Opinion Editorials, July 2009

 Israel lobbyist Paul Wolfowitz calls for US interference in Iran

By Paul J. Balles

Redress, July 3, 2009

"He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow." – George Eliot
Paul J. Balles cautions against the warmongering growls of Paul Wolfowitz, the architect of the aggression against Iraq and a man of dual loyalty to Israel and the USA, who is now calling for American interference in Iran’s internal affairs.

The Washington Post published an Op-Ed piece (19 June) by Paul Wolfowitz, the man more responsible than others in the previous US administration for unjustified death and destruction in Iraq.

Bernard Weiner, writing in the Crisis Papers reveals that in 1992, then-Secretary of Defence Dick Cheney had a strategy report drafted for the Department of Defence, written by Paul Wolfowitz, who was then the under-secretary of defence for policy.
 
In it, the US government was urged, as the world's sole remaining superpower, to move aggressively and militarily around the globe. The report called for pre-emptive attacks and ad hoc coalitions, but said that the US should be ready to act alone when "collective action cannot be orchestrated."

Weiner wrote: “Wolfowitz outlined plans for military intervention in Iraq as an action necessary to assure ‘access to vital raw material, primarily Persian Gulf oil’ and to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and threats from terrorism.”

This last part was the key to the Wolfowitz doctrine. Israel had as its agent provocateur Paul Wolfowitz to justify occupation of Iraq as permanent protection against WMDs.

"For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on." said Wolfowitz, in an interview in the magazine Vanity Fair.

In his latest Washington Post article, Wolfowitz started off with a hawkish remark about how, "President Obama's first response to the protests in Iran was silence, followed by a cautious, almost neutral stance designed to avoid 'meddling' in Iranian affairs".

Instead of criticizing Barack Obama’s prudent response to the events in Iran, the uncompromising warmonger Wolfowitz should be having nightmares over the 1,331,578 Iraqis slaughtered since the US invaded Iraq, and the 4,315 US military personnel sacrificed in that war.

Wolfowitz now wants Obama to interfere in the election conflict in Iran, an event that's nobody's business but the Iranians’. Other hawks in Washington have undoubtedly been encouraged to call Obama timid or weak. James Mann referred to Wolfowitz as "...the most influential underling in Washington".

In the Washington Post, Wolfowitz wrote: "...the reform the Iranian demonstrators seek is something that we should be supporting. In such a situation, the United States does not have a 'no comment' option". On the contrary, it’s the only sensible option.

Wolfowitz added: "Coming from America, silence is itself a comment – a comment in support of those holding power and against those protesting the status quo." This kind of thinking behind America's imperialism has done nothing but breed enemies for America.

According to Wolfowitz, "It would be a cruel irony if, in an effort to avoid imposing democracy, the United States were to tip the scale toward dictators who impose their will on people struggling for freedom".

What gives the US a right to "impose democracy" on any country or to decide what should be done about those "who impose their will on people struggling for freedom?"

Adding insult to injury, Wolfowitz growls: "And if we appear so desperate for negotiations that we will abandon those who support our principles, we weaken our own negotiating hand."
 
The reality is that Wolfowitz has no interest in negotiations of any sort. He has been called “Wolfowitz of Arabia” in jest by the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, and, with respect, “the intellectual godfather of the war ... its heart and soul” by Time’s Mark Thompson. If the war on Iraq is anybody’s war, it is Paul Wolfowitz’s.

It’s past time to end arrogant interference in the name of America.

Paul J. Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for many years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com.