MAD about Iran

Let the spewing, spouting, and sputum sputtering begin! I'm sure by the time this Neon Babylon ignites your Weber, the jawjacking about the Iranian nuke deal will have approached critical mass. Allow me to add a few bullet points to the mix that are probably being forgotten—and shouldn't be.

For starters, it's looking like ole Bebe Netanyahoo is a rather paranoid individual who isn't particularly inclined to peace-making. Jesus, the guy makes Dick Cheney look like Ringo Starr. So Israel doesn't like the deal? All right already. Duly noted. Now don't muck it all up.

The way Israel screeches about the specter of all these big bad Iranian nukes, you'd think the Iranians already have a closet full of warheads somewhere out in the desert. So how about a reality check? The number of nukes currently owned by Iran is zero. The number of nukes owned by Israel is 100, at least. It's the Israelis who can turn Iran into a parking lot, not the other way around. It's the Israelis who zealously hide their stockpile, who won't let any inspectors verify a damn thing about their program. It's the Israelis who have steadfastly refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, an agreement Iran signed years ago. Just for the record.

By the way, isn't MAD still a very viable factor when it comes to making nuclear countries act with restraint when things get touchy? MAD—Mutually Assured Destruction, a 1950s U.S. policy. It was MAD that kept us and the Russians from roasting the planet in mid-century, and its considerable power of persuasion will most certainly be felt by the Iranians and Israelis as well, I hope.

When mushminded hawks like Tom Cotton and John Bolton talk about the sneaky and lying Iranians, perhaps a little history refresher is in order. Because back in the summer of 1953, guess who engineered a coup of the Iranian government, tossing its democratically elected president, and replacing that popular individual with one of the most reviled pricks of the 20th century? Yep. You got it. U.S.

Actually, it was both us and the U.K. The newly elected iranian prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, got into a beef with western petroleum kingpins and threatened to nationalize Iran's lucrative oil industry. This kind of talk quickly got the attention of the Brits and Yanks, all the way up to Ike himself. With his approval, the CIA engineered the removal of Mossadegh and the installation of the Shah, a murderous puppet of Oil Pigs who hard-heartedly ruled Iran for 26 years until toppled by the Revolution of '79. Bottom line—we wrecked Iran's government and country, with no apologies or regrets. It served our interests, simple as that.

Just remember that when scads of beady-eyed hawks start calling the Iranians wicked villains who can't be trusted. Iran has every reason to respond, “Us? Yeah. Right.” The relentless haunting of history.