Book Reviews / Iran and the Caucasus 12 (2008) 401-406 401

David Barsamian, with Noam Chomsky, Ervand Abrahamian, and Nahid Mozaffari, Targetting Iran, San Francisco: “City Lights Books”, 2007, 206 pp.., ISBN 10-0872864588, 13-9780872864580.

The purpose of the book, which contains a collection of interviews per- formed at various times throughout 2006, as the writer puts, is to “offer a primer on the escalating crisis between the United States and Iran, to provide the reader with critical background information often omitted when U.S. media discuss Iran, and to introduce readers to some of the deeper political and cultural issues at play in contemporary Iran” (p. 29). The significance of the study, he believes, lies in the fact that Iran encompasses some of the most critical geography in the world and that its deposits are important to the long-term health of the world. Noam Chomsky, in his interview, begins with the initiation of crucial and relevant parts of the U.S. policy in Iran by the U.S.-led and British- backed overthrow of the parliamentary government in 1953, and in- stalling the Shah and supporting him to the end. He states that when Mohammad Reza Shah, one of the most brutal tyrants of the last half century, was overthrown in 1979, and there were American hostages taken at the time of the crisis, U.S. history only preserved the event that hostages were taken but never took heed of the fact that they inflicted twenty-five years of terror and torture on the country after the over- throw of the parliamentary government. Chomsky believes that since the Revolution in 1979, the U.S. has constantly tried to destroy the Ira- nian government. At the same time, the U.S. supported Iraq’s war against Iran. Iranians suffered heavy casualties to the U.S.-backed Iraqi aggression and will not forget this. The punishment of Iranians, Chomsky adds, continues until today. Americans equip Israel with the latest jet bombers, boast of the “special weapons” to bully the Iranian intelligence, make sure Pakistan has nu- clear weapons, surround Iran with U.S. forces via invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the Gulf and Central Asia as well, and, in brief, force Iran by every possible way to develop nuclear weapons. What Chomsky assumes “ironic” here is the fact that when Iran was considered an ally, the development of nuclear energy was a necessity for it, justified to be entirely within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); however, as Kissinger once put: “now they [have broken] out of U.S. control, so they don’t need nuclear energy” (p. 36). The European Union, however, made a bargain with Iran, three years ago, that though Iran is legally entitled to enrich uranium, the European

Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2008 DOI: 10.1163/157338408X406155 402 Book Reviews / Iran and the Caucasus 12 (2008) 401-406

Union would provide firm guarantees on security issues if they halt the enrichment. The European Union guarantees of “security issues” was in reference to possible U.S.-Israeli attacks upon Iran. Europe, however, did not live up to its half of the bargain and backed off under U.S. pres- sure; it did not make any offer to provide guarantees of security. That is why Iran backed off from its side of the bargain too, shortly after. Now Iran is back to enriching uranium, and no one knows for what purposes. The U.S., consequently, refuses to remove the sanctions, which are in fact against people not the government, and prevent Iran’s reintegra- tion into the world system. Europe also does what the U.S. orders them to do (pp. 37-38). A problem, Chomsky believes, is that China is not at all intimidated by U.S. threats. They have their own restrained development of offen- sive weaponry and are not frightened at all. What may happen, he pre- dicts, is that the Bush administration will drive Iran into an Asian en- ergy security system, and Iran will choose to break its ties with the West and turn eastward. The U.S. will then lose its global domination if Iran, India, or South Korea join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which is led by China and Russia. What seems to be even more fright- ening for the U.S. planners is China’s attempt to make deals with Saudi Arabia. With the U.S. military catastrophe in Iraq, which is one of the worst in history, there is the probability that the Shi‘ite majority will reign, which implies a pretty close relation with Shi‘ite Iran. This can end up being the ultimate nightmare for Washington (pp. 39-41). The U.S. is losing control in the Western hemisphere too, according to Chomsky. They have succeeded in alienating Canada, being hostile to Venezuela, losing economic control in Latin America and so on. Now if the Asian energy grid expands, he claims, and if it includes Iran as a sort of a linchpin, and possible Shi‘ite Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Americans are sooner or later likely to diversify their financial reserves. When asked by the interviewer why he would say so, Chomsky asks him to take a look at the UN Charter. The threat of force is ruled out, but just the threat not the use. It was recently that Jacque Chirac, the former prime minister of France, said they will feel free to attack any country who threatens France with weapons of mass destruction. This is “typical im- perial mentality. No one can consider the use of force against us, cer- tainly not threaten, obviously, not prepare for it. That would be out- landish. But we can do it against them. In fact, that’s considered very righteous. The people at the other end of the club don’t necessarily see it that way” (p. 45).