Déjà vu all over again... and again... and again...

So easy we forget

Rumsfeld and Cheney helped arm Saddam Hussein, the result being that decades later we had to bomb Iraq to dislodge him from power.

Now we're seeing parallels with Iran. According to a Washington Post article in March, 2005, Rumsfeld and Cheney, who were part of President Gerald Ford's transition team in 1974,

... endorsed Iranian plans to build a massive nuclear energy industry, but also worked hard to complete a multibillion-dollar deal that would have given Tehran control of large quantities of plutonium and enriched uranium -- the two pathways to a nuclear bomb. Either can be shaped into the core of a nuclear warhead, and obtaining one or the other is generally considered the most significant obstacle to would-be weapons builders.

Iran, a U.S. ally then, had deep pockets and close ties to Washington. U.S. companies, including Westinghouse and General Electric, scrambled to do business there.

The article continues further:

The Ford administration -- in which Cheney succeeded Rumsfeld as chief of staff and Wolfowitz was responsible for nonproliferation issues at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency -- continued intense efforts to supply Iran with U.S. nuclear technology until President Jimmy Carter succeeded Ford in 1977.

That history is absent from major Bush administration speeches, public statements and news conferences on Iran.

And further:

Cheney, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld all were in positions to play significant roles in Iran policy then....

"It is absolutely incredible that the very same players who made those statements then are making completely the opposite ones now," said Joseph Cirincione, a nonproliferation expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Do they remember that they said this? Because the Iranians sure remember that they said it," said Cirincione.

As Yogi Berra would say, "It's déjà vu all over again."

For more on this topic, see:

• "Past Arguments Don't Square With Current Iran Policy" by Dafna Linzer, Washington Post
• "Made in the USA, Part III: The Dishonor Roll" by Jim Crogan, LA Weekly
• "Rumsfeld's Handshake Deal with Saddam" by Norman Solomon, CounterPunch
• "U.S. endorsed Iranian plans to build massive nuclear energy industry" from Muckraker Report
  

LP