Oh how blind and foolish our intelligence and diplomatic services have been. With an incredible long-playing slight of hand trick, the Iranians have managed to pull the wool over western eyes - and successfully keep it that way for decades. My personal take is - they had every right to do so.

America's Middle East policy is so skewed, twisted and prejudiced with a blind favoritism toward Israel; we have failed to give any credibility to Iranian intelligence - either as an agency or as a people.

Our diplomatic clout, like our currency, has eroded to the point where, in the near future, we may not be able to either build or purchase the weapons to wage the wars we so choose.

Many years ago when I was employed at a company engaged in product development, our attempt to duplicate a Japanese patent procedure didn't work. The reason:it was for an earlier developmental process - one that didn't work out well. In other words, without actually violating international patent law agreements, they had sent us up a blind alley. From all indications it would appear - so have the Iranians.

The very first indications of an active 'Iranian nuclear program' came about between 1978-1979, when the world woke up to the fact that the Iranians had a fully functioning reactor in place for years.

It is more than likely that by now, the Iranians have refined enough fissile material to make at least one small yield nuclear weapon. That's enough to place them in the nuclear club. And of course, there's always the real possibility they've made more - not less.

Classic American Foreign Policy - Gone Wrong

To gain an understanding of how America has developed a blueprint for diplomatic failure, one simply has to follow how this country (under several administrations) went about handling the Iran Dilemma.

The following is an excerpted editorial from a 1995 edition of The Nation Magazine:

Iran's Nuclear Ambitions

By Dilip Hiro

Published in The Nation Magazine

August 31, 2005

Beneath the dispute between Iran and the European Union Troika (EU-3) on uranium enrichment rests a far more fundamental issue: Do Third World countries have the right to develop and use all nuclear technology, including enrichment, as authorized by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), or not?

Iran says, categorically, "Yes," and the 116-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) agrees. The EU-3--consisting of Britain, France and Germany--does not deny the right. But it wants Tehran to give up its prerogative forever in return for the Europeans' commitment to build nuclear power plants in Iran and upgrade trade ties with the Islamic Republic. As a result, when the last round of the Iran/EU-3 negotiations started last November, the two sides ended up at a stalemate.

To make sure the United States did not sabotage their diplomatic effort, the Europeans kept Washington abreast of their plans. By contrast, they paid little heed to the Iranians' repeated statements that they would not countenance the prospect of permanently abdicating their right to complete the whole nuclear cycle--enriching uranium, which is abundant in Iran, using it as fuel for power plants and reprocessing the spent fuel--as allowed in Article IV of the NPT.

In its statement on the subject, the IAEA said that it had not found any evidence that Iran was engaged in a nuclear weapons program, which is banned under the NPT. (Later, the IAEA announced that its tests vindicated Iran's claims that traces of enriched uranium found two years earlier by its inspectors at the Iranian nuclear facilities were from the imported equipment, believed to be of Pakistani origin. - Not surprisingly, Washington dismissed the IAEA findings as meaningless.)

Like it or not, the end result of this clumsy American attempt at 'interference diplomacy'. is that Iran has emerged as a champion of the developing world with the courage and conviction to stand up to the Western world. This has won it quiet admiration by those who fear that the limitations imposed on Iran could be extended to them - eventually.

It should have been clear at this point to anyone with even half a diplomatic brain, that further pressure on Tehran to abdicate its right would cause a major fissure between the West and the developing world. Unfortunately for the United States, it was thinking with a full brain divided in half: one half Neo Conservative, the other half Neo Israeli.

The Israeli Factor

There are two salient facts in this international dispute that cannot be contradicted:

(1) We have allowed the Israelis to refuse to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, while at the same time coercing all of the other Middle Eastern countries to do so.

(2) We have allowed Israel to become the only tolerated nuclear power in the Middle East - by simply accepting their denials in the face of open proof that can be seen from any orbiting satellite, and simply ignoring the fact that they are a nuclear power.

(3) We have allowed the Israelis to dictate our Middle East foreign policy to alleviate their national fears.

However, what the Israelis fear is not an outright nuclear attack from Iran (which is not likely to ever happen), but the loss of their standing as the - untouchable faction - in the Middle East: that is their real strength in the area, not their air force. Once the Iranians have been confirmed as the newest entrees into the nuclear club, they blunt that power and become equal to the Israelis. For the Israelis such a status quo is not acceptable.

Under the newly forming government of hard-line Zionist firebrand, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel is pressuring the United States to sanction an intense Israeli air attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. The Israelis want to do this even though the world's top intelligence agencies have confirmed that most of these facilities are well underground or around numerous heavily populated areas. Added to the fact that most military authorities insist that such a plan would require a minimum of a ten-day air assault, in which the Israelis would have to over fly both Syria and Iraq: an attack route that would immediately appear to the Arab world to be rife with American collusion - even if we did not cooperate with the Israelis.

And never mind that there are Russian technicians and scientific personnel all over these sites (highlighting the problems caused by a high Russian casualty rate), or that our troops in Iraq are in perfect positions to be immediate targets of guaranteed retaliation. It would appear that the Israelis don't care about any of these possibilities in light of a rapidly closing window of opportunity, and they and the American Jewish Lobby in congress are willing to fight right down to the last American to gain their ends.

The Israelis are also aware that the feared Islamic Bomb already exists in Packistan, and every day coming closer to the hands of those who hate them far more than the iranians. This trapped mentality about the Israelis should worry us far more than it appears to on the surface.

Pakistan: U.S. Folly in the Making

There can be no more perfect example of our blind charge into the valley of U.S. military deaths and political destruction, than the path chosen by the Obama administration in Afghanistan In order to save that country from its home grown terrorist organization - send killer drones after them in Pakistan.

If these high value targets were the size of 'clearly identifiable fixed military structures or even SUV's traveling on a road', there would be no problem: the hi-tech drones are fully capable of accurately pin pointing and demolishing such singularly moving vehicles and installations.

Unfortunately, that is not how they are employed. Instead, in the land of people we regard as allies and whose cooperation we desperately require for the long term in our war with the Afghanistan bred Taliban and al Qaida, we fix our drone sites on homes and 'wedding parties' where it - appears or been reported - some terrorist leaders may be in attendance.

What we gain from these raids are a few terrorist leaders - maybe, and a lot of dead civilian men, women and children as fodder for the front pages of the international press and terrorist recruitment. The increasing danger of this strategy has been made clear in a recent article from the McClatchy Newspapers:

Do U.S. drones kill Pakistani extremists or recruit them?

By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Even as the Obama administration launches new drone attacks into Pakistan's remote tribal areas, concerns are growing among U.S. intelligence and military officials that the strikes are bolstering the Islamic insurgency by prompting Islamist radicals to disperse into the country's heartland.

Al Qaida, Taliban and other militants who've been relocating to Pakistan's overcrowded and impoverished cities may be harder to find and stop from staging terrorist attacks, the officials said.

Moreover, they said, the strikes by the missile-firing drones are a recruiting boon for extremists because of the unintended civilian casualties that have prompted widespread anger against the U.S. (Click here to read full editorial)

American Influence Breaking Down - Everywhere

The recent launching of a long-range missile by the North Koreans (in stark violation of a UN edict), is a perfect indicator of how shallow the power of American influence in the world area has sunk. The North Koreans didn't give a damn as to what we thought, and all of our protestations didn't make a noticeable dent in their intentions to continue what they have been doing: developing their nuclear weaponry technology and becoming the world's most prolific supplier of missile technology.

Now Venezuela has given indication that they too, under the fiery leadership of Hugo Chavez, may also be interested in obtaining a nuclear capability. Nor are sea pirates from rag-tag countries afraid of us anymore. Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Iraq-the Last Shoe Has Yet to Fall

Only the politically blind can fail to see that Iraq's fragile peace is beginning to unravel. The much lauded 'surge' was at best only a temporary solution to a tragedy that has yet to play out. Each day there are more and more bombings, as the Sunnis and Shiites prepare to go at each other once again - just before the coming elections.

What three surge did was to divide the two sides into separate enclaves and territories. Now each side knows not only what it wants, but what it they will 'not' settle for. The participants are now preparing for the last dance, and let's face it - America's not invited.

All they now require is for America to leave so they can go at each other once again, and you can bet that Shi'a cleric Mugtada al Sadr is warming up in the bullpen in anticipation of his second turn at bat. His Mehdi Army which we paid off to secure a peace have come to the end of their U.S. supplied wags, and are now returning into the fold of their old alliances.

Will the warring factions wait for us to leave in the 18 months to two year exit period promised by the obama administration, or will they begin not only pecking at each other militarily and also at American troops as well? I would tend towards the latter as indicated by the slowly increasing number of horrific bombings in Baghdad and surrounding areas - as well as the slowly increasing deaths of American military personnel - in a secured Baghdad.

Like it or not America is going to be involved, actively, in two wars for some time to come - even if we cannot afford them.

America - On A Deadly Path to Nowhere

There is actually a form of the game of chess referred to as - Three Dimensional Chess. And yes, such chess sets can be purchased, which I would suggest some of our leaders do so immediately. They need desperately to learn how to evaluate and plan strategically in a three dimensional world, for international and global problems do not come at the players from Left and Right only. They can and often do emanate from below as well as from above. The two dimensional world we once inhabited in which we were the sole superpower is gone - get used to it America.

We now live in a three dimensional world but are being led by two dimensional leaders, and that factor is a major stumbling block in the path to solving some very critical problems.

America's leaders, from both the business world to politics, are doing their level best to hold off the recognition that we are no longer the world's monetary powerhouse. With the loss of our financial muscle, we have suffered at the least, a fifty percent decline of our bargaining power in world affairs: our allies no longer heed us and our enemies no longer fear us. Therefore, like it or not, unless some incredible miracle should take place, a new beginning is about to dawn on the United States.

So as a nation we had better start preparing for the transition - with or without a leader we, and the rest of the world can believe in. Tomorrow is here - now!

Your comments - The voices of our readers

Hi, cool site, good writing. Poonia Brurnot, Norfolk Island, Australia Do you really believe that any of this will come about? It sounds far fetched, and then I watch the news and it all looks real. What will happen to America if we are drawn into a third war in the area because of Israels actions? My 10th grade students have shown an interest in what is happening in that part of the world, especially those with relatives serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. What can I tell them that won't unnecessarily alarm them? M. Bayliss, North Carolina .