[Marxism] Re: NYT: Britain adopts conciliatory tone with Iran (was April 6)

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hari Kumar submitted:

Fred Feldman) said:
"I have no doubt personally that the 12 British sailors seized by Iranian
forces were in Iranian waters.  But I saw their capture as an indication of
confidence, not primarily fear, on Iran's part.  They see Washington's
weakness and they believe their sovereignty can be defended."

QUESTION:
On what basis do you say this first part? I do not question the second part,
but the first part is what I am asking about - ie the coordinates'.
Hari

Fred responds:
Primarily, my response was instinctive, based on a lot of experience. The
imperialist side almost always turns out to be lying rawly in these
border-control issues.

Also we do know that US and British forces are involved in cross-border
operations to aid opposition forces in Iran.

Since the dispute exploded, the imperialist media position has shifted from
the bald statement that they were in Iraqi waters to the statement that
there are legitimate differences over where the border is.

Two sailors have said that they crossed the border, though I give minimal
weight to statements made under their current circumstances.

Finally, Bush's statement essentially denied that Iran is entitled to any
territorial waters at all in the Gulf since it is an "international
waterway." Globalization of capital and trade means Americanizaion of
formerly international waters.

By the way, I know we all reject the set-the-date for attacking Iran, but I
think it would be harmful to US interests to attack Iran without seriously
trying to get the sailors out.   An attack on Friday, would be very, very!,
VERY unpopular in Britain.

By the way, I very much doubt that the Bush administration would be able to
sustain an attack on Iran long enough to accomplish their goals under
present world political conditions.  Note also that Iran is now diversifying
their uranium-enrichment locations to assure that they cannot be quickly
eliminated by bombing.  This is one reason they have broken off cooperation
with the IAEA which requires public knowledge of the location of such
facilities.

I think Iran made this attack to demonstrate that they could and would
defend their borders, although all the internecine conflicts then get into
the soup.  And after all, Washington claims to have seized hundreds of
Iranian personnel in Iraq, many of them there at the invitation  of the
Iraqi government and none of them there illegally as far as I know.  What is
happening to these people?  
Are they being interrogated? I don't know.
Fred Feldman




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