What About Iran?
Mary Beaudoin, W A M M
Posted April 21, 2006
(rev. 5.24)
What would happen if the U.S. attacked Iran? According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, if the United States used the nuclear bunker buster on Iran's nuclear facilities, it would result in the death of three million people, nuclear material would drift over Pakistan and India and more cancer would plague the world. Using nuclear weapons to destroy civilian nuclear facilities (which are legal under international law) is the ultimate in hypocrisy. Conventional weapons (containing depleted uranium penetrators) would be no less unthinkable. Such an attack could initially kill 10,000 people, according to the Oxford Research Group.
"Targeted, precision bombing" with limited or no affect on civilians is a fantasy perpetuated by the war machine. In either scenario, how can bombing nuclear power facilities even be considered? Has anyone heard of Chernobyl? And as for "smart sanctions" against Iran, if the U.N. Security Council decision is taken under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, there is this issue: "Chapter VII includes the right to use military force to enforce UN decisions." (See the article by Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies, New War Dangers: Iran, the U.S and Nukes in the Middle East.) In addition to destroying enormous numbers of people and the environment, an attack would further destabilize and inflame the Middle East and the entire world.
Signing and abiding by nonproliferation and other international treaties, employing authentic diplomacy, and conducting fair trade are the way that countries need to deal with each other, not through high-tech slaughter. |
