"Top-ranking Americans have told equally top-ranking Indians in recent weeks that the US has plans to invade Iran before Bush's term ends. In 2002, a year before the US invaded Iraq, high-ranking Americans had similarly shared their definitive vision of a post-Saddam Iraq, making it clear that they would change the regime in Baghdad." Calcutta Telegraph 9-25-05

The UN's nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, officially signed Iran's death-warrant yesterday. By passing a US-backed resolution that refers Iran's nuclear program to the Security Council, the member states have endorsed America's genocidal Middle East policy and paved the way for another war. Even though Tal Afar, Samara and other civilian enclaves are still under a withering attack from American forces, and even though reports of rampant prisoner abuse and torture continue to surface around Falluja, and even though increasing numbers of young Sunni men, who've been beaten and shot in the back of the head, are being fished from the Euphrates River every day; the sycophantic Euro-allies have thrown their support behind a resolution that will unavoidably lead to another war. Everyone who signed on to this treacherous pact is equally culpable of the misery it will inevitably produce.

Behind the fraudulent rhetoric and grand gestures for peace, the former colonial powers, Germany, France and England, have bonded with the Master-state to plunder and occupy the resource-rich world beyond their borders. They'll be knocking the cobwebs off the pith-helmets and jodhpurs in jolly-England as they join the campaign to strip another unsuspecting nation of their natural wealth and subjugate their people.

Old habits die hard.

The balloting on the IAEA's resolution was another stunning example of US political fakery. Normally the agency requires that resolutions be unanimously approved.

Not this time.

The vote for a resolution typically requires that two-thirds of the members consent. (The resolution only got 22 of 35 possible votes)

Not this time.

Every part of the voting was twisted, manipulated and corrupted to meet the needs of the superpower and its lust for war. Behind every sordid ballot, the coercive influence of the American Goliath could be felt.

No one wants this war, but few have the courage to defy their Washington overlords.

The resolution will never reach the Security Council where it would be immediately struck-down by a veto from Russia or China, but the damage has been done, all the same. The Bush administration will use the mere suggestion of "non-compliance" as cover for unleashing the Israeli hell-hounds on Iranian weapons-sites; following the strategy that has been in place from the very onset.

Schroeder, Chirac and Blair are as guilty of this impending aggression as the perpetrators in Tel Aviv or Washington.

Iran has no nuclear weapons, no nuclear weapons-program, no plans for acquiring nuclear weapons, and no territorial ambitions.

They pose no threat to their neighbors.

Did they help to push Israel out of Lebanon after a 20 year occupation?

Yes. Was that a crime?

Tehran is not involved in the Iraqi resistance, is not supplying military hardware or bomb-making material to foreign terrorists, does not want another war, and has no desire to be nuked by Don Rumsfeld. Despite the nonsensical braying from Time Magazine's Michael Ware; accusing Iran of all kinds of nefarious activity in fueling the Iraqi resistance, none of his claims can be verified. What can be verified, however, are the myriad attempts by the Pentagon to propagandize and finger-point at other states for the problems they created for themselves in Iraq.

Sorry, guys; Iraq is your baby. Now, fix it. As for Michael Ware, the Pentagon has a whole stable-full of enlightened scribes ready to manufacture whatever fiction is required for the next war. Ware is no exception. He's just doing his job.

So far, Iran's nuclear program has operated entirely within the confines of the NPT (Non-proliferation Treaty) The IAEA's chief Mohammed Elbaradei has stated repeatedly that there is no evidence whatsoever that Iran is building nuclear weapons.

None!

But, let's not ignore the real meaning of the NPT. The Non-proliferation Treaty is nothing more than a legal-framework that institutionalizes the double-standards and hypocrisy of the more powerful states. Why should Iran grovel for nuclear fuel for its power plants, while the USA is developing new bunker-busting nukes, space-warfare weaponry, and upgrading its 10,000 nuclear missile stockpile?

What we really need is an IAEA inspection team to ferret through the US arsenal. Then the world could really make some headway on proliferation issues.

Why should Iran be threatened and humiliated in front of the world body when Israel, India and Pakistan stole nuclear technology and developed bombs for themselves?

The NPT is a degrading apartheid-system that maintains the status quo and keeps America's boot firmly placed on the neck of the developing world. It should be replaced with a scheme that puts justice and evenhandedness above the self-serving bigotries of the superpower and its cohorts.

But, why are we kidding ourselves anyway? The current farce at the UN has nothing to do with Iran's imaginary nuclear weapons-program. The whole affair is just a shabby rerun of the lead up to "Shock and Awe".

Where's the hidden stash of Iraqi WMD we were promised by Bush, Cheney and Powell? Apparently, they were secretly spirited away to Tehran where they could create the pretext for another war.

Iran's real crime is that it sits on an ocean of oil; the driving force behind all administration policies. It is in "non-compliance" with the Bush directive that puts every drop of world petroleum in the hands of the Washington cabal.

The EU's participation in this charade tells us that the global oil shortfall is even more severe than most people imagine. In just 5 years, all of the existing reserves of world oil will begin trending downward; falling well short of growing demand. Much of the current research indicates that Saudi Arabia is drying up as well; leaving western economies at the mercy of Teheran, Baghdad and Caracas. Despite the phony bluster about "free trade", Bush and co. have no intention of sacrificing American supremacy to something as fickle as the market. Nor do they plan to allow the global economic system to slip into foreign control by entrusting the world's most valuable resource to the dubious rulers in Iraq and Iran; not while they have an endless supply of laser-guided missiles and bunker-busting munitions.

The handwriting is on the wall. It's just a matter of whether Iran "will go peacefully into that good night" or not. The ground has already been cleared for another larcenous crusade; another monstrous, unprovoked aggression against a peaceful nation. The red-herring of "non-compliance" will be brandished to the world while Washington gears up for its next bloody campaign. The plan to reshape the Middle East is moving forward at breakneck-speed and unsuspecting Iran just entered the imperial crosshairs.

Fasten your seatbelts for another savage cakewalk.