Syriana is a fascinating film, is it not? In broad terms it portrays the difference in foreign policy between the Republicans and the Democrats. One opts for diplomacy followed by assassination, the other opts for assassination outright. (I'm not saying this is truly the case but in very broad terms that is the premise of the film in the context of Arab oil dealings).
And what do we find this morning? A story in the Guardian newspaper claiming that Iranian nuclear scientists are being murdered, not assassinated.
The US is putting increasing pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons programme and ordering sanctions against them and any country still doing business with them in terms of oil - including China.
In the last couple of years, three such scientists have "turned up dead" as Rick Santorum so delicately put it (alongside airing his view of it being 'wonderful' - sentiments echoed by the Israeli military spokesman and British historian, Michael Burleigh).
Where this insufferable arrogance and disdain for human life originates from is beyond me. To the best of my knowledge, all three scientists were in their 30s, with young families.
Based on my limited knowledge, it seems clear to me that it is inconceivable that US non-acceptance of Iran's activities (I stop short of siding with the US attitude that it constitutes a "nuclear weapons programme" as being a concept without proof, much like the commencement of war on the basis of apparently invisible weapons of mass destruction), has nothing to do with these "assassinations" since they so clearly align with apparent US foreign policy.
The alternative? Well the simple answer is that these deaths are state-sponsored murder designed to further US foreign policy in Iran - that is, to decommission their nuclear weapons programme and try to stabilise the Arabian peninsula and, thereby, international oil prices...or perhaps to continue to destabilise the area and drive prices ever higher.
In more detail, this will involve deals done by local hitmen with large wads of cash in their pockets (or their families pockets), US intelligence operatives with no accountability and low- to mid-level politicians with utterly plausible deniability - all of which will, no doubt, become common knowledge...in about 50 years. In the meantime AND thereafter, no prosecutions will be made since the US is only happy to advocate the existence of the ICC as long as its statutes aren't brought to bear upon US citizenry (despite the US having been instrumental in the ICC's inception).
In other news, Hilary Clinton is visiting various countries in north-west Africa, looking to secure the routes and ports for exporting Nigerian oil as well as strengthening ties with the corrupt coffee and cocoa industries that see 40,000 people a year being trafficked throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
I may stop writing this kind of entry soon: studying politics is an exercise in futility - just as the study of international human rights politics is a preparation for a life of cynicism.
If I replace it with anything, it will be pieces on charities and activists on the ground.
Politicians are liars, politics is illusion and side-show.
Only direct contact and action has a chance of being deemed authentic.
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