History provides us with lessons and one should not run away from them. Apparently no regime or ruler believes that it is similar to its historic predecessors and that it can learn something from them. In the midst of this view, people are forced to pay the price for the megalomaniac dreams of rulers. When events come to that point, then hearts begin to shudder. Perhaps one can remain passive when the wealth of a nation is usurped and burned down, but when human lives begin to be discounted and disregarded, then remaining silent becomes unbearable.
Prior to Iran’s 1979 revolution, to fulfill his insatiable appetite to turn Iran into a strong country with the fifth most powerful military, the Shah used the major part of the large and unprecedented revenues of the state from oil sales to buy weapons that no Iranian specialist knew how to use. The Shah’s regime had so much money and he himself was such a unilateralist that he would not listen to any advice causing indescribable damage to the country. Ignoring the obvious needs of Iranian society and focusing obsessively on acquiring weapons are the principal causes for the fall of the Shah.
Today, history being repeated in another way. The Islamic republic that succeeded the Shah’s regime is also madly pursuing the development and acquisition of arms, and turns to every corner to do this. But it is Iran’s wealth and resources that are paying for the development of Shahab missiles and more importantly for the Bushehr nuclear power plant and other gigantic nuclear projects.
Iran’s basis for going nuclear and the leading military power in the region is based on a country that has rightly become known as the “political whore” among states. A look at the performance of Russia in pursuing the Bushehr nuclear power plant project does not leave a doubt even to a teenager that the project is merely a conduit for revenue for Moscow and a tool in the political games and machinations with the West. Whenever Moscow runs into problems with the West, the announcement hits the airwaves that the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be operational imminently within months. When peace prevails between the two, the plant is lost in memory.
Not unlike the Shah’s regime, the Islamic republic too sees itself free from advice and consultation on nuclear matters and weapons needs. While during the Shah’s time most countries were eager to consult and advice the Shah and enter into all kinds of arrangements with him, today this luxury is absent for the Islamic republic. The little expertise advice that does come its way goes unheeded.
The British newspaper Daily Telegraph recently published a top secret report for the first time which shows that Iran is completely aloof to the threats that exist regarding the Bushehr nuclear plant. This report, which the newspaper claims it has obtained from Iranian nuclear experts and in secret, says that the Islamic republic does not take the warnings of international experts regarding the grave and major threats that peril the Bushehr nuclear power plant seriously. Part of this report, which has been prepared after the March 2011 disaster in Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station states, “Based on research of scientific and historic data, professional experts have come to the conclusion that a catastrophic earthquake threatens the larger region where the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran is located, particularly in the province of Kerman, which could take place any time and which would bring irreparable damage and catastrophe to the Bushehr plant because the safety standards used at the facility are very low and the principal parts of the plant use obsolete technology.”
According to Daily Telegraph, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency have given the Iranian government warnings that continuation of the project could result in catastrophic outcomes while the Islamic republic does not take this hazard seriously and views it as part of the international campaign to prevent it from acquiring nuclear technology.
In addition to this report, the IAEA has also published another report which states that Iran has been pursuing and continues to pursue the acquisition of nuclear technology for military purposes. The Agency stressed that it has received reports indicating that Iran was working on developing a nuclear warhead which would be used on the Shahab 3 missile, instead of the conventional warhead on it.
Aside the concerns and threats of the international community over Iran’s nuclear program which the world is trying to stop with every available means at its disposal, a review of events over the last thirty years reveals that the Islamic republic is dogmatic on doing everything to acquire the most advanced weapons in its Qixotic war with the world and that it will not stop at any cost in this drive, even if that is human.
The millions of Dollars that the Shah spent on acquiring advanced weapons and creating a modern army could not in the end salvage his throne. So where is the Islamic republic going with its international isolation in place? If the warnings of the international community are in fact more than just diplomatic pressures on the Islamic republic, then how can one deal with the human loss that will be lost in this episode?
Ahmadinejad has provided a mocking and yet perilous answer to this question: “Iranian nuclear plants are not comparable to the Fukushima plant because Japan used old technology while Iran has used the most advanced and up-to-date technology in Bushehr.”
