Moving the needle

The United States of America, the only nation to ever drop nuclear bombs on anyone, has more than 6,000 live, locked and loaded thermonuclear weapons, most far larger than the two bombs that killed two cities in Japan, all on sophisticated delivery systems that can be programmed to annihilate any country on Earth immediately and wreck the global environment for geological time spans.

Israel has at least 300 nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to all its regional opponents minimally and almost certainly has backpack nuclear capacity to deliver nuclear bombs with hyper accuracy to any opponent anywhere.

Iran has zero nuclear weapons.

So, who is under credible mortal threat? Iran, even though that country has nary a single nuke. US officials from Obama to H Clinton and so forth are clamoring all over themselves to make these military threats, the sort of stick-in-the-eye that will cause misjudgments and escalates chances for stupid disasters. Iran's diplomats call these sorts of threats "mistakes" and they are exactly correct. Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu calls Iran insincere. That's rich, coming from the nation with the most secret nuclear weapons ever, even if it's an open secret.

From a basic conflict transformation standpoint, there is a clear need to search for, find, and push the reset button with Iran. The US has grossly interfered with Iran far more than Iran ever interfered with the US. Name a US leader who was deposed by Iran. You cannot. But all Iranians know that the US and UK overthrew their democratically elected leader and installed their own puppet. This is not ancient colonial history; all this is in the span of my lifetime (OK, I'm old, but my point is this is living history, not generations past, for Iranians). Mohammed Mossedegh was elected, was overthrown by the Brits and the CIA in 1953, and the totally unelected royals were installed for 27 brutal years before the nonviolent revolution that get our puppet, the Shah, out and, for better or worse, ushered in the theocracy that Iranians can at least call their own. The US has so thoroughly undermined democracy in the Middle East that the hypocrisy needle is all the way over, spiked at maximum, and all Iranians still fester about this.

Now, as part of the NDAA, this language is official US policy:

"It shall be the policy of the United States to take all necessary measures, including military action if required, to prevent Iran from threatening the United States, its allies or Iran's neighbors with a nuclear weapon."

This is a new step, almost a Gulf of Tonkin Resolution or an October 2002 vote to authorize war before the hoax even occurs. It is Congress saying, basically, don't come to us with more lies seeking permission to blast Iran--we give up right now. Go ahead whenever the mood hits you. How did your representative vote on this new low, this war-encrusted pork barrel for war profiteers giving up democratic rights, fiscal probity and peaceful intent?

Worst of all is that nonviolence offers sustainable, equitable solutions to these conflicts, but nonviolence cannot favor the one percent, so it is largely ignored until people bypass official methods and 'go native.' Nonviolence is an indigenous, grassroots method of hope. Nukes are despair. We have not chosen wisely.