Slavoj Žižek on Iranian Nuclear Program



In These Times has published an article named Give Iranian Nukes a Chance written by Slavoj Žižek about Iranian nuclear program . Žižek's criticism on American hypocritical foreign policy makes sense to me:
Why are Timothy Garton Ash, Michael Ignatieff and other internationalist liberals-who are otherwise full of pathetic praise for the Hague tribunal-silent about the idea to deliver Noriega and Saddam to the Hague? Why Milosevic and not Noriega? Why was there not even a public trial against Noriega? Was it because he would have disclosed his own CIA past, including how the United States condoned his participation in the murder of Omar Torrijos Herrera? In a similar way, Saddam's regime was an abominable authoritarian state, guilty of many crimes, mostly toward its own people. However, one should note the strange but key fact that, when the U.S. representatives were enumerating Saddam's evil deeds, they systematically omitted what was undoubtedly his greatest crime (in terms of human suffering and of violating international law): the aggression against Iran. Why? Because the United States and the majority of foreign states actively helped Iraq in this aggression.

But I can in no way accept his conclusion:
It is here that one approaches the crux of the matter: Such an optimistic reading relies on the problematic belief in a preestablished harmony between the global spread of multi-party Western democracy and the economic and geopolitical interests of the United States. It is precisely because this harmony can in no way be taken for granted that countries like Iran should possess nuclear arms to constrain the global hegemony of the United States.

What a lame argument... what a shame for an intellectual to make such a comment.
* I found the link to Žižek's article in Payam Yazdanjoo's blog at Francula. If you can read Persian you might want to take a look at Payam's criticism to Žižek's scary defence of the Iranian Nuclear Program here.
* Photograph by Denis Sarkić

Comments

  1. Ah yes - almost as edifying as the time he got up at the British SWP's Marxism event and argued that the Marxian concept of class was obsolete.

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  2. hi The Other, I came across you blog and I read this blog entry and I like who you put your thoughts on your words and I also like it because you show me the world from a Iranian perspective, thanks!

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