The Bush administration says that Iran has “proliferated weapons of mass destruction.”  This time, Condi will make sure they can find some.

On March 28, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Henry Paulson, and Alberto Gonzales determined that Iran’s military-industrial complex, the Defense Industries Organization (DIO), has contributed to the spread of “weapons of mass destruction.”

To make sure that the WMDs don’t evaporate this time, the United States has granted permission for Iran’s primary missile supplier—the Chinese government—to receive restricted missile equipment and technology, as well as items on the United States Munitions List.  In the past, Washington put sanctions on Chinese companies for selling missiles to Iran; today, it is vital to U.S. national security that Iran be well armed.

The latest superweapon of the Axis of Evil, the DIO, oversees Iran’s military-production activities.  Iran produces a wide range of weapons and chemicals, including missiles.  Missiles are what “concern” Condi and her friends, because they are the easiest way for Iran to hit American/Israeli targets with chemical or nuclear weapons.  Iran, like Israel and the United States, does possess chemical weapons (which are, officially, weapons of mass destruction).  Unlike Israel and the United States, Iran does not have a nuclear arsenal, though considerable media resources have been employed in order to convince the West that Iran is a nuclear threat.

The DIO ultimately answers to the Iranian government, led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  This chain of command makes it a perfect target, because Ahmadinejad has been carefully misquoted and maligned as an antisemitic lunatic.  The DIO has even worked with North Korea to improve C-802 antiship cruise missiles.  Could an enemy target possibly be more dastardly?  In reality, however, Iran’s defense technology comes, in large part, from Russia and China and is far below the caliber of American or Israeli weapons.

Iran is only a threat to someone stupid enough to hit her first.  Stepping up to the plate, Washington has positioned itself for an offensive against Iran, in a bid to secure Iranian oil and Israel’s financial future.  The furor over Iranian WMDs is being drummed up as a pretext for war, much as the threat of “Saddam’s WMDs” was used for the Iraq invasion.  None of this is in the interests of the American people, who are watching their wages inflate away, while the Democratic Congress rolls over for the President’s war.

Iran has good reasons for building strong national defenses.  The country is circled by hostile factions and is sitting on the last great hydrocarbon energy reservoir.  No fair-minded person could fault Iran for protecting her resources.

Moreover, Iran is surrounded by destabilized countries, which makes her vulnerable to attack.  Opposition forces from Iraq or opportunistic insurgents from nearby countries (such as Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, or Pakistan) could take advantage of regional chaos to break off pieces of the state.  Israel and Azerbaijan are using separatist movements among the Kurdish and Azeri minorities to undermine Iran’s territorial integrity.  (Azerbaijan sits on the Baku oil region and is crucial to U.S. energy interests.)  Iran has good reason to fear military aggression.

The United States has worked to destabilize the region surrounding Iran and Russia.  Apart from the disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington has encouraged the nuclear-arms race between India and Pakistan.  The nascent “Flour Revolution” in Turkmenistan bears the hallmarks of American involvement.  The objective of these maneuvers is to isolate Russia and Iran and preoccupy them with border disputes and internal-security concerns.  With these states weakened, it will be easier to “negotiate” oil-export agreements favorable to the United States and Israel.

Washington is playing a wicked game with Iran, creating the circumstances in which Iran feels pressured to increase her defenses by purchasing weapons.  Then, the Bush administration supplies those weapons, via the Chinese, only to use the existence of those weapons as a pretext for war.

For the United States and Israel, controlling Iran is a stepping stone to controlling Russia.  Russia is a greater danger to U.S.-Israeli interests than Iran is, because Russia is richer and has more resources.  America’s contrived concerns over Iranian nuclear capabilities have already driven a wedge between Russia and a valuable ally in the Middle East.  With Iran under U.S. domination, Russia will lose a buffer between U.S.-dominated Iraq and the Caspian Sea, as well as a friendly port on the Persian Gulf.

The subversive techniques used against Iran are also being used to spread chaos along Russia’s borders.  The corrupt regimes inaugurated by the Rose (Georgia), Tulip (Kyrgyzstan), and Orange (Ukraine) revolutions are old news: On February 27, the U.S. Treasury Department seized the assets of six top Belorussian officials, claiming they were “undermining democracy.”  Belarus is a traditional ally of Russia, and a U.S.-based “Belorussian” political movement has been trying to ignite a “Denim Revolution” there for some time.  On March 19, President Bush decided that rearming Serbia and Montenegro “will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace.”  This declaration came after Washington ensured future wars there by letting Albanian Muslims persecute Serbian populations in Kosovo, destroy churches, and burn monasteries.

The greater goal of these efforts is to consume Russia with a wave of instability, making vulnerable a valuable Russian asset: Caspian oil.