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Paul J. Balles views US President Barack Obama’s assertion in Prague that his administration would "support Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy with rigorous inspections" if Iran proves it is no longer a nuclear threat. He asks: “How do you prove that you're not what you're not?”
”If it is a Miracle, any sort of evidence will answer, but if it is a Fact, proof is necessary.” – Mark Twain
How do you prove that you're not what you're not? Someone accuses you of being a liar. How do you prove that’s not true? You are accused of being a hypocrite based on once having done something you said you opposed.
The problem with labels is that they are based on history, past deeds, something done. That doesn't mean there aren't pathological liars or congenital hypocrites. However, can you fathom why someone would ask for proof that they're not what they say they're not?
That, however, is exactly what the US did with Iraq before bombing and invading the country. The Bush administration said to the Iraqis: prove beyond all doubt that you have no weapons of mass destruction.
America knew that the Iraqis once had WMDs. Chemical weapons had been developed by Iraq with the US for use against Iranians and Kurds. The Iraqis told America that they had no more, but America didn't believe them.
During the first Iraq war, after the Iraqis invaded Kuwait, practically everyone was convinced that Iraq had chemical weapons. Throughout the Middle East, including Israel, people were wearing gas masks and going into duct-taped safe rooms every time a missile attack warning sounded.
I found myself in an uncomfortable situation on one occasion when the American embassy called the American community in Bahrain to a talk to be given by an admiral and a marine general.
About 1000 Americans were told by the military chiefs that we had nothing to worry about, even though SCUD missiles were falling all around Bahrain, sirens were sounding and radio hosts were trying to calm people's nerves.
European communities had issued gas masks. But, the US military and the ambassador stood in front of this large audience insisting there was nothing to worry about. I stood and suggested that the speakers were talking to the wrong people, and they should be talking to the Europeans who were issuing masks.
Within a week, the American embassy was issuing masks and ponchos to protect the American community against any possible WMDs. Only later followed the realization that the US military knew very well that Iraq had no WMDs, but they had to keep that under wraps.
Iraq couldn't prove it had no WMDs when Americans challenged them before the invasion of 2003. Iraq supplied their records to the US. They had the testimony of American weapons inspector Scott Ritter and International Atomic Energy Agency’s Mohamed ElBaradei.
A few Iraqi exiles in America and the UK lied because the US administration and Israel wanted to. believe the lies. Nothing the Iraqis could do could prove that they had no WMDs. Proving you don't have what someone else wants to believe you have is impossible.
Today, Iran is in the same position. The Israelis tell the rest of the world that Iran can't prove they don't have a nuclear weapons programme; and the rest of the world yields to Israel's rant.
In 2007, 16 US intelligence agencies reported, in the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), that Iran gave up nuclear weapons development in 2003. Israel says Iran can't prove it. ElBaradei also vouches for Iran's development of nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
Israelis and Americans don't want to believe it. They want to challenge Iran to provide an impossible truth. In Prague, Obama said his administration would "support Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy with rigorous inspections" if Iran proves it is no longer a nuclear threat.
How do you prove that you're not what you're not?
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