I am writing with reference to ‘The politics of hysteria’ by Farhan Ahmed (March 13).
It seems that Farhan Ahmed has not noticed the latest massive cuts in the American military spending when he writes: ‘Meanwhile, there are reports that the American media is “beating war drums” about Iranian attacks on American soil — it would seem that the machinations of political hysteria are already in motion. Add to that the news of China significantly increasing its military budget this year to play catch-up with the US military industrial complex. And in all this, our geopolitical position puts us between the metaphorical “rock and a hard place”, helplessly surrounded by trigger-happy parties. These are volatile times when politicians must demonstrate the capacity to understand the sweeping global changes and act prudently, to avoid conflicts of which nobody intends to be a part.’
Instead of beating war drums about Iran attacking the US, the American media has been largely cautious about any military response to Iranian threat. Most American mainstream newspapers have been supportive of President Obama over his reluctance to go for pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear installations and his call for stricter sanctions to do the job. In fact, Iran’s Shia mullahs are beating the war drums mostly to keep their unhappy people under control. They seem to be trying to provoke Israel to attacking Iran so they can unleash their Hezbollah surrogates along Israeli-Lebanon borders. Israel is already facing Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza and any war with Iran will only provide a pretext for Iran to unleash devastating rocket attacks by Shia Hezbollah on Israel. Iran is also looking for a war with Israel to divert the world attention from Syria where its Shia Alawit minority regime of Bashar Assad is slaughtering the Sunni majority for asking for more rights. Mohammed Hejazi, deputy commander of Iran’s armed forces, told Iran’s Fars news agency on February 21 that Tehran could order proxy militant groups in Gaza and Lebanon to fire rockets into Israel. ‘We are no longer willing to wait for enemy action to be launched against us,’ he told Fars.
Iran has steadily built up the rocket arsenals of Hezbollah, the Shia militant group in Lebanon, and Hamas, the Palestinian group that control Gaza, after both were depleted during military operations by Israel in 2006. Now both Hezbollah and Hamas are believed to have thousands of rockets capable of reaching cities deep inside Israel. This explains why Israel, despite sabre-rattling, has not carried out any pre-emptive strike against Iran. The United States remains even more reluctant to take military action against Iran. The American media, to its credit, has also been largely against any pre-emptive strike against Iran. Most Op-Eds in major papers are opposed to any pre-emptive strikes. As such, no one is beating war drums in the United States.
In fact, the United States has reduced its military spending and latest budget called for reduction of its military bases around the world. And because of critics like Farhan Ahmed, it has shown no interest to intervene militarily in Syria to stop Assad from slaughtering his own people. In fact, critics like Farhan Ahmed seem not to realise that if the United States retreats from the world, brutal mullahs of Iran and their clients in Syria will have no one to stop them from slaughtering their people. The United States, for all its mistakes, still remains a bastion of democracy powerful enough to stop Iranian mullahs and North Korean dictators from crushing their adversaries. It may be worth remembering that when the United States retreated into isolation before the Second World War, German Nazis and Japanese warlords tried to conquer the world until America was forced to intervene to save the world. We need a militarily strong America which is aware of its responsibility and ready to act with moderation and humility to stem the evil forces that still haunt the world.
Mahmood Elahi
Ottawa, Canada