By Christopher King*

11 July 2008

As the US and Israel manoeuvre themselves for aggression against Iran – “a Middle Eastern holocaust ... motivated by a Jewish state and its supporters” – Christopher King calls for the scoundrels in power in Washington, Tel Aviv and London to be brought to account for their crimes against humanity.

If it were not so serious, it would be laughable that the USA accuses Iran of being provocative in testing a missile. Our government-controlled BBC shows a map with a potential threat to all countries within 2400 kilometres, as if the Iranians want to attack every country possible.

As provocation, I would have thought that a much better example was the approval recently given by the US Congress for a USD 400 million package for clandestine operations against Iran. More an act of war, really. Clandestine operations apparently means supporting terrorist groups, subversion, sabotage, kidnapping and assassination within Iranian territory. What would be the USA’s reaction if, say, China were to openly allocate similar funds and undertake similar activities against the USA? After years of American intervention in its affairs, sponsored war against it together with current lies and threats, Iran’s missile test seems a very sensible and modest defensive measure.

This is reminiscent of the USA’s attitude to water-boarding. It’s merely “enhanced interrogation” when the USA does it but if anyone else waterboards a US citizen, President Bush will seek the death penalty. Surely, this says something about the president’s mentality and American ethics.

Still considering provocation, however, wasn’t Israel’s recent rehearsal of an attack on Iran provocative? No? Or the USA’s agreement with the Czech Republic for the installation of a missile system component on Russia’s border? Condoleeza Rice says that these missiles won’t be aimed at Russia and I think that she’s right. The purpose of this missile system is puzzling because Condoleeza’s statement that it protects the US and European Union from Iran and other rogue states is obviously nonsense. Militarily, it’s useless. However, if it can irritate Russia into retaliatory missile deployment and cold-war rhetoric, this gives multiple perceived benefits for the USA:  

• Ability to blame Russia for more military spending, giving profits for firms such as Haliburton

• Ability to sour relations between the EU and Russia and disrupt further rapproachment

• Distract from US violence in the Middle East by giving Europeans problems nearer home to worry about

The USA wants a belligerent response from Russia – which would do best by not giving one. This appears to be merely a provocation. Russia is strong enough to ignore this nonsense for the moment and should continue to build bridges to the EU. A protest to the United Nations would be useful.

I honestly don’t understand what’s going on in the USA. From here it looks like collective insanity. At the present time, Iran’s protectors appear to be the USA’s chiefs of staff who are hopefully beginning to realize that their commander-in-chief might be dangerously, well, unbalanced in his views. If President Bush were merely a common thief of Middle Eastern oil and his friends war profiteers they would be war criminals, to be sure, but uncomplicated ones. There is more to it that that, however. Hitler was an ordinary demagogue like Mussolini and an aggressor like Napoleon – except for his attitude to the Jews. That was where he departed from reality and the holocaust occurred. We now see a Middle Eastern holocaust, a genuine holocaust without apparent end, now motivated by a Jewish state and its supporters. The minds of those who are driving this new holocaust have departed from reality. When Madelaine Albright can approve of half a million Iraqi children dead through sanctions, when Anthony Blair and George Bush can justify over a million dead as worthwhile to remove Saddam and when bombing Iran is very likely, together with the use of nuclear weapons, insanity has re-emerged in the world. These actions are genuinely so insane that it has been necessary for the USA and UK to lie for years about Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran.

Our television channels do not show us the reality of what is happening in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan for an astounding reason – it is too horrifying for people to see. The torn bodies and parts of bodies of people killed in their own countries by our politicians and armies are indeed horrifying. If the public could see the reality of their compliance their horror would not permit it, so those who wish to perpetuate this killing must conceal the reality with lies and censorship. I say that they are insane. They no longer partake of humanity and should be put on trial for crimes against humanity.

When Hitler was slaughtering the Jews we had excuses for inaction, although their validity is uncertain. There were few reports received, none circulated in the media and, above all, people, including the Jews themselves, even as they marched into the death camps, could not believe that men could do such things. No such excuses are available now. The slaughter has occurred already in Iraq, is proceeding in Palestine and Afghanistan and the whole world knows of it. It seems very likely to be visited on Iran next. If the Nuremburg Principles were good enough for the Nazis, they are good enough for Anthony Blair, George Bush, the military who undertake aggressive warfare and the Israelis. We are now seeing the prospect of appalling crimes piled on existing crimes. It is time for everyone to re-read the Nuremburg principles.

At the present time it might appear to those in US, UK and Israeli positions of influence and power that an accounting is unlikely. That is always how it appears to criminals; indeed, it is a prerequisite for murder and aggressive warfare. If Iran should be attacked, however, that action will probably hasten the conditions in which an accounting will be demanded.

There is a more subtle and more meaningful reason than the crude notion of retribution that should exercise the minds of men of reason and responsibility. Politically motivated murder is no different from any other form of murder. Society cannot live with murderers and the world cannot live with murderous regimes. At some point men must turn away from them. Murder and aggression arise out of inability to think and function constructively, both in individuals and in states. The United States of America’s aggression in the Middle East is a clear indication of internal dysfunction, both economic and ethical, that it is attempting to externalize. It is already feeling the effects of its murderous Middle Eastern policies and an attack on Iran will exacerbate its problems, as well as those of the rest of the world. In a figurative sense, evil (to use President Bush’s term) creates a flaw in the fabric of reality that demands attention, that must be healed. The way forward for the United States is to leave the Middle East, examine itself and re-invent itself. The way forward for the Israelis is to dissolve their borders and live in peace with the Palestinians in a single state. Unhappily, it is unlikely that either will do this. Both seek the spoils of war but these are unpredictable as Hitler found at the last in the Führerbunker when, his wife dead beside him, he took up his pistol.

Who could have imagined that the Americans and British, who played an essential part in defeating him and the Jews who were the victims of his most chilling acts of inhumanity, would within living memory of these, be emulating him?