Geopolitics as practised by superpowers is packed with double standards. And the United States has more than a fair share of them. Quite a bit of it shows up in the Middle East, otherwise known as a built-for-Israel playground. Consider this conundrum.
The International Panel on Fissile Materials, an organisation devoted to ending the production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, has since the beginning of the year been highlighting satellite pictures showing new construction works at Israel's Dimona nuclear site, and yet there is a deafening silence from the US and other Western powers.
The satellite imagery may be as recent as Jan 4, but the Israelis have been at it for a while. But when Saudi Arabia is discovered to be discussing things nuclear with China, all American hell breaks loose.
On Thursday, four US lawmakers rushed to introduce what is called the Saudi Weapons of Mass Destruction Act. Interestingly, a press release issued by the lawmakers misses the irony by a mile when it sounded the alarm thus: "Nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists and rogue regimes is one of the gravest threats to the security of the American people and to our partners around the world." Plainly, the US lawmakers are history averse.
Rogue regimes? Wasn't the US the first state ever to earn the dishonour when it dropped the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Terrorists? Isn't Israel terrorising the Palestinians out of their own land? The US mustn't forget it was Israel that attacked USS Liberty with napalms and rockets even after sighting the vessel's American flag during the Six-Day War in the Middle East.
If the US is sincerely interested in bringing peace to the Middle East or anywhere else in the world, it has to stop such double standards and posturing. It can do this in at least three ways. One, recognise Israel for the rogue regime it is. The US must know that the Zionist regime's interest isn't always in line with American national interest.
An old example of this is the bombing of the USS Liberty, which resulted in the tragic deaths of American sailors. More recently, Israel's cyberattack of Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, the timing of which points to Israel's desire to see US President Joe Biden fail in getting Iran to return to the nuclear pact signed in 2015. Not to mention constant killings of nuclear scientists and others. This isn't the behaviour of a partner in peace.
Two, desist from seeking regime changes. The US has neither the moral nor legal power to elect a regime. The voting rights belong to the people. To each, his own regime. Here, too, history should be of great service.
America that mouths loads of words on democracy did something most undemocratic in 1953, when the US government got the country's Central Intelligence Agency and the British Secret Intelligence Service to topple Mohammad Mosaddeq, a democratically elected prime minister of Iran, in a military coup.
The reason? Because the US wanted a West-friendly regime. Yet the US blames the toxic relationship between the two on Iran. Therein lies the fault of US geopolitics driven by national interests. No nation should go around the world erecting politically friendly buffers.
Finally, the US needs to realise that not all American values are universal values. Stop this you-are-with-us-or-against-us Bush balderdash.