This is my first blog - hopefully written rant is as therapeutic as it looks.   

    Well, anyway, not even a month has gone by since the inauguration and AM talk radio, the State Department and all the usual neo-cons - big oil, weapons makers, the Israeli Lobby, etc, have focused their attention once again on Iran.  I knew Bush wouldn't attack Iran overtly, that seemed like a slim, crazy possibility, and likewise I think Obama would have to be crazy to open up a war on a third front, especially in this economy, but as we know we have many clever ways to wage wars in this country and I already see the stage being set for heightened aggression in Iran. We also know that in times of capitalist crisis the rulers of the empire refuse to see the writing on the wall and instead try to extend their empire by more wars/oil grabs. 

  But never fear, we have Hillary Clinton, the woman who openly said she'd "obliterate" Iran if they attacked Israel, as Secretary of State to overlook such diplomatic matters. She echoed, earlier this week, Obama's lame comment (that he made in his first foreign interview on some weak allied Arab language station because he didn't have the guts for Al-Jazeera): "We will reach out a hand if you unclench your fist" - LOL!  Nevermind that Iranians sent offers of talks, through the Swiss, to us that Bush's administration flat out rejected.  This reminds me of similar rhetoric Bush used against Saddam, making him sound like a man beyond reach when it was us rejecting their attempts at negotiations before the invasion. 

 Anyway, I'm not some fan of  Ahmadinejad or the Ayatollah or the domestic political situation in Iran but I did find his response classic: "Those who say they want to make change, this is the change they should make: they should apologise to the Iranian nation and try to make up for their dark background and the crimes they have committed against the Iranian nation," he said." 

  Let's list some of those crimes (and I love the way that both domestic, foreign, and liberal media are making Ahmadinejad sound like the rabid un-diplomat to Obama's back-handed, "sincere" gesture and putting the words American "crimes" in quotations in his response as if they're not historical facts):

1. In 1953, when Iran decided to pursue western style "democracy" and held elections, electing a man who actually wasn't a western puppet and questioned western control of Iran's oil, we did what we usually do - "spread democracy", ie.,  we orchestrated a coup that overthrew Iran's democracy and put in a dictator, the Shah of Iran, who did all the right things like gave us oil access and recognized Israel, etc.

2. After the Islamic Revolution took back the country from the Shah in 79, we continued hostile aggressions against them, including funding Saddam Hussein's bloody war, including using chemical weapons, against thousands of Iranian civilians (the Iranians, even though they had chemical weapons, decided not to use them against Iraqi civilians).

3. More recently, we've shot their diplomats in Iraq and funded covert operations against their government by different groups, accusing them of interfering and supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents with no evidence they've done such.

  Those are just some examples.  What crime has Iran committed towards the American people, aside from bruising our egos during the hostage take in Tehran? Yet we're now to believe that this old civilization that hasn't attacked another country in hundreds of years (unlike us, who attack somebody about every damn year) wants to become, like I heard yesterday on the radio, the first "suicide nation" in history by attacking either the US or Israel.  All experts in the UN and other places have said they're nowhere capable of making nukes anytime soon - it's just another Iraq WMDs type facade to hide much larger, imperialist interests. We're also hearing another common talking point for war - the people in Iran want freedom and human rights (and I do know that many do), but nevermind that they voted for Ahmadinejad, will probably re-elect him later this month or his opponent, which thinks much the same of the US.

    We'll see where Obama goes with this, and if there is a genuine breakthrough in diplomatic relations, but I can't help wondering what exactly we're supposed to be negotiating with Iran about, other than furthering our own imperial interests.