Iran
Launches US Fury
By Finian
Cunningham
April 24,
2020 "Information
Clearing House"
- No wonder the US reacted with fury this
week when Iran launched a satellite 465 kilometers
into space. In baseball terms, the Iranians just hit
the US ball out of the park.
Mike
Pompeo,
America's top diplomat, is demanding
more sanctions against Iran over what he claimed was
a violation of UN resolutions outlawing Iranian
military missiles in space. He called on the
"Iranian regime" to prioritise resources in the
midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and to end its
campaign of global terror".
You have to
hand it to Pompeo for his total lack of awareness of
America's own absurdity.
Pompeo
cited UN Resolution 2231 which pertains to the 2015
international nuclear accord with Iran – the same
accord that the Trump administration dumped in May
2018. So, Washington wants Iran to abide by
resolutions relating to a treaty that is
non-existent, as far as the US is concerned.
In any
case, Iran says that its communication satellite
does not violate UN resolutions because it is not
for an offensive military purpose.
Russia has reportedly backed the
Iranian viewpoint.
Pompeo
points to the involvement of Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps in the launch as somehow
indicative of malign intent ignoring the fact that
military and space technology are historically
deeply entwined. None more so than in the US space
ventures, which originated from Nazi V2 rocket
science.
The US
lecturing to Iran about a military satellite comes
only weeks after President Trump has ordered the
establishment of a new Space Force which opens up
weaponization of space – in contravention of an
international treaty forbidding such development.
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Pompeo's
call on Iran to "prioritise resources" to meet the
"demands of the Iranian people" (an oblique
reference to the COVID-19 crisis) is made while the
US leads the world in the number of infections and
deaths from the disease.
The abject
fiasco of Washington not being able to better
contain the pandemic is a result of chronically
underfunded health services in the US. This is while
the US sends warships to the Persian Gulf – 10,000
kilometers from its shores – to carry out naval
maneuvers threatening Iranian security and the
security of the wider region.
Just who is waging a global terror
campaign?
Pompeo's
piffle about "prioritising resources" comes from a
regime in Washington that spends more than $750
billion on the military every year. That's nearly 57
times the
estimated $13 billion
that Iran spends. And, by the way, five times more
than China, and more than 10 times Russia's military
budget.
American citizens' demand for better healthcare
could be easily met if its monstrously profligate
military expenditure was redirected.
The failure of the US public health system is made
all the more apparent by the current COVID-19
crisis.
The US
pandemic death toll is this week heading above
50,000 compared with Iran's figure of 5,300.
Considering the respective population numbers of 330
and 80 million that suggests Iran is doing a much
better job at containing the virus. On a per-capita
basis, according to publicly available data, Iran's
mortality rate is less than half that of the US.
This is
while the US has sanctioned Iran to the hilt.
American sanctions – arguably illegal under
international law – have hit Iran's ability to
import medical supplies to cope with COVID-19 and
other fatal diseases, yet Iran through its own
resources is evidently managing the crisis much
better than the US.
To
top it all,
Iran this week was able to launch its first
satellite into space.
The Iranians deserve applause for their
technological achievement-based entirely on their
own resources and ingenuity of their scientists.
What's
really motivating Washington's ire is that its
criminal and barbaric sanctions policy is shown –
spectacularly – to be an abysmal flop. Even with so
many resources at its disposal, the US has failed to
thwart the Iranian nation.
This is why
Pompeo is blustering now about appealing to other
nations to impose more international sanctions. The
US sanctions alone and its campaign of bullying and
terrorism have failed, and it is desperately trying
to dragoon others to join its heartless policy –
under the guise of UN resolutions.
It would
also explain Trump's crazed order this week to the
US navy to "shoot down" Iranian
vessels in the Persian Gulf.
Washington’s presumed global empire is all washed
up. Its disgraceful dereliction towards American
public health is abundantly clear. Its bullying of
China, Russia, Venezuela, and others is futile. Its
navy is impotent from COVID-19 sick sailors aboard
billion-dollar warships. And Iran, hammered by US
sanctions, is able to make a landmark satellite
achievement while beating the US in terms of
managing a pandemic. No wonder the Americans are
livid.
Finian Cunningham
has written extensively on international affairs,
with articles published in several languages. He is
a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and
worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society
of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a
career in newspaper journalism. He is also a
musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he
worked as an editor and writer in major news media
organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and
Independent. - "Source"
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