JIMMY CARTER - self styled champion of human rights — is on the verge of launching a military attack on the people of Iran.
That is clear not just from Carter's talk, that the US cannot 'sit still' for 'very much longer', but also from the war preparations Carter is known to have made. For example, the US army is appealing for helicopter pilots changing the colour of its taeks from jungle Vietnam experience green to desert brown.
What lies behind these war moves? Western propaganda would have us believe it's all to do with securing the safety of the US diplomats and military personnel held captive in the US embassy in Tehran.
But all the experts agree that any military adventures the US would launch in Iran would put the embassy personnel at greater risk.
There is no way the US could stage some James Bond type operation and whisk the nostages to sarely.
On the contrary, the first US soldier to land in Iran, or the first mine to be dropped in Iranian waters could provoke the students holding the hostages' into killing their captives as a reprisal.
And if it was the hostages Carter was worried about then all he had to do, the very first day the embassy was captured was to have returned the tyrant Shah to face the justice of the people he so cruelly ruled.
What really motivates Carter and his West European allies who are backing him is the anger at the determination of the Iranian people not to kotow to US imperialism.
The kicking out of the Shah was the greatest blow US imperialism has suffered since its defeat in Vitorn. tie a defeat other countries in the 'third world' are taking note of.
The US is frantic to try and impose its authority on nations and peoples it sees slipping from its grasp. "Teaching Iran a lesson' is seen as one way of doing this.
Carter has also his own, shoddy reasons for pointing the might of US weaponry , in the direction of Iran — he hopes it could win him re-election as president. Apparently there are votes in bombs. Such are the glories of western democracy.
Whatever differences Socialist Challenge may have with the Iranian Government, and these are many, we have no hesitation in taking the side of the ranian people against US imperialism and its backers in the Tory and Labour Party leaderships in this country.
After all the 50 hostages are comparatively well. They have not been tortured or executed The same cannot be said for the tens of thousands who passed through the torture chambers and death camps when the old rulers of Iran were doing what the US told them to.