Focus: Let Us End the Next War Before it Begins (1-3)

Modified from Davids Wanson:  Iran has never threatened the United States or any of its allies. Since the United States overthrew Iran's democratically elected government in 1953, Iranians have had an interest in recovering both democracy and independence. They have progress to make, as do we in the United States. But attacking a nation empowers anti-democratic forces within it. And attacking a nation because it is not an ideal democracy fails as a pretended motivation as long as the United States is funding and supporting dictatorships, including right nearby in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, etc, not to mention our own democratic failures which we'd prefer not to be bombed over.
The United States and NATO and Israel blatantly violate the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Israel does not claim to support it. The United States does claim to, yet violates it by refusing to work for nuclear disarmament, and by keeping nuclear weapons in non-nuclear states -- not to mention on ships threatening Iran. Iran, in contrast, is not accused of violating the Nonproliferation Treaty or any other law. Iran is permitted to develop nuclear technology for energy and medical purposes, and to enrich uranium to the levels used for both of those purposes. Yes, the world should be rid of nuclear technology entirely. Yes, it's ludicrous that U.S.-imposed sanctions are preventing Iran from developing renewable energy sources. But if you're going to disguise a war as law enforcement, it's important to point out that only the police have violated any laws.
The United States pushed nuclear energy technology on Iran a couple of generations back. If you go to my website DontAttackIran.org you'll see a U.S. magazine ad from nuclear power companies with a big photo of the Shah of Iran, the dictator the U.S. imposed on Iran following the coup, and the ad brags about how the Shah is developing nuclear power plants, suggesting that the United States should be doing more of the same itself.
Despite Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann's promise to close US embassy in Iran if elected president, the U.S. has not had an embassy in Iran since the 1979 hostage crisis, an episode Americans have a harder time moving past than the 1953 coup because, unlike that coup, they've heard of it. Yet, Iran has not been unwilling to talk to other nations, including the United States -- despite the United States' assistance to Iraq in making war on Iran during the 1980s. Iranians like the United States, and Iranian ships keep saving U.S. ships from pirates, including just yesterday.
Iran assisted the United States in Afghanistan in 2001. Iran tried to negotiate with the United States after its attack on Iraq in 2003. Two years ago, Iran tried to agree to ship its uranium abroad for refining, but on October 18, 2010, the day before a meeting was to be held to firm up that deal, a U.S.-backed terrorist group attacked a group of top Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a statement on Oct. 19 condemning the terrorists, whom he charged "are supported by certain arrogant powers' spy agencies." The West could not be trusted, and the deal was off, exactly what the U.S.-friendly Green Movement had been pushing for.
Iran is not obliged to ship its uranium abroad. It is not violating any law by not doing so. On the contrary, it would do so in order to persuade the United States to stop violating the law. Iran is under what Washington proudly calls crippling sanctions. US government and its allies have blockaded Iran's economy, resulting not in diminished power for its current government, but in intense suffering, illness, and death for its people. US  government did this to Iraq during the 1990s, killing at least a half a million children, which then-Secretary of State Madeline Albright said was a price worth paying. You may have seen her a few weeks ago joking it up on the Jon Stewart fake news show, which should really stick to comedy and stop trying to interview people. Iran wants a murderous crime to end (not to mention the assassinations of its scientists). It doesn't want to begin one. No treaty requires Iran to allow inspections of military sites. The United States made sure that requirement was not included in the Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran would agree to such measures to ease its people's suffering, and to discourage the crime of threatening war -- a crime engaged in by the U.S. president, and Congress. I don't want Iran to develop nuclear weapons. I wish the CIA had not been so stupid as to give Iran the plans to do so. I wish President Obama were not prosecuting as a spy the U.S. journalist who reported that story. We need to know what our government is up to, no matter how embarrassing.