Re: The wild card is of course Russia and China.
And France. All of which are very happy to to fight a proxy war against the US in Iran. In fact, if they don't, they know, or believe they know, their turn will come later when they are picked off one by one.
Actually, the "wild card" is India (see below). As for France fearing her turn will come later, what are you talking about? Didn't you know that France, like most of Western Europe, has already been "picked off" sixty years ago, in the aftermath of WWII? The Marshall plan, NATO, the Transatlantic lifeline? As I said earlier, the only country that should feel "next in line" is China(*).
Oct 26, 2005
A vote, a strike and a sleight of hand
By Conn Hallinan
For the past six months, the United States and the European Union (EU) have led a full court press to haul Iran before the UN Security Council for violating the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by supposedly concealing a nuclear weapons program. Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted to declare Iran in "non-compliance" with the treaty, but deferred a decision on referral to the Security Council until November 25.
The strike
On September 30, more than a million Indian airport and banking workers took to the streets to oppose a plan to downsize financial establishments and privatize airports, but also to denounce the ruling Congress Party as "shameful" for going along with the September 24 "non-compliance" vote in the IAEA. The strikers were lead by four left parties that are crucial allies of the Congress-dominated United Progressive Alliance government.
The alliance controls 270 votes in parliament. The left holds 64 seats to the Congress Party's 145. The alliance's other 61 seats come from a diverse group of small parties.
Why was India lining up with the US and the EU against Iran, especially since it risked alienating essential domestic allies? Why would India jeopardize its relations with Iran while it is engaged in high-stakes negotiations with Tehran over a $22 billion natural gas deal, and a $5 billion oil pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan?
To sort this out one has to go back to early this year when Central Intelligence Agency director Porter Goss and US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld testified before Congress that China posed a strategic threat to US interests. Both men lobbied for a "containment" policy aimed at surrounding and isolating China.
One key piece on this new Cold War chessboard is India, which under the previous right-wing government saw itself as a political and economic rival to Beijing. But there was an obstacle to bringing India into the ring of US allies stretching from Japan in the East, to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in Central Asia .
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atimes.com
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