Republican Moral Degeneracy on Display in N.H. Presidential Debate

Jacob Hornberger’s Commentary 6/5/2007

The moral degeneracy of the Republican Party was on full display in the presidential debate in New Hampshire. With the exception of Ron Paul, the other candidates said that they would be more than willing to drop nuclear bombs on Iran to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Yes, nuclear bombs—as in the type of bombs that have radiation that can kill untold numbers of people within the blast radius.

This degenerate mindset is absolutely unbelievable. The attitude toward the Iranian people is no different from that which pervaded the U.S. government during the Iraq sanctions and, in fact, during the entire Iraq occupation. From the standpoint of U.S. officials and Republican presidential candidates, the deaths of Iranians are simply no big deal, just as the deaths of the Iraqi children from the sanctions and the deaths of countless Iraqis during the U.S. invasion and occupation are no big deal. In fact, in a nuclear strike on Iran, there is no doubt that U.S. officials would have the same policy that they’ve had toward Iraqis—not to keep count of the deaths because Iranians, like Iraqis, just don’t count.

Let’s keep in mind the obvious fact: Iran has not attacked the United States and has never threatened to attack the United States. The primary reason that Iran wishes to acquire a nuclear weapon is to deter a regime-change attack by the U.S. government. Iranians have not forgotten the secret and surreptitious regime-change operation in 1953, when the CIA ousted the democratically elected prime minister of Iran and re-installed the brutal, dictatorial, tortuous regime of the shah of Iran. They don’t want another U.S.-installed puppet to rule over them, torture them, and execute them. They also have learned the lessons that Iraq and North Korea have learned: Acquire a nuclear weapon and the U.S. military will not level a regime-change attack on your country. But fail to do so, and it will, no matter how many foreign casualties must be incurred in the process.

Let’s spare ourselves the bromides about how the Iranian people are just a bunch of radical, extremist, Islamo-fascists who hate America for its freedom and values. After all, don’t forget that when the shah of Iran was partnering with the U.S. government, the Iranian people were considered to be friends and allies of the U.S. It was only when the Iranian government became independent of the U.S. Empire that U.S. officials turned against the Iranian people, to the point that killing them with a few well-placed tactical nuclear weapons is no big deal.

Ultimately, it is up to the American people to end the U.S. government’s arrogant, pompous, self-righteous, aggressive, deadly, and destructive role as the world’s international policeman, invader, occupier, interloper, intervener, bomber, torturer, and destroyer. The well-being of the American people depends on it. The well-being of the Iranian people depends on it. The well-being of the people of the world depends on it.