August 11, 2005
Iran No; China Yes
Why is Cheney Lobbying for a Boost in China's Nuclear Capability?
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
What I have noticed about conservatives and Republicans is that they
are no longer conservative and Republican. They believe in the
efficacy of force. If we are losing in Iraq, it is because we are not
using enough force. All we have to do to win in Iraq, they maintain,
is to nuke the towel heads. In case you have forgotten, Rich Lowry,
editor of National Review, suggested that the US nuke Mecca in
retaliation for a terrorist attack.
Conservative Ann Coulter was more mild, no doubt due to her feminine
nature. Her solution to Islam was to "invade their countries, kill
their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
Determined to win, conservatives and Republicans are willing to nuke
Iraq. Precisely what they would be winning, they cannot identify.
But they believe that with sufficient force, America can teach those
on the receiving end a lesson and make them do what the Bush
administration wants. That is the extent of the brainpower that
conservatives and Republicans bring to war and diplomacy.
Conservatives and Republicans used to be people who thought it was
America's business to avoid wars and to govern well at home. It was
Democrats who involved us in wars--World War I, World War II, Korea,
and Vietnam all started under Democratic presidents.
Governing well at home meant being suspicious of government power, not
giving government cart blanc with Orwellian legislation called "the
Patriot Act." I can remember when conservatives and Republicans would
have gone berserk if Democrats had identified patriotism with the
police state legislation called "the Patriot Act."
You can't learn a word of this from rightwing talk radio or Fox
"News." According to these war-mongering propagandists, Democrats
(read Jane Fonda and John Kerry) are squishy pacifists who want the
commies to take over the world. Democrats always run away once a shot
is fired, say the rightwing crazies, and believe terrorists are people
who had a bad childhood.
As a result of the influence of Israel's neoconservative supporters
and evangelicals expecting The Rapture, conservatives and Republicans
are focused on the Middle East. They are apoplectic over Iran's
nuclear power program. If Iran has a nuclear power program, Iran might
be able to produce a nuclear weapon in ten years. Vice President
Cheney has ordered a plan for the US to use tactical nuclear weapons
to take out Iran's capability should an excuse arise.
That would be the third Islamic country the US would have attacked in
as many years. All hell would break loose. Meanwhile, the chairman of
the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced that the Commission
will approve Westinghouse's sale of two nuclear reactors to China.
Conservatives and Republicans think this is a good idea. Vice
President Cheney has lobbied in behalf of the sale. It is good for
private business. It means $2.4 billion in revenues for Westinghouse
Electric Company.
Iran will never again be a world power, even if it has a few nukes.
Persia was a power in ancient times, not today. If we don't bother
Iran, Iran won't bother us.
China is a different matter. China already is a world power. China
holds enough US government debt to have the dollar and US interest
rates in its hand. Last month in an official briefing a top Chinese
general, Zhu Chenghu, said that if the US messes around with China or
tries to interfere with China's reunification with Taiwan, China will
nuke the US: "If the Americans are determined to interfere, then we
will be determined to respond. We Chinese will prepare ourselves for
the destruction of all the cities east of Xian. Of course, the
Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds of cities will be
destroyed by the Chinese."
VP Cheney and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission want to make sure
China has what it takes to do the job.
The moronic Bush administration is all concerned about "weapons of
mass destruction" where they aren't, not where they are. Why in the
world is the Bush administration using up the US military and its
weapons systems in Iraq, a country that was no threat whatsoever to
the US, while aiding and abetting China's rapidly growing economic and
military power?
Having asked this question, I will receive 1,000 emails from Bush
worshippers who will indignantly inquire why I am demonizing China. I
am not demonizing China. I am simply asking a question about the
intelligence of the Bush administration.
Bush's supporters, of course, are busy at work demonizing landlocked
Middle Eastern states that have nothing but fanatical insurgents to
ward off US military attacks on their homelands.
The conservative movement has disappeared. The Republican Party has
disappeared. The two have morphed into a brownshirt movement that
worships coercion and a strutting little marionette who believes he
can threaten peoples into submission.
Why does Cheney want to sell nuclear reactors to China, but order the
US Strategic Command to prepare to nuke Iran's nuclear power
capability, a capability that would allow Iran to sell more oil to an
energy-starved world?
What's going on here?
Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has
contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate
economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University
of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of
The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at:
paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com
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