Babak Namdar

The Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has publicly stated that human rights will not prevent the United States and China from working more closely together.  Human rights organizations expressed shock and disappointment at Clinton’s statements, but they should not worry as the spokesperson for State declared that human rights would be discussed “…when appropriate.”  One gets the idea that it will never be appropriate as far as the State is concerned.

The American government’s new diplomatic strategy seems to involve not raising issues that have been raised previously because as Secretary of State to eloquently stated “…we pretty much know what they are going to say.”

These developments have direct implications on America’s policy towards the Islamic Republic and Iranians.  Clinton has bluntly stated that human rights will not hinder closer business relationships with nations around the world.  What happened to those cherished “American values”?

I don’t mind that a state is trying to further it’s interest, as a matter of fact it’s normal.  What is ridiculous is that for all the talk about American values and ideals, when there are business interests – those values spontaneously all turn into a paperback shade of green.

This should serve as a very-much needed wake up call for all those Iranians who thought the US could be counted on to provide moral support.  We’ll be lucky if the American government doesn’t start openly siding with the regime as opposed to Iranians as the US did during Shah’s tenure.

Those who are clamoring for normalized relations between the regime and the US, seem to think everything will turn from bad to good when in fact history shown to be the opposite.  Those who are wealthy will be able to travel the US, very much like the are now, and those who are poor (currently the vast majority of Iranians) won’t.

As it is, the revenue generated by the sale of oil (a resource which belongs to all Iranians), never really reaches the average Iranian, so what will happen if business is conducted between the US and Islamic Republic?  Probably not a whole lot, the regime will just skim more profits.  With normalized relations the theocracy can do as they feel completely unrestrained, because as long as the US can do business with them, silly things like human rights and equality won’t matter to either party concerned.

And what about those protests or executions of women, minors and political dissidents?  Well simple, the US will just bring up the subject a couple times to the attention of the Islamic Republic and since “we pretty much know what they are going to say” the US will stop bringing it up.

Easy huh?

Tags: Armitage, China, Clinton, human rights, normalization, Shah, State

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 5:13 am and is filed under Political. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.