NORTH CAROLINA - One huge lie zipping around the Internet of late is the depiction of a map showing the (alleged) extent of the Persian “empire” in 300 BC, as it is labeled. It shows that the Achaemenid dynasty as empire controlling lands stretching from a small part of Europe west of the Bosporus across Anatolia to Bactria and what today is Pakistan and western India.

Captions seen with the map are suggesting this same extent of rule or control is exactly what Iran’s leaders are eyeing today, as if Iran is on some grand offensive to re-create the Achaemenid territorial reach. This propaganda in support of Western and particularly American hostilities towards Iran is sheer madness because it is false. Iran merely wants to grow and develop as it is now territorially.

But the propaganda map is a joke, too, because in 300 BC the Achaemenid empire of antiquity had already been defeated by the Macedonian, Alexander (the Great), and by 300 BC Alexander had been dead for over a decade and various former generals and compatriots of his were squabbling over who was going to get what of the lands Alexander had conquered. A stupidity piled atop a stupidity is the map itself.

Indeed, the most glaring earmarks of this century so far are two: stupidity, which is bad enough, but also cruelty, which is much worse, especially when it is based on stupidity. And this foisted upon the world by leaders, and they can easily be named with Trump and Netanyahu in the top positions, who by any assessment of their mentalities by professional psychologists, must be declared deeply damaged if not insane. (One might suggest impairment also for outgoing Theresa May, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Macron in France and a host of less visible “leaders” of U.S. puppet countries around the world.)

The cruelty factor seems to play out almost daily, which does a tag team routine with the stupidity factor. Take what happened in the past week in Wadi Hummus on the outskirts of East Jerusalem on land the Palestinians allegedly control and where they were building or already had mostly built up a handful of high-rise apartment buildings for several hundred Palestinian residents. So, one morning hundreds of Israeli troops and police show up suddenly with teams planting explosives and deploying various other implements of destruction like bulldozers, order the residents out of these buildings so fast they barely have time to take ANY of their belongings, and over the next few hours reduce the entire neighborhood to rubble. This was such “in your face” ethnic cleansing that it literally shocked the world.

Why, allegedly? Because these apartment building were supposedly too close to the illegal separation wall or barrier that the Zionists earlier placed like a long viper across parts of the West Bank. And then, when the U.N. Security Council attempted to condemn the destruction in Wadi Hummus, the U.S. (the stupidity factor) objection to the measure killed it.

Events of the same low-caliber sense but high-level cruelty are occurring almost daily under the aegis, distant or far, of the Trump Administration. Like for example with Brazil’s refusal (no doubt on command of the Trump gang) to fuel two Iranian ships laden with Brazilian agricultural produce. Like for example at the behest of the U.S. the authorities in Gibraltar changing their laws immediately this month to accommodate the piracy against and capture of an Iranian oil tanker allegedly taking fuel to Syria. (Hamdu li-Allah that Iran responded by grabbing a British tanker in response.)

But perhaps the greatest stupidity and cruelty so far of late is Trump’s declaration that he could end the war in Afghanistan in a few days, and murder 10 million people, if he wanted. This is megalomaniacal cruelty. This is not something anyone in their right mind would even consider, much less speak about. And do not doubt he was speaking less to Afghanistan than he was to Iran, where sanctions have hurt the working and middle classes especially hard. It was a threat, pure and simple. In addition, the U.S. and the Brits have been talking about some kind of naval armada to “escort” ships through the Persian Gulf and Hormuz, as if transit has been endangered by Iran. This ploy really amounts to nothing more than a military blockade of Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

Any analysis of these moves suggests that Trump, who claims he does not want a war, in fact really does because he ought to realize that he is not fomenting revolution in Iran, but shoring up the determination of Iranians to resist and support their government. In fact, one can imagine that Trump does not know what he wants exactly except submission -- as if he’s playing some sort of crude hardball to get a business (rather than a necessary diplomatic) deal he likes. But he will never get his kind of deal, even while he believes he can have it with John Bolton nearby. Bolton’s eagerness to kill Iranians, Trump thinks, is a bargaining chip. It’s another “good cop, bad cop” routine…which is so shallow and lacking in smarts and sophistication and sensibility as any kind of pseudo “diplomatic” strategy, it has already failed.

So again, what’s Iran to do? It seems straightforward. Respond in kind but no more than in kind to aggression on Iran’s interests, make sure the craven Trumpists and allies realize Iran isn’t kidding about shutting down resource shipments through the Persian Gulf and the destruction of the vast petroleum infrastructure in the Persian Gulf if Iran is attacked militarily, and above all remain cool headed and patient. The U.S. empire is beginning to implode.