Sons of Imam Matgamna
Yassamine Mather
In Iran there is a saying used when
someone makes a comment based on a number of falsehoods, leading to
an even sillier conclusion. It goes like this: ‘Khassan and
Khossein are all three daughters of Moghaviye.’ The correct
statement is: ‘Hassan and Hossein are both sons of Imam Ali.’ (Moaviye
was Ali's ennemy).
I had not thought of this
for many
years when I read the terrible article written by Sean Matgamna of
the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty in last week’s paper
(Solidarity July 24). Let us start with the falsehoods.
1. Anyone with an ounce of
intelligence
would know that the current threats against Iran, led by the US
administration and supported by Israel, have nothing to do with
Iran’s nuclear capability. They have everything to do with the
decline of the US empire and the economic crisis it faces, while
Israel is jumping on the bandwagon to get rid of its old foe. Had
there been no nuclear development in Iran, the US would find another
excuse for waging war on Iran.
‘It’s the economy,
stupid!’ - you
don’t even need to be a Marxist to understand this. If Iran stopped
its nuclear development today, the reasons why US imperialism and its
allies in the world capitalist order would need a war in the
forthcoming period would still be in place - Iran is currently the
best target for such an adventure.
2. It is very rich of the
US, Israel
and their supporters in the AWL to talk about Iran’s nuclear
programme when they have chosen to keep silent about Israel’s
massive nuclear arsenal and that of Pakistan. Those two countries
have never signed up to the non-proliferation treaty protocol.
Currently Iran’s attempts
at
enriching uranium are not sufficiently developed to produce nuclear
weapon-grade uranium. Its own claims about the level of both
enrichment and quantity of centrifuges are propaganda and US
intelligence organisations clearly do not believe them.
Even if Iran did use its
centrifuges to
step up production, such a route would be the most expensive and the
slowest way to achieve nuclear weapons capability. It would be much
cheaper and faster to buy plutonium for this purpose on the black
market. As yet Iran can neither produce a bomb nor deliver it - this
would require reducing the size of the nuclear product into a warhead
and an air force or navy capable of delivery.
On the other hand, Israel
is one of the
world’s major nuclear powers and the Israeli navy is currently
deploying a submarine equipped with nuclear warheads in the Persian
Gulf. There is little doubt that the United States is looking for
excuses to bomb Iran, and Israeli warheads can be used for this
purpose.
Matgamna’s conclusion,
posed as a
question, is disgusting: “But if Israel attacks Iran, who are we to
condemn it?”
I am speechless. Iran’s
nuclear
installations are buried 75 feet underground in the desert. Only
bunker buster bombs are capable of destroying them, causing major
nuclear explosions with disastrous repercussions - not just for
millions of people in Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Syria ... but also
for Palestinians and Israelis. How irresponsible can one be to even
contemplate such a horror?
In Hands Off the People of
Iran we have
written extensively about the dangers posed by nuclear weapons in the
hands of religious regimes such as the islamic republic of Iran, as
well as Israel. Many of us are also opposed to Iran’s industrial
nuclear programme. However, none of these arguments should be used to
justify the policies of US imperialism or its expansionist allies.
Nuclear non-proliferation is only feasible as part of a global
nuclear disarmament programme. Anything less than that is gunboat
diplomacy.
