Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

One only need read the history books to discover how we got to this Mexican stand-off with Iran over nuclear weapons.

The foundations of Iran’s nuclear program was laid out in the late 1950s within the framework of bilateral agreements between the U.S. and Iran. In 1968, Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and in the 1970s, plans were drawn by the Shah to construct nuclear power stations across the country—together with the U.S. by the year 2000.

In 1974, the Shah predicted that in the near future, the world’s oil supply would run out and announced that “petroleum is a noble material… much too valuable to burn. We envision producing energy using nuclear plants.” And so, Iran signed contracts with several Western governments to help build nuclear power plants. In 1975, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger signed the National Security Decision Memorandum 292, titled “U.S.-Iran Nuclear Cooperation” which laid out the details of the sale of nuclear energy equipment to Iran projected to bring U.S. corporations billions of dollars in revenue. At the time, Iran was pumping six million barrels of oil a day… compared to the four billion it produces today.

President Ford even signed a directive in 1976 offering Tehran the chance to buy and operate a U.S. built reprocessing facility for extracting plutonium from nuclear reactor fuel. The deal was for a complete “nuclear fuel cycle,” with all the dangerous consequences that included the possibility of the plutonium being used to build nuclear weapons—sooner or later.

The Ford strategy paper said the “introduction of nuclear power will both provide for the growing needs of Iran's economy and free remaining oil reserves for export or conversion to petrochemicals.” Iran, a U.S. ally then, had deep pockets and close ties to Washington. U.S. companies, including Westinghouse and General Electric, were scrambling to do business there.
A number of declassified documents were found on the Web site of the President Ford Library and Museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Two documents in particular, dated April 22, 1975 and April 20, 1976, show that the United States and Iran held negotiations for cooperation in the use of nuclear energy and the United States was willing to help Iran by setting up uranium enrichment and fuel reprocessing facilities.

Accordingly, vice-president Dick Cheney, secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz, were all involved in backing Iran’s Nuclear Program designed to extract plutonium from nuclear reactor fuel.

But they won’t tell you that.

And then, in 1979, Iran experienced a revolution.

And the deals started to go south… everyone started to get greedy… including the U.S., who was paid to deliver new fuel and upgrade the plants in accordance with a contract signed before the Iranian revolution. The U.S. delivered neither the fuel nor returned the billions of dollars payment it had received.

Iran informed the IAEA of its plans to restart its nuclear program, and the IAEA planned to provide assistance under its Technical Assistance Program to help Iran produce enriched uranium. However, the IAEA was forced to terminate the program under U.S. pressure. The revolution was a turning point in terms of foreign cooperation on nuclear technology.

In 1995, Iran signed a contract with Russia to resume work on a partially completed nuclear power plant and in 1996, the U.S. tried but failed to block China from selling Tehran a conversion plant. China also provided Iran with gas needed for the enriched uranium process.

Fast forward to the new millennium.

In November 2004, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator announced a voluntary and temporary suspension of its uranium enrichment program after pressure from the EU. In 2005, five days after the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran resumed its conversion of uranium. This led to the EU pressuring the IAEA to bring Iran’s nuclear program before the United Nations Security Council. In January 2006, the U.S. attempted to conduct a covert operation—code name Operation Merlin—to provide Iran with a flawed design for building a nuclear weapon in order to delay the Iranian nuclear weapons program. It backfired.

But they won't tell you that either.

In April 2006, Iran has successfully enriched uranium.

The IAEA has reported that there is no evidence that Iran is attempting to build an atomic bomb, despite intelligence reports that claim Iran is operating a clandestine program to build nuclear weapons. Iran has defied the United Nations’ resolution calling Iran to suspend all activities related to uranium enrichment. However, Iran has attempted to negotiate with the U.N. and claims that under the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, that it has the right to enrich uranium and is willing to negotiate with the UN but it will never renounce its right to enrich uranium.

The Mexican stand-off is underway.

And Cheney and Rumsfeld make no apologies for digging this hole.

It seems as though the Bush administration has already made up its mind that the only option is a bombing campaign. But former military officer and war strategist Col. Sam Gardiner (retired) is speaking out, “After all the effort, I am left with two simple sentences for policymakers. You have no military solution for the issues of Iran. And you have to make diplomacy work.”

Joseph Cirincione, director for non-proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, sums it up, “Some senior officials have already made up their minds: They want to hit Iran.” Cirincione warns that a military strike would be disastrous for the U.S. It would rally the Iranian people around an otherwise unpopular regime, inflame anti-American anger in the Muslim world and jeopardize the already fragile U.S. position in Iraq. Furthermore, it would accelerate the Iranian nuclear program.

But President Bush and his cronies are once again turning a deaf ear.

They want regime change so that they can get a piece of the action... because it all boils down to two things.

Texas Tea and dead presidents.

In the words of the famous aviator and space cowboy, Scott Crossfield... dropping a bomb on Iran is like "committing suicide to keep from getting killed."

Diplomacy IS the ONLY answer. We cannot commit another pre-emptive strike. We cannot send in nuclear bunker busters to destroy Iran’s nuclear plants. The cost of human life and the effects on the environment are too costly. If this presidency has a shred of decency left, it will in NO way consider a military strike.

Read your history. We got ourselves into this mess. We better start doing some fast talking… before it’s too late.

To be continued…