Yesterday, as the US and the Czech Republic signed a new missile defense agreement, Iran hardened its stance towards the west yet again. The radar and interceptor missiles are set to be deployed in central Europe to guard against attacks from “rouge states”. Missile defense sites have been an area of controversy between not only the U.S. and Iran, but also Russia who said that “elements of the US strategic arsenal close to Russian territory could be used to weaken [their] deterrent potential,” vowing to use military force against U.S. installations.
Iran responded by test firing 9 ballistic missiles, some with nuclear capability, to warn the the US, Israel and EU that any attack against Iran would be met with a fierce counter attack. An aide to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying that “Tel Aviv and U.S. ships will burn” if Iran is attacked. One of the missiles has a range of 1,250 miles, able to strike Athens, New Delhi and all of the Arabian peninsula. While officials in Iran maintain that their current nuclear program is for energy purposes only, many suspect that they are attempting to build nuclear weapons.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (left) and King Abdullah
This comes ahead of this month’s negotiations with western diplomats over Iran’s disputed nuclear program. Many leaders have called for the suspension of all nuclear related activities in Iran. Known for its hardline stance against Israel and the U.S., the fears of a possible unprovoked attack by Iran are real indeed. The oil-rich nation of 70 million is controlled by a select few ultra conservative religious leaders and has moved into public enemy #1 of the U.S. since the fall of the regime in Iraq. Despite tense relations, reports this week show that exports from the U.S. to Iran increased ten-fold during Bush’s presidency. Republican presidential candidate John McCain even joked that increasing cigarette exports to Iran “may be one way to kill them.”
The tension between Iran and the West is only expected to escalate in the coming years. The regime in Iran is known for its state run media, brutal secret police enforcement and lack of personal freedoms. This is nothing new, as Iran has been supporting multiple terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Queda for quite some time. Its seemingly ironic that the money from the west from oil sales often goes directly into the hands of the murders the U.S. military has spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to eradicate. The hypocrisy that is the oil economy and Iran is one of the ugliest black eyes our civilization has dealt with to date, and there is no end in sight.
