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Reflections of Fidel
The origin of wars
(Taken
from CubaDebate)
I affirmed on July 4 that neither the United
States nor Iran would give in; "one, due to the
pride of the powerful, and the other, out of
resistance to the yoke and the capacity to fight, as
has occurred so many times in the history of
humanity…"
In almost all wars, one of the parties wishes to
avoid them, and sometimes, both. On this occasion,
it would come about even though one of the parties
does not wish it, as happened in the two World Wars
in 1914 and 1939, with only 25 years of distance
before the first outbreak and the second.
The slaughters were horrific, they would not have
been unleashed without prior errors of calculation.
The two parties were defending imperialist interests
and they believed that they would obtain their
objectives without the terrible cost that that
implied.
In the case that concerns us: one of them is
defending national, absolutely just interests. The
other is pursuing illegitimate intentions and crude
material interests.
If we analyze all the wars that have taken place,
starting from the known history of our species, one
of the parties has sought those objectives.
Any illusion that, on this occasion, such
objectives will be reached without the most terrible
of all wars is absolutely vain.
In one of the best articles published by the
Global Research website on Thursday, July 1, signed
by Rick Rozoff, he provides abundant indisputable
arguments on the United States’ intentions, of which
any well-informed person must be aware.
"...Victory can be attained when an adversary
knows it is vulnerable to an instantaneous and
undetectable, overwhelming and devastating attack
without the ability to defend itself or retaliate,"
is what the United States thinks, according to the
author.
"…A country which aspires to remain the only
state in history to wield full spectrum military
dominance on land, in the air, on the seas and in
space."
"…To maintain and extend military bases and
troops, aircraft carrier
battle groups and strategic bombers on and to most
every latitude
and longitude. To do so with a post-World War II
record war budget of $708 billion for next year."
It was "…the first country to develop and use
nuclear weapons…"
"… the U.S. retains 1,550 deployed nuclear
warheads and 2,200
(by some counts 3,500) more in storage and a triad
of land, air and
submarine delivery vehicles."
"The non-nuclear arsenal used for disabling and
destroying the air
defenses and strategic, potentially all major,
military forces of other nations will consist of
intercontinental ballistic missiles, adapted
submarine-launched ballistic missiles, hypersonic
cruise missiles and bombers, and super stealthy
strategic bombers able to avoid detection by radar
and thus evade ground- and air-based defenses."
Rozoff lists the many press conferences, meetings
and statements of Joint Chiefs of Staff and high-ranking
members of the government of the United States in
the last few months.
He explains the commitments to NATO and the
reinforced cooperation with Near East allies,
primarily, read Israel. He says, "The U.S. is also
intensifying space and cyber warfare programs with
the potential to completely shut down other nations'
military surveillance and command, control,
communications, computer and intelligence systems,
rendering them defenseless on any but the
most basic tactical level."
He speaks of the signing in Prague, on April 8 of
this year, of the new START Treaty between Russia
and the United States, which "does not contain any
constraints on current or planned U.S. conventional
prompt global strike capability."
He refers to countless news items on the subject
and illustrates the intentions of the United States
with one overwhelming example.
He notes that "…’The Department of Defense is
currently exploring the full range of technologies
and systems for a Conventional Prompt Global Strike
(CPGS) capability that could provide the President
more credible and technically suitable options for
dealing with new and evolving threats.’"
I maintain the opinion that any president
whosoever, not even the most expert military chief,
would not have one minute to know what should be
done if it was not already programmed on computers.
Imperturbably, Rozoff relates what the Global
Security Network affirms in an analysis titled:
"’Cost to test U.S. global-strike missile could
reach $500 million,’" by Elaine Grossman.
"’The Obama administration has requested $239.9
million for prompt global strike research and
development across the military services in fiscal
2011… If funding levels remain as anticipated into
the coming years, the Pentagon will have spent some
$2 billion on prompt global strike by the end of
fiscal 2015, according to budget documents submitted
last month to Capitol Hill.’"
"A terrifying scenario comparable to the effects
of a PGS attack, in this case the sea-based version,
appeared three years ago in Popular Mechanics:
"’In the Pacific, a nuclear-powered Ohio class
submarine surfaces, ready for the president's
command to launch. When the order comes, the sub
shoots a 65-ton Trident II ballistic missile into
the sky. Within 2 minutes, the missile is traveling
at more than 20,000 ft. per second. Up and over the
oceans and out of the atmosphere it soars for
thousands of miles.
"’At the top of its parabola, hanging in space, the
Trident's four warheads separate and begin their
screaming descent down toward the planet.
"’Traveling as fast as 13,000 mph, the warheads are
filled with scored tungsten rods with twice the
strength of steel.
"’Just above the target, the warheads detonate,
showering the area with thousands of rods-each one
up to 12 times as destructive as a .50-caliber
bullet. Anything within 3000 sq. ft. of this
whirling, metallic storm is obliterated.’"
Rozoff immediately explains the April 7 statement
of General Leonid Ivashov, joint chief of staff of
the Russian armed forces, made in a column entitled
"Obama’s nuclear surprise."
In that same column Ivashov, refers to the speech
by the U.S. president in Prague last year: "The
existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the
most dangerous legacy of the Cold War" – and his
signing of the START II agreement in that same city
on April 8, Rozoff quotes the author, who stated:
"’No examples of sacrificial service of the U.S.
elites to mankind or peoples of other countries can
be discovered in the U.S. history over the past
century. Would it be realistic to expect the advent
of an African-American president to the White House
to change the country's political philosophy
traditionally aimed at achieving global dominance?
Those believing that something like that is possible
should try to realize why the U.S. – the country
with a military budget already greater than those of
all other countries of the world combined –
continues spending enormous sums of money on
preparations for war.’"
"… ‘The Prompt Global Strike concept envisages a
concentrated strike using several thousand precision
conventional weapons in 2-4 hours that would
completely destroy the critical infrastructures of
the target country and thus force it to capitulate.’"
"’The Prompt Global Strike concept is meant to
sustain the U.S. monopoly in the military sphere and
to widen the gap between it and the rest of the
world. Combined with the deployment of the missile
defense supposed to keep the U.S. immune to
retaliatory strikes from Russia and China, the
Prompt Global Strike initiative is going to turn
Washington into a modern era global dictator.’"
"’In essence, the new U.S. nuclear doctrine is an
element of the novel U.S. security strategy that
would be more adequately described as the strategy
of total impunity. The U.S. is boosting its military
budget, unleashing NATO as the global gendarme, and
planning real-life exercise in Iran to test the
efficiency of the Prompt Global Strike initiative in
practice. At the same time, Washington is talking
about the completely nuclear-free world.’"
In essence, Obama is trying to deceive the world
by talking of a humanity free of nuclear weapons,
which would be replaced by other extremely
destructive ones, ideal for terrorizing state
leaders and achieving the new strategy of total
impunity.
The yankis believe that Iran’s rendition
is already close. The European Union is expected to
announce a sanctions package of its own to be signed
on July 26.
The last meeting of the 5+1 took place on July 2,
after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad affirmed
that "his country would return to talks at the end
of August with the participation of Brazil and
Turkey."
A high-ranking EU official "stated that neither
Brazil nor Turkey will be invited to take part in
talks, at least not at this level."
"Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
stated that he was in favor of defying international
sanctions and continuing with the enriched uranium
program."
From Tuesday, July 5, in the face of the European
reiteration that they are to promote additional
measures against Iran, this country has responded
that it will not negotiate until September.
Every day the possibilities of overcoming the
insurmountable obstacle are reducing further.
What is going to happen is so evident that it can
be foreseen in an almost exact form.
For my part, I must make a self-criticism; I
committed an error in affirming in the June 27
Reflection that the conflict would break out on the
Thursday, Friday or at the latest Saturday. It was
already known that Israeli warships were navigating
toward that objective together with the yanki
naval forces. The order to search Iranian merchant
ships was already given.
However, I did not realize that there was a prior
step: confirmation of the negation of permission for
the inspection of its mercantile fleet on the part
of Iran. In analyzing the torturous language of the
Security Council imposing sanctions on that country,
I did not notice that detail to give the inspection
order full effect. It was the only thing missing.
The 60-day period given by the Security Council
on June 9 to receive information on compliance with
the Resolution expires on August 8.
But something really most lamentable happened. I
was working on the latest material on the delicate
issue drafted by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and the said document did not contain two
key paragraphs – the last two of the abovementioned
resolution – which textually state:
"Requests within 90 days a report from the
Director General of the IAEA on whether Iran has
established full and sustained suspension of all
activities mentioned in resolution 1737 (2006), as
well as on the process of Iranian compliance with
all the steps required by the IAEA Board of
Governors and with other provisions of resolutions
1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and of this
resolution, to the IAEA Board of Governors and in
parallel to the Security Council for its
consideration;
"Affirms that it shall review Iran’s actions
in light of the report referred to in paragraph 36
above, to be submitted within 90 days, and: (a) that
it shall suspend the implementation of measures if
and for so long as Iran suspends all enrichment-related
and reprocessing activities, including research and
development, as verified by the IAEA, to allow for
negotiations in good faith in order to reach an
early and mutually acceptable outcome;
(b) that it shall terminate the measures specified
in paragraphs 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 12 of resolution
1737 (2006), as well as in paragraphs 2, 4, 5, 6 and
7 of resolution 1747 (2007), paragraphs 3, 5, 7, 8,
9, 10 and 11 of resolution 1803 (2008), and in
paragraphs 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,
18, 19, 21, 22, 23 and 24 above, as soon as it
determines, following receipt of the report referred
to in the paragraph above, that Iran has fully
complied with its obligations under the relevant
resolutions of the Security Council and met the
requirements of the IAEA Board of Governors, as
confirmed by the IAEA Board of Governors; (c) that
it shall, in the event that the report shows that
Iran has not complied with resolutions 1737 (2006),
1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and this resolution, adopt
further appropriate measures under Article 41 of
Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to
persuade Iran to comply with these resolutions and
the requirements of the IAEA, and underlines
that further decisions will be required should such
additional measures be necessary…"
A compañero from the Ministry, after the
exhausting work of many hours at the machine making
photocopies of all the documents, fell asleep. My
eagerness in seeking out information and exchanging
points of view on these delicate issues, made it
possible for me to discover this omission.
From my point of view, the United States and its
NATO allies have said their last word. Two powerful
states with authority and prestige did not exercise
their right to veto the perfidious UN resolution.
It was the only possibility of gaining time to
seek some formula for saving the peace, an objective
that would have afforded them greater authority to
continue fighting for it.
Today, everything is hanging from a tenuous
thread.
My principal intention was to advise
international public opinion of what was occurring.
I have in part achieved that by observing what
was taking place, as a political leader who, for
many years, has been confronting the empire, its
blockades and its indescribable crimes. But I am not
doing it out of revenge.
I am not hesitating to run the risks of
compromising my modest moral authority.
I shall continue writing Reflections on the
subject. There will be a number more after this one
in order to continue going more profoundly into it
in July and August, unless some incident occurs to
trigger the deadly weapons currently pointed at each
other.
I have very much enjoyed the final games of the
World Cup and the volleyball games, in which our
valiant team is marching at the head of its group in
the World League of that sport.

Fidel Castro Ruz
July 11, 2010
8:14 p.m.
Translated by Granma International
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