an attractive way for oil companies to turn a profit. (29)
Here’s the parallel with military intervention. The giant engineering firm Bechtel would absorb virtually none of the costs of a successful war on Iran, but if one happens, Bechtel is likely to reap enormous profits in contracts to rebuild the infrastructure that the US Air Force would raze to the ground. For Bechtel, then, US military intervention in Iran would be highly profitable, even though it might not make sense economically when viewed from the perspective of the United States as a whole. Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon—the top five defense contractors–don’t foot the Pentagon’s massive $700B per annum bill, but large portions of that budget are transferred to them in the form of contracts for military hardware. While bloated military expenditures make no sense from the point of view of the country as a collectivity, major defense contractors reap enormous profits from them.
If I persuade the three other members of my family to kick in $100,000 each to buy a $250,000 house (paying $50,000 over the market price) and I contribute nothing, but claim nine of the 10 rooms for my exclusive use, the transaction makes a lot of sense for me, even though it makes no sense when viewed from the perspective of the four of us together.
The problem, then, of arguing that military intervention in Iran would make no sense because the costs would exceed the economic gains that would accrue to the United States as a whole, is failure to recognize that the country is class-divided, and that the gains of war are internalized within the dominant class while the costs are externalized to the bottom 99 percent. Hence, war doesn’t make sense for the bulk of us, but the problem is that decisions about military expenditures, foreign policy and war are in the hands of the top one percent and their loyal servants, who privatize the benefits of these things and socialize the costs. When liberals say US foreign policy makes no sense, they’re being misguided by a set of erroneous assumptions: that the United States has only class, the middle-class, that it is not class-divided, that everyone within it has the same middle-class interests, and that the state rules in the interests of all.
Like all US wars, the war on Iran is a class war (and with sanctions, sabotage, assassinations and saber-rattling it is a war in all but name.) It is a war of class in two respects. First, it is waged on behalf of a class of bankers, major investors, and corporate titans, to knock down walls in Iran that deny this elite access to markets and investment opportunities. Second, it is a war carried out on the back of a class of employees, pensioners, unemployed, and armed forces members—the bottom 99 percent–who bear the cost, through their taxes (and in the future possibly blood.)
The aim is to install local politicians, most of whom will have been educated at US universities where they will have been instilled with imperialist values, who can, assisted by US advisors, make over Iran into an agricultural, natural resources, low-wage appendage of the US economy in the service of Wall Street and the class of owners and high-level managers who occupy its commanding heights. In short, a war for profits.
1. Adam Blomfield, “Israel won’t rule out attack on Iran,” The Ottawa Citizen, November 7, 2011.
2. Associated Press, July 27, 2009.
3. Blomfield.
4. Benny Morris, “Using Bombs to Stave Off War,” The New York Times, July 18, 2008.
5. Isabel Kershner, “Israeli strike on Iran would be ‘stupid,’ ex-spy chief says”, The New York Times, May 8, 2011.
6. Glenn Kessler, “Did Ahmadinejad really say Israel should be ‘wiped off the map’?” The Washington Post, October 6, 2011.
7. Thom Shanker and Elisabeth Bumiller, “Weighing Pentagon cuts, Panetta faces deep pressures”, The New York Times, November 6, 2011.
8. Bruce Cumings. Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History. W.W. Norton & Company. 2005.
9. Mark Landler, “Iran policy now more in sync with Clinton’s views,” The New York Times, February 17, 2010.
10. Mazda Majidi, “What lies behind US policy toward Iran?” Liberation, June 12, 2008.
11. Tim Beal. Crisis in Korea: America, China and the Risk of War. Pluto Press.2011. p. 71.
12. Kim Hyun, “US ‘Has No Intention to Build Close Ties with N Korea’: Ex-official,” Yonhap News, September 2, 2009.
13. Steven Mufson, “Conflict in Libya: U.S. oil companies sit on sidelines as Gaddafi maintains hold”, The Washington Post, June 10, 2011.
14. Thomas Walkom, “What Harper and co. got from the Libyan war”, The Toronto Star, October 21, 2011.
15. David D. Kirkpatrick, “U.S. reopens its embassy in Libya”, The New York Times, September 22, 2011.
16. Kareem Fahim and Rick Gladstone, “U.S. Senate delegation offers praise and caution to Libya’s new leaders”, The New York Times, September 29, 2011.
17. Scott Shane, “West sees opportunity in postwar Libya for businesses”, The New York Times, October 28, 2011.
18. Erik S. Reinert. How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor. Public Affairs. New York. 2007; Ha-Joon Chang. Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism. Bloomsbury Press. 2008.
19. The Library of Congress. Iran: A Country Study. 2008. p. 143. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/irtoc.html
20. Iran: A Country Study, p. 145.
21. Iran: A Country Study, p. 150.
22. Iran: A Country Study, p. 151.
23. Iran: A Country Study, p. 152.
24. Iran: A Country Study, p. 167.
25. Iran: A Country Study, p. 170.
26. Iran: A Country Study, p. 181.
27. Ilan Pappe. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld Publications. 2006.
28. Albert Szymanski. The Capitalist State and the Politics of Class. Winthrop Publishers. 1978.
29. Paul Krugman, “Here comes the sun,” The New York Times, November 6, 2011.
I recognize that in my views and even use of certain phrases that I have been influenced by Michael Parenti, and that needs to be acknowledged here. Of particular influence is Parenti’s latest book, The Face of Imperialism, Paradigm Publishers, 2011 and his earlier Against Empire, City Light Books, 1995.
Labels: IRAN, MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, NEOCOLONIALISM, STEPHEN GOWANS
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Iranian firm to set up dairy plants
Saturday, 27 November 2010 21:59 Agriculture
PLANS by an Iranian firm Souts, which manufactures farming machinery, to launch three dairy processing plants in the country have reached an advanced stage, an official said last week. Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Pournajaf said negotiations with the ministries of Agriculture and Foreign Affairs to establish the dairy plants had been completed.
He said the location and size of the plants had been determined and the project was expected to be completed in the next six months.
“Following the visit by our Head of State Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier this year, a lot of projects were agreed on and this is one of them.
“Souts, one of our firms which manufactures machinery for agriculture, will be installing three dairy processing plants in Zimbabwe within the next six months. With this project we hope to improve the dairy supply in the country and at the same time improve the bilateral relations as has been the case with Motira tractors,” he said.
Labels: DAIRY, IRAN, MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD
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West’s mind games exposed
By Tichaona Zindoga
A COUPLE of weeks ago, this writer noted the significance of the historic State visit to Zimbabwe by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad during which he officially opened the 57th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair and partook of a number of his country’s bilateral concerns with Zimbabwe.
It was, however, regrettable that MDC-T had decided to snub the visiting leader, on the apparent basis of their Western allies’ palpable dislike of the Iranian leader and the revolutionary country he leads.
The MDC-T badmouthed President Ahmedinejad and called him names, despite the fact that over the years Iran has expressed willingness to work with Zimbabwe in a number of areas, which the MDC-T has even recognised by granting an Iranian diplomat the freedom of the MDC-T run town of Bindura.
By contrast, MDC-T’s allies in the West have been fighting tooth and nail against Zimbabwe via a number of machinations and actions, declared and undeclared.
Iran’s revolutionary background, headlined by its anti-imperial Western stance, its Non-Aligned Movement affiliation and identification with equally revolutionary Zimbabwe underlined the significance of President Ahmedinejad’s visit.
Predictably, placing into context of the significance of the Iranian leader’s visit earned the derision of a local Western-sponsored newspaper columnist.
The columnist insinuated that anti-imperial Western views were outdated and anything between the defunct Soviet and the Jurassic eras.
Coming from the very mouth of a Western functionary, this attempt at dismissing the historic movement from the tentacles of the West, can be read in the following context:
The West does not want the coming together of international revolutionary movements, as they are capable of creating a buffer against imperialist onslaught.
This coming together, especially expressed in the Non-Aligned Movement and the Frontline States, led to the defeat of colonialism beginning in the 1950s until 1994 when South Africa finally shook off colonialism.
In the present day, apart from their camaraderie at international forums such as the United Nations, the same revolutionary movements represent a revolving future world economy from which the West is in danger of exclusion.
The idea then is not only to strangulate individual states like Zimbabwe and Iran, but also prevent them from coming together, and if they do, dismiss the alliance as one of rogues and outdated misfits.
After conquering colonialism, but at real risk of losing the grip in the face of American-championed neo-colonialism, regional liberation movements had better understand the localised attempts to reverse the gains of the earlier era.
One of the primary hurdles of reversing this tragic end is to understand the psychological nature of the neo-colonial war, which is today anchored on the "global" media.
Labelling the revolutionary spirit and movements as outdated and belonging to a barbaric era is one of the tricks.
The other one is the description of liberation movements as corrupt and greedy.
While the liberation movements — including Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe and ANC in South Africa — have been humanly fallible, the fixation with these parties’ alleged corruption and greed masks the inherent nature of Western corruption and greed in wanting the entire world for itself.
It even ignores the fact that the West has supported not only corrupt and greedy regimes but also undemocratic and tyrannical ones.
The West just cannot let go of ill-gotten colonial gains and when there has been an attempt to heroically defend these gains through a sustained and determined leadership, as has been the case with Zimbabwe, the West accuses the respective leaders of "clinging to power".
It will be noted that while governments might change in the West, rarely do their foreign policy goal to exploit other people’s resources.
By contrast, changes in government here — mainly premised on Western regime change agendas — often result in unfortunate changes in foreign policy goals as would be the case were the West to have their way.
The other psychological front against African liberators is the criminalisation of the just acts of economic reform by delivering to people life-changing and strategic assets and opportunities.
Following Zanu-PF’s championing of the historic land reform programme at the turn of the millennium, which benefited hundreds of thousands of families previously marginalised by colonialists, land reform has been portrayed as criminal and backward.
"South Africa risks to be another Zimbabwe," warn self-serving Western interests in the face of a South Africa groaning under the weight of injustice in land tenure.
Land reform has been anything but perfect in Zimbabwe.
However, the impression created by this warning is that land reform is solely responsible for the economic decline over the past years when, in fact, sanctions were imposed to not only scuttle the programme but also to "make the economy scream" and "separate the people from the Government".
The West has used sanctions and the so-called (Western) investor confidence as a repressive psychological tool against governments from embarking on the long overdue reform.
In the face of calls for the indigenisation of economies to benefit the majority, which Zimbabwe again spearheads, a certain stigma has been attached to "nationalisation" of mines and industry.
This evokes pictures of fallen Soviet-era programmes, which are loud in populism, but without a place in the so-called global economy.
It is this fear of "populist" policies that led to an early inadmissibility of South African President Jacob Zuma in some Western quarters, and the current fear that ANC youth president Julius Malema will one day nationalise the economy.
Apart from generously sponsoring opposition and neo-colonial media, and making glossy, trendy and "credible" outfits out of them, Western psychological warfare has also taken to the legal and judicial systems.
This latter part forms the basis of what one analyst observed recently. At a time when legal and judicial systems are either dominated by settler remnants, or are Western-fed as with the case with the likes of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, as some have noted, white minority interests are trying to "harness post-struggle governments for the enforcement of settler rights, against impoverished African masses".
The trick is to use the likes of the discredited Sadc Tribunal.
"The idea is to send a clear message to African governments — principally those of South Africa and Namibia that (if) you dare tamper with settler-derived white "rights" and privileges you are in for a long frenetic haul, at home and abroad," the analysts observed.
They added: "The idea is to confront the liberation ethos through a broad regional front . . ."
In the light of the foregoing evidence of psychological war, in which Zimbabwe has played a gallant role, liberation movements should brace themselves for a gruesome battle, but one that can be won.
Unity among the liberators is key and the recent meeting of six political parties of liberation movements in Tanzania was a step in the right direction given the subversive activities the West has directed at the region over the years.
The liberation movements were meeting for the third time, having met previously in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
This will not only create a political front, but also an economic bloc founded on the need to safeguard and utilise rich resources in the region as well as cushion individual countries from economic aggression such as sanctions.
In essence what liberation movements are to create is a proud, indivisible and progressive front against imperialism, including in the area of laws and justice, as the West just cannot stop at anything.
There is also need to realise that the task of liberation is only capped by the reclamation of the economy without which political independence is hollow.
Battle-hardened Zimbabwe provides the key to this exercise.
Labels: G15, MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, NEOCOLONIALISM, NEOLIBERALISM
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Zimbabwe, Senegal back Iran's nuclear right
By: iS-TZG
Posted: Monday, May 17, 2010 5:14 am
ZIMBABWE and Senegal's foreign ministers have expressed their support for Iran's right for peaceful nuclear energy, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Sunday.
Speaking on the sidelines of Tehran's Group 15 (G15) Ministerial Meeting on Saturday, Senegalese Foreign Minister Madicke Niang said, "Senegal has always believed that all the countries should have access to peaceful nuclear energy and Iran as a member of the international community has this right as well, " the report said.
"Iran has declared that it needs nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and no one has the right to deprive Iran of its right," he was quoted as saying.
Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi also said that "All the countries have the right to gain access to peaceful nuclear energy within the international regulations."
"Those who criticized Iran for having access to peaceful nuclear energy, not only have nuclear energy, but also nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction," said Mumbengegwi.
The United States is leading a push to press for new sanctions against Iran on the ground the Middle East country is developing "a clandestine nuclear programme", but Tehran insists that its nuclear programme is fora peaceful purpose.
The 14th summit of the Group 15 (G15) developing nations in Tehran is slated for today (Monday).
Labels: G15, IRAN, MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT, NUCLEAR ENERGY
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MDC-T must think for itself
WHEN MDC-T released a statement insulting Islamic Republic of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and announcing that they would have nothing to do with his visit, the question that came to the minds of progressive Zimbabweans was:
What exactly was the party’s gripe with the Iranian leader? Try, as we might, we could not find cause why the MDC-T leadership, being partners in Government, behaved in such a discourteous manner towards a guest of the State.
After reading the party’s charge-sheet against the Iranian leader, where they, among other things accused him of dictatorship and human rights abuses, we could not help but notice that the MDC-T leaders were, once again, reading the script of their Western allies.
For the record Mr Ahmadinejad is the democratically elected President of Iran having recently trounced the Western-backed Hossein Muosavi in democratic elections that were endorsed by all but the meddlesome Western governments.
The MDC-T and Iran have never crossed paths, but the MDC-T’s Western allies, the United States and Britain definitely have.
Western aversion to Mr Ahmadinejad can be traced from the triumph of the Islamic Revolution that deposed the Western-backed stooge regime of the Shah of Iran, King Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and the Iran-Iraq war that saw the US raise and sponsor Saddam Hussein, in a bid to sabotage the revolution.
So if there were any human rights abuses to speak of, they can be placed squarely on the doorstep of the Western governments that have been trying to impose their will on the people of Iran with disastrous results since 1979.
By choosing to side with such subversion, MDC-T leaders became guilty by association, which is why we applaud Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara, Zanu-PF and MDC legislators for taking Mr Tsvangirai and his party to task over their boycott of Mr Ahmadinejad’s visit.
Granted the MDC-T did this as a political party and as such was not reflecting Government’s position. Granted also that as a political party, the MDC-T has a right to choose friends of its choice, but that right falls away when it comes to Government business, MDC-T leaders are supposed to be in tune with the other parties in Government.
Mr Ahmadinejad was a guest of the State and deserved the respect of all parties in Government.
We urge MDC-T leaders to think for themselves and not be repositories of Western sentiment. They need to familiarise themselves with the history of our country to identify who is and who is not a friend of Zimbabwe.
The Westerners they hobnob with have never been there for us, but for their kith and kin resident here.
As we have said before, we share intricate historical, cultural, political and socio-economic links with Iran that transcend both time and space.
We have a common history dating back to the 13th Century when our forebears traded in gold and ivory, through the liberation struggle when the Islamic Revolution inspired the Patriotic Front to depose the settler regime.
Both our nations were born after protracted armed revolutions and have similarly raised the ire of Western governments by pursuing people-centred development paths. This explains the raft of sanctions the West imposed on our two countries.
Be that as it may, we have continued to forge closer ties through the Zimbabwe-Iran Joint Commission that has fostered increased co-operation in the areas of trade, technology transfer, agriculture, education and defence.
On the international front, Iran is at the centre of the Look East Policy adopted by Government at the turn of the millennium, a policy that has enabled us to prevail against the isolationist agenda of the Anglo-Saxon alliance.
We are also together with Iran in the Group of 15 and the Non-Aligned Movement, where we continue to agitate the developing world agenda.
So once again, we urge MDC-T leaders to think for themselves, learn to separate party from Government business and to read our history so that they know where our country came from and where it is going.
Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, MDC
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Tsvangirai quizzed over Ahmadinejad boycott
By: TH-TZG
Posted: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 8:03 am
PRIME Minister and MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai was yesterday grilled by Cabinet ministers from the other two parties in the inclusive Government for boycotting Islamic Republic of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit last week.
The Iranian leader was in Zimbabwe on a two-day working visit during which he officially opened the 51st edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo last Friday.
On Thursday, MDC-T officials did not join other Government officials from Zanu-PF and MDC to welcome President Ahmadinejad and boycotted the subsequent tours of Modzone Garment Factory and Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries.
MDC-T ministers Giles Mutsekwa (Home Affairs) and Eliphas Mukonoweshuro (Public Service) were forced to attend the official signing of agreements made during the Sixth Session of the Zimbabwe-Iran Joint Commission held at State House in the evening.
Most senior MDC-T officials boycotted the ZITF official opening although mayors from the party attended.
Speaker of the House of Assembly Mr Lovemore Moyo was present, but said he was there in his official capacity and not as party chairman.
Zanu-PF and Mutambara formation MDC officials took them to task over the issue.
According to sources, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara led the questioning of PM Tsvangirai’s "grossly undiplomatic behaviour".
The PM reportedly denied that MDC-T ministers had snubbed President Ahmadinejad claiming that all his party officials in the inclusive Government were tied up elsewhere.
"The Prime Minister was asked to explain why they boycotted the visit.
"He denied that he boycotted saying he was attending to some other business without elaborating," a source said.
PM Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, Mr James Maridadi, yesterday declined to comment on the matter, but implied it had been discussed in Cabinet.
"I cannot comment on that, it is a Cabinet issue," Mr Maridadi, who only a few days back claimed Cabinet had set aside Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment laws, said.
DPM Mutambara said his view as DPM and a national politician was that the boycott was unwarranted as Zimbabwe and Iran shared a lot in common.
He said MDC-T was following the United States of America’s lead in arriving at their ill-thought position on Iran.
"Zimbabwe has no fight against Iran. Zimbabwe and Iran share a lot of history and tradition.
"We are both members of the Non-Aligned Movement and we have a history of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism.
"Iran went through a revolution in 1979 and was able to build a strong industrial base based on science and technology and energy, so there is a lot to learn from Iran and there is potential for increased trade between Zimbabwe and Iran," he said.
DPM Mutambara said Iran, just like Zimbabwe, was operating under a regime of illegal Western-imposed sanctions and lessons could be drawn from their vast experience.
"As an African country, we have no business boycotting or going against other emerging markets such as Iran. The fight is between Iran and the US. We have no business participating in that fight.
"Even if we are beneficiaries of US generosity and even if we want to be friends with the US, that should not compromise our independence and sovereignty.
"We must make our decisions without what the Americans tell us," DPM Mutambara said.
He said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was a close friend of the US, but had received President Ahmadinejad soon after his visit to Zimbabwe because he made independent decisions.
"The argument that Iran is a dictatorship should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.
"The US is friends with Saudi Arabia but it is not a democracy. It is friends with Kuwait but it is not a democracy.
"Hypocrisy and double standards are what define US foreign policy," he said.
Zimbabwe and Iran signed several investment deals during President Ahmadinejad’s visit. These were in areas of energy, industry, commerce and agriculture.
The Iranians have helped Zimbabwe establish a tractor manufacturing plant that is expected in the long run to service the whole Southern Africa region.
Labels: ARTHUR MUTAMBARA, COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, TRACTORISATION
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