Fun Times with a Hunting Accident as the Iran Crisis Worsens

Sol Sanders, World Tribune.com:

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was savaged when she appeared before Congressional committees to talk about intensified propaganda directed at Iran. She apparently wanted to explain the necessity of using every means to defuse a world crisis. She largely failed to get through the media screen.

You can chalk it up, in part, to her being prominently mentioned in presidential polls recently, despite her demur. One of the sharks, Sen. Chuck Hagel, might think he too is a contender [but he is trying desperately to imitate his fellow plainsman populist, George McGovern, into a run for oblivion.]

All fun and games, of course, in a midterm-election year. But contrary to what so often appears to be normality, there is a war on. Whatever the successes or failures of the Bush Administration since 9/11, it is clear America is still in danger. Our lifestyle – and we thank God for that – if nothing else does not permit of certain security against terrorist attacks.

But a further danger exists: because our political system is so unique, and so foreign to the rest of the world, such moments as the Capitol Hill circus might well be misinterpreted abroad. That was, after all, the history of the 1930s prelude to World War II. A combination of our efforts to avoid war [does anyone remember the 1937 Neutrality Act?] and dereliction of our friends in Europe, led to that catastrophe.

Like most wars, misperception of the intent of an enemy rather than his capabilities played the principle role in leading the world to war in 1939. That was also certainly true for Sadam Hussein’s first attempt to take Kuwait as first step in dominating Persian Gulf oil. Perhaps the American decision to move on Sadam a second time falls into the second category: we [and the rest of the world] believed he had successfully continued his efforts to build weapons of mass destruction.

But the spotlight tends to be reversed. Today more than ever, world curiosity is boundless about “the American experiment”.[No one else has ever tried and been able to sustain a free and prosperous society for so many and such a diverse population for so long.]. Because 24-hour worldwide digital communications, every pin dropping in the U.S. gets disproportionate attention. So U.S. opposition politicians’ feeding frenzy against a Secretary of State — or a hunting episode involving the vice president turned into nothing less than chumming, to mix our hunting metaphors — becomes a worldwide media event. Not many readers east of Suez [or west for that matter] know much about bird hunting. But they are being lectured about it ad nauseam.

The problem this phenomenon presents for American statecraft is the possibility more important intentions of the U.S. may be obliterated in the avalanche of information – and misinformation. [The U.S. press ignored former Vice President Gore’s accusation Moslems were persecuted in the wake of 9/11 – and delivered in Saudi Arabia of all places.]. READ MORE

Just as the Nazis preceding World War II read decadence, lack of resolve and, therefore, impotence, into American politics, there is such a danger now with such fandangos.

For again we are faced with a rogue state exhibiting all the traits of a disturber of the world peace. Iran sponsors terrorism throughout the world, even against fellow Moslems. Like Sadam, it has enormous oil revenues to divert to devious goals. It has lied repeatedly about its nuclear activities. More recently it has “elected” a lunatic, so close to the Hitler model – not only in his anti-Semitism rants but in his surrealistic discussions of world events – as to defy imagination. Our European friends [who first come under the shadow of Iranian nuclear-clad missiles] have diddled. Our Japanese ally [and our Indian and Pakistan wannabees] are trying to sign up for Iranian oil and gas when its tottering economy might be vulnerable to economic sanctions.

There is another evidential fact: through the whole post-World War II history of nuclear weapons – whether the Soviet Union’s development of atom and hydrogen bombs [with the help of espionage] to Sadam’s progress before 1981 to India and Pakistan’s nuclear detonations in 1998, intelligence timelines have been wrong – and generally shortsighted. Therefore, the Israeli and Americans leaked estimates are likely to err, if anything, in underestimating Iranian progress. Given China’s massive missiles aid to Iran – some already ranged against Israel and soon with Central and Western Europe capability – the writing is on the wall. The time to stop Iran is now.

Obviously, with one war still to be tidied up, and an unresolved problem of another rogue state, North Korea, attempting a similar blackmail for survival of a bankrupt totalitarian regime, Washington has its hands full. But for Tehran to mistake the American sidebars for the main line of American foreign policy logic would lead to tragedy.

Sol W. Sanders, (solsanders@cox.net), is an Asian specialist with more than 25 years in the region, and a former correspondent for Business Week, U.S. News & World Report and United Press International. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com and East-Asia-Intel.com.