[WCUSP] Oil, Israel & America: The Root Cause of the Iran Crisis

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

Oil, Israel, and America: The Root Cause of the Iran Crisis

by Scott  Ritter

Common Dreams - Published on Tuesday, Oct. 9,  2007

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/09/4431/

There is  no shortage of examples of historical points
of friction between the Islamic  Republic of Iran and
the United States to draw upon in order to  illustrate
the genesis of the current level of tension. One can
point to  the Islamic revolution that cast aside
America's staunch ally, Reza Shah  Pahlevi, the period
of reactionary exportation of Islamic "revolution"  that
followed, the take over of the US Embassy and
subsequent holding of  Americans hostage (replete with a
failed rescue mission), the Iranian use of  proxies to
confront American military involvement in Lebanon,
inclusive of  the bombing of the Marine barracks and US
Embassy compounds, America's  support of Saddam Hussein
during the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq, the  ‘hot'
conflict between Iran and the United States in the late
1980s, or  Iran's ongoing support of the Hezbollah Party
in Lebanon. The list could  continue.

With the exception of the current situation in Lebanon,
most  of these "friction points" are dated, going back
nearly three decades past.  And when one examines the
‘root' causes of these past points of friction, we  find
that there is no simple ‘black and white' causal
relationship which  places Iran firmly in the wrong.
Much of the early animosity between the  Islamic
Republic of Iran and the United States was derived from
the  resentment most Iranians felt over American support
for a brutal, repressive  regime. This resentment,
coupled with an uncompromising approach taken by  the
United States towards maintaining cordial relations
with a post-Shah  Iran, manifested itself in the
furtherance of anti-American activity in Iran,  which in
turn hardened the posture of the US government against
Iran,  leading to a cycle of devolution that ultimately
resulted in the severance of  all ties between the two
nations.

The animosity between the United  States and Iran was
further exacerbated by the US support for  Saddam
Hussein during the bloody 8-year war between Iran and
Iraq. This  support, which manifested itself by actually
drawing the US military into a  shooting war with
elements of Iran's military during the re-flagging  of
Kuwaiti oil tankers in the late 1980's, in turn created
the conditions  which led to the policy of "dual
containment" of both Iran and Iraq from  1991, in the
aftermath of the first Gulf War. "Dual Containment" was
more  a product of the lack of policy between the United
States and Iran than it  was representative of a
singular policy direction. The end result, namely  a
failure to achieve any discernable results, created the
conditions for  "policy drift," which by 1998 led to the
adoption of a policy of regime  change in Iraq, and the
embrace of ideologically-driven national  security
strategies which expanded regime change to be inclusive
of the  Islamic Republic of Iran. These policy
directions on the part of the United  States took place
in a virtual reality-deprived atmosphere, being  driven
more from the perspective of a domestic American
perspective based  on inaccuracies and misperceptions of
Iran than they were from any hard,  factual analysis of
the genuine state of affairs inside Iran. It is  largely
because of this systemic lack of intellectual curiosity
regarding  Iran that many in America, including the main
stream media, find themselves  divining models of
national behavior derived from actions and events  more
than 20 years past.

Iran's nuclear program, far from being the  "root cause"
of Iranian-American animosity, is simply a facilitator
for  those who are predisposed to accept at face value
anything that paints Iran  in a negative light. The same
can be said of almost every effort undertaken  by the US
government, post-1998, regarding Iran. A major impetus
behind  this trend towards rhetorically-based negativism
regarding Iran is the  influence exerted on the US
national security decision making process by  the
government of Israel, and those elements within the
United States,  both governmental and non-governmental,
which lobby on behalf of Israel.  Israel has, for over a
decade, listed Iran as its most serious  national
security threat, and has lobbied extensively to get the
United  States to embrace a similar policy direction.

A pre-occupation with  Saddam Hussein's Iraq during the
1990s up to 2003 precluded such a shift in  policy.
However, while the deteriorating situation in Iraq
since the march  2003 invasion and occupation by the
United States has dominated the US  national security
decision making hierarchy, the elimination of  Saddam
Hussein, coupled with a less than satisfactory outcome
regarding  holding to account the perpetrators of the
September 11, 2001 terror attacks  on the united States,
created an ideologically-driven gap in the  threat
models pushed by those making policy in the United
States, and  since 2004 Israel has been successful in
pressuring American policy positions  vis-à-vis Iran to
more closely model the positions taken by Israel, up  to
and including a characterization of Iran as a nation
pursuing nuclear  weapons ambitions, operating as a
state sponsor of terror, and possessing a  government
which is fundamentally incompatible with regional and
global  peace and security.

The Israeli perspective on Iran is driven by  two
primary factors: a "zero tolerance" for the acquisition
of nuclear  weapons by any nation deemed a threat,
either real or potential, that is so  strict even
nuclear energy-related programs permitted under  the
Non-Proliferation Treaty (which Iran contends, and the
IAEA concurs,  is the case regarding its nuclear
activities) are deemed unacceptable, and an  inability
to diplomatically resolve the reality of the Lebanese
Hezbollah  Party on its northern borders.

The Israeli posturing regarding Iran's  nuclear program,
and America's unquestioning support of the  Israeli
position, has nullified any chance of meaningful
diplomacy in this  regard, since diplomacy is at least
nominally based upon the rule of law as  set forth under
relevant treaties and agreements, a reality Israel
refuses  to acknowledge as legitimate concerning Iran's
nuclear ambitions. Hezbollah  has further complicated
the issue given the fact that it a)  receives
considerable support, financial and material, from
Iran, and b)  it has demonstrated an ability to
embarrass Israel's vaunted military machine  on the
field of battle. National hubris, more than legitimate
national  security concerns, drives Israel's unyielding
stance concerning Hezbollah,  which in turn colors
American policy pronouncements which list Iran as  a
state sponsor of terror, even though there is little in
the way of  concrete evidence to back up such claims
other than Iran's ongoing status as  a major benefactor
of Hezbollah.

But the key factor in the calculus of  what serves as
the root cause of conflict between Iran and the  United
States is energy, namely Iran's status as one of the
world's  leading producers of oil and natural gas. The
United States has, for some  time now, placed a high
emphasis on Middle Eastern and Central Asian oil  and
gas when it comes to determining future economic
development trends.  In a fossil-fuel driven global
economy, energy resources have become one of  the major
factors in determining which nation or group of nations
will be  able to dominate not only economically, but
also militarily and  politically.

In the "Power Equation" that gets factored into
national  security decision making here in the United
States, fossil fuels play a  dominant role. America's
interest in dominating the Middle Eastern region  is
driven almost exclusively by the energy resources of
that region.  Iran's situation is further exacerbated by
the reality that Iranian oil and  gas represent a
critical part of the future economic growth of the
world's  two largest expanding economies, namely China
and India. By leveraging its  control over Iranian
energy production, as well as the other major  centers
of fossil fuel production in the Middle east and
Central Asia, the  United States is positioning itself
to be able to control the pace of  economic expansion in
China and India, a capability deemed vital when  it
comes to the national security posture of the United
States in relation  to these two nations and the rest of
the world.

In short, there are  many factors involved in what one
might term the "root cause" of Iranian-US  animosity.
But the reality is all of the points of friction
between Iran  and the US could be readily resolved with
viable diplomacy save two: Israel's  current level of
unflinching hostility towards Iran, and  America's
addiction to global energy resources. These two  factors
guarantee that there will be tension between Iran and
the United  States for some time to come, and place
blame for the continuation of tension  firmly on the
side of the United States.

[Scott Ritter was a Marine  Corps intelligence officer
from 1984 to 1991 and a United Nations  weapons
inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998. He is the author
of numerous  books, including "Iraq Confidential"
(Nation Books, 2005) , "Target Iran"  (Nation Books,
2006) and his latest, "Waging Peace: The Art of War for
the  Antiwar Movement" (Nation Books, April  2007).]






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