The "International community" from an Iranian perspective
Imagine you're an ordinary Iranian living in Iran. You have a family to support, children to send to school, mortgage to pay, bills to clear and a life to live, like any american or european man/woman currently reading these lines. You come home from a hard day at work and upon turning on your TV, you learn that the "International community", through the UN Security Council, has adopted a Resolution imposing sanctions on your country for its nuclear program. Sanctions that could possibly affect every single plans you have for your future: "It's just the first step in a series of measures we intend to take" - says the Interntional Community-"If Iran does not comply with our demands, further appropriate measures under Article 41 of Chapter VII will be adopted" (Resolution 1737).
Your relationship with your own government is not that lovy-dovy and your rulers have a long history of oppressing you, so the first reaction that a person living in a democratic country would expect you to have would be to say: "They [my rulers] must have done something illegal to deserve this and the International community is legitimate enough to coerce them to comply". But surprisingly - to the astonishment of your counterparts in the Free world - you feel like reacting very differently to this news.
Indeed, this new Resolution, when put in a historical context, has a whole different meaning for you.
Listening to the news, you can't help but to remember the way that same "International community" had moved to punish your fathers in 1951 when they were- very legitimately and peacefully - attempting to nationalize Iran's oil industry. At that time, the "International Community", in another similar document, had coincidently dubbed your fathers' effort to regain their sovereignty over their national resources as a "threat to peace". And the same democratic countries that are now pushing your government to stop its nuclear program had considered that the nationalization of your resources "had created such a threat to peace and seucrity that the [Security] Council's consideration for the matter was essential". (S/2358). So why trust them now? You ask yourself.
Then you recall 1953. The year the International Community stayed silent and did not move an inch to intervene when the UK and the US - obviously vexed by the nationalists in power - organized a military coup d'état to overthrow the democratic government of the then Prime minister Dr. Mossadegh. At that time the "International Community" not only stayed indifferent to the coup - which was a blatant violation of the UN Charter - but generously provided its support to the restored dictator who took over and brutalized your people for the next three decades to come. No questions asked.
Then you remember the days of the Iran-Iraq war. You remember that day, not so far away, when Saddam Hussein launched a military attack on your soil and occupied 30, 000 sq. miles of your land in 1980. You remember the civil bombardments, the midnight red sirens, those damp bunkers you had to spend your childhood under, those damn late phone calls everybody was afraid to take in fear of hearing a sad voice announcing the death of a loved one. But, at that time, the "International Community" did not bother to issue as much as a simple statement of condemnation either. Back then, Saddam Hussein was its "strategic ally" and apparently no one in the "Free World" wanted to upset him over his crimes against humanity. And when the International Community did react - after the Iranians had single handedly liberated their land - it was to come up with this rather belated dull advice:
"Calls further for a withdrawal of forces to internationally recognised boundaries" (Resolution 1514 of the Security Council)
Withdrawal of forces! Not of Iraq, but of "forces". Of course.
Then you think again. And you remember again. You remember how the "International community" failed to issue a single condemnation - let alone calling for intervention - when your civilians and soldiers where being sprayed on a daily basis - for 8 long years - by Saddam Hussein's made in Europe chemical weapons of mass destruction. You remember the horrible images of all these asphyxiated women and children laying dead on the green fields of Zardeh, Sardasht, Piranshahr...But above all you remember the International Community's morbid silence/approval.
And you start asking questions. Where was the "International Community" at that time? What was the Security Council doing? Why did they wait for six years and thousands of Iranian corps before adopting a resolution only to "deplore" the use of chemical weapons? (Art. 2, Resolution 582). Why trust them now? Why give them any credit today when they claim and try to convince me as an Iranian - without showing any sort of evidence of course - that my government's nuclear program is for military purposes? Aren't these people the same people who overthrew our nationalist leaders, restored dictatorship, supported Saddam Hussein against us and turned a blind eye to the use of WMDs against us just a few years ago? Are these people really genuine? Are they really so fond of world peace?
Then you listen to the news again. America threatens to attack you. "All the options are on the table" their President says. They - and their allies - speak of bunker busters capable of going deep into my country's underground to detonate "mini nukes". Even President Chirac of France hints he might use nuclear weapons against the ancient Iran. The Prime minister of Israel - not surprisingly though - announces his readiness to use force too if needed. And all that in the name of security, peace and freedom, and of course, under the watch of the good old "International community".
Then you realize that in fact, no matter what, you are the bad guy in the story. You were a "threat to peace" when a world icon like Mossadegh was your Prime minister, you were a member of the "Axis of Evil" when Khatami was struggling for reforms and "Dialogue among civilizations", and you are today "Chapter VII" material because you're assumed, once again, to be a menace to the world. But those who have always threatened you, gassed you, invaded you, occupied you, imposed sanctions on you, etc. and still destablize you and your future with coercion, force and further sanctions were always presumed to be on the right side of the International Community. In fact they were the International Community.
And suddenly the word "International community" founds a whole new meaning in your mind. A very sinistre one.
Walk a mile in an Iranian's shoes and you'll know what I mean.
Your relationship with your own government is not that lovy-dovy and your rulers have a long history of oppressing you, so the first reaction that a person living in a democratic country would expect you to have would be to say: "They [my rulers] must have done something illegal to deserve this and the International community is legitimate enough to coerce them to comply". But surprisingly - to the astonishment of your counterparts in the Free world - you feel like reacting very differently to this news.
Indeed, this new Resolution, when put in a historical context, has a whole different meaning for you.
Listening to the news, you can't help but to remember the way that same "International community" had moved to punish your fathers in 1951 when they were- very legitimately and peacefully - attempting to nationalize Iran's oil industry. At that time, the "International Community", in another similar document, had coincidently dubbed your fathers' effort to regain their sovereignty over their national resources as a "threat to peace". And the same democratic countries that are now pushing your government to stop its nuclear program had considered that the nationalization of your resources "had created such a threat to peace and seucrity that the [Security] Council's consideration for the matter was essential". (S/2358). So why trust them now? You ask yourself.
Then you recall 1953. The year the International Community stayed silent and did not move an inch to intervene when the UK and the US - obviously vexed by the nationalists in power - organized a military coup d'état to overthrow the democratic government of the then Prime minister Dr. Mossadegh. At that time the "International Community" not only stayed indifferent to the coup - which was a blatant violation of the UN Charter - but generously provided its support to the restored dictator who took over and brutalized your people for the next three decades to come. No questions asked.
Then you remember the days of the Iran-Iraq war. You remember that day, not so far away, when Saddam Hussein launched a military attack on your soil and occupied 30, 000 sq. miles of your land in 1980. You remember the civil bombardments, the midnight red sirens, those damp bunkers you had to spend your childhood under, those damn late phone calls everybody was afraid to take in fear of hearing a sad voice announcing the death of a loved one. But, at that time, the "International Community" did not bother to issue as much as a simple statement of condemnation either. Back then, Saddam Hussein was its "strategic ally" and apparently no one in the "Free World" wanted to upset him over his crimes against humanity. And when the International Community did react - after the Iranians had single handedly liberated their land - it was to come up with this rather belated dull advice:
"Calls further for a withdrawal of forces to internationally recognised boundaries" (Resolution 1514 of the Security Council)
Withdrawal of forces! Not of Iraq, but of "forces". Of course.
Then you think again. And you remember again. You remember how the "International community" failed to issue a single condemnation - let alone calling for intervention - when your civilians and soldiers where being sprayed on a daily basis - for 8 long years - by Saddam Hussein's made in Europe chemical weapons of mass destruction. You remember the horrible images of all these asphyxiated women and children laying dead on the green fields of Zardeh, Sardasht, Piranshahr...But above all you remember the International Community's morbid silence/approval.
And you start asking questions. Where was the "International Community" at that time? What was the Security Council doing? Why did they wait for six years and thousands of Iranian corps before adopting a resolution only to "deplore" the use of chemical weapons? (Art. 2, Resolution 582). Why trust them now? Why give them any credit today when they claim and try to convince me as an Iranian - without showing any sort of evidence of course - that my government's nuclear program is for military purposes? Aren't these people the same people who overthrew our nationalist leaders, restored dictatorship, supported Saddam Hussein against us and turned a blind eye to the use of WMDs against us just a few years ago? Are these people really genuine? Are they really so fond of world peace?
Then you listen to the news again. America threatens to attack you. "All the options are on the table" their President says. They - and their allies - speak of bunker busters capable of going deep into my country's underground to detonate "mini nukes". Even President Chirac of France hints he might use nuclear weapons against the ancient Iran. The Prime minister of Israel - not surprisingly though - announces his readiness to use force too if needed. And all that in the name of security, peace and freedom, and of course, under the watch of the good old "International community".
Then you realize that in fact, no matter what, you are the bad guy in the story. You were a "threat to peace" when a world icon like Mossadegh was your Prime minister, you were a member of the "Axis of Evil" when Khatami was struggling for reforms and "Dialogue among civilizations", and you are today "Chapter VII" material because you're assumed, once again, to be a menace to the world. But those who have always threatened you, gassed you, invaded you, occupied you, imposed sanctions on you, etc. and still destablize you and your future with coercion, force and further sanctions were always presumed to be on the right side of the International Community. In fact they were the International Community.
And suddenly the word "International community" founds a whole new meaning in your mind. A very sinistre one.
Walk a mile in an Iranian's shoes and you'll know what I mean.
1 comment:
This is indeed the sad truth our country has been facing. We Iranians are being punished by the "international community" for standing up for our rights.
I believe the colonizing spirit has not disappeared at all. It has just changed in shape and name (International community, but understand "the former colonizers").
But every time, we have proven to be stronger. It took us 25 years to get rid of the Shah and his masters (1953 to 1978), it took us 8 years to get rid of Saddam and his backers (from US to France to Germany to Soviet Union), and it will take us as long as it is needed to be free to have whatever is needed for our development.
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