Summer 2018: a bit of fear and loathing are natural
A bit of fear and a bunch of loathing mark the days of intelligent people anywhere, and I’m hearing this from Iranian friends in Iran and in the US. It seems that this summer may be like no other in recent memory: either good sense and rationality will somehow prevail, or the world, and particularly the Middle East, will be plunged into some sort of all or nothing conflict to tie up loose ends of US and Zionist and Saudi imperialism.
Assuming World War 3 does not erupt. That’s the fear part, and I cannot even get my mind around all the moving parts embedded within this outrageous situation foisted upon the world, literally, by a Trump Administration that has become totally subservient to the influence of the so-called Neocons, most of whom happen to be Zionists, too. You’d have thought these same old tired psychopaths who fomented the absurd “War on Terror” and the disastrous attacks on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Syria, etc, would have been at least entirely discredited by now, if not in jail.
Consider the ultimate outcome of US foreign policies just since 2003. The latest estimates of the victims of post 9/11 aggressions by the US and Western allies are that about six to seven million people have been killed as a result of the unnecessary wars waged along with the destruction of six countries, especially in the Mideast. Maybe the true number of deaths is only five million, but it could well be more than seven million, too. And in addition, the latest tally doesn’t even mention the further millions of people whose lives, loved ones and bodies have been shattered irrevocably by the wars. And the true numbers of people killed is still believed to be only in the tens of thousands by the general publics of the US and Britain, as if that was not bad enough. The mainstream media disinformation continues with fabricated crises this year such as the highly suspicious Skripal poisoning and the unproven and well discounted chemical weapons gas attack in Douma, Syria.
Meanwhile, it has been reported at least that President Rouhani, whatever the Trumpists do, wants to keep alive the JCPOA with those other nations that originally crafted and endorsed the deal. One can only hope those other countries ascribe to this reported desire by President Rouhani, and at the same time drive a big fat wedge between the US and its alleged allies that widens over time and fully reveals just how “rogue” and dangerous the US has become to the entire world and any prospects for peaceful resolutions to the various extant conundrums and conflicts worldwide, which are in fact based solely on the US desire to remain hegemon, as it has arguably been since the end of the second World War. A blessed turning point may come when more countries turn away from the US, particularly in Europe, and fully understand their long-term interests and prospects are not being served by the US.
For Iran, it appears that Trump will reimpose economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic, further damaging Iran’s economy and its people, who have all the more reason to call upon Russia and China especially to try to reduce the impact on Iran of such sanctions. The isolation of the Saudis, the US and the Israelis may be productive of real change, but who knows?
Let’s assume just for the sake or argument that the pain, economic and otherwise, foisted upon the Iranian people does in fact result in some sort of “regime change” which reduces clerical power and which the US has been trying to foment since the 1979 revolution. (The US did foment such in the 1950s with the overthrow of the duly elected Mossadegh and Iran’s desire then to fully control its own resources.) Everyone knows that Iran’s currency has lately collapsed. Everyone knows that Iran has witnessed protests over economic grievances in recent months. Everyone knows that Iran’s government has imposed some difficult measures to try to halt the economic erosions, to no avail so far. Everyone knows that the immediate pain felt by many Iranians is being blamed on the government by some of the protesters, and that “regime change” could occur. But the blame, such as it may be, is misguided IF many Iranians believe that the end of clerical rule offers real salvation. Sure, a more “pro-democracy” governance inside Iran may be welcome, just as it is or would be welcome in ANY country with a population as vibrant as Iranians always have been. It was that very vibrancy that brought about the end of the Shah’s puppet regime in 1979 against considerable odds!
But the US and the Zionists, who are wagging the tail of the US dog and have been for several decades with regard to Mideast foreign policy, seem to be making one huge mistake IF they imagine that some kind of material change in Iran’s governance will result in a material change of disposition towards the US and “allies”. That huge mistake is simply believing that the Iranian people, in my view, will somehow become disposed favorably in any aftermath to the US and the Zionists, who would be blamed, or should be blamed, for any suffering and chaos that may accompany internal change in Iran.
The US government does not honestly give a damn about Iran’s people, just as it never gave a damn about Syria’s or Iraq’s or Libya’s or Afghanistan’s or Palestine’s, to cite just a few examples. Six million dead in US led wars proves this. Same goes for the people of the Korean peninsula. The historical record has made this all too obvious. The US corporate state does not even care much about the American people in general, but primarily does care about the maintenance of its own unilateral power both within the US and overseas by any means necessary, and more Americans, at the margin, are (too slowly) waking to this fact.