On the Warpath

24/06/2019

The US and Iran are incredibly close to sparking a potentially catastrophic war that has put the world on edge over the past week. This isn’t unexpected – an invasion of Iran is something I predicted back in 2017 – but that is what makes it so dangerous. Everyone (at least, those who pay even a modicum of attention to reality) knows Iran is trying to avoid war at all costs, but the US is inviting it.

Early last year, in a post about North Korea, I had an American tell me history was ‘immutable’, using the 1953 coup in Iran as an example. They said that right now the concern was the Iranian regime and that we could talk about history all we like, it won’t change what we have to deal with today. An authoritarian regime threatening nuclear capabilities after overthrowing a US backed puppet? Who would have thought.

This history is, in my view, extremely relevant. The US imperialist project, from both the Republicans and the Democrats, should have all nations, including democratic ones, terrified. Iran, as an oil rich state, is right to be guarded against the greatest terror organisation in the world (i.e. the US government). For about 26 years the US controlled Iran, and since 1979 have been invaded by Iraq (Saddam Hussein, at the time, backed by the US) and been strangled with sanctions.

Sure, Obama’s peace deal with them was an ok step, but you expect Iran – even a rogue government – to just happily forget about the last 70 years? To simply acquiesce to the world’s largest empire and bear the threats from their Middle East vanguard, Israel? And now Trump is in office with wretches like John Bolton trying to force war without Congressional approval.

The ships destroyed in the Gulf were probably not destroyed by Iran – Japan, Germany, and many others have been sceptical over the ‘evidence’ provided by the US. The drone that Iran shot down was – I believe Iran over the US here – justified, no doubt a provocative swing to make Iran initiate an attack.

The US government has no interest in the Iranian people – only their resources. If it was about peace and freedom they would not have instigated a coup in 1953. They would not have backed Iraq’s brutal invasion in the 1980’s. They would not have slammed them with economic sanctions, the type of sanctions that see innocents suffer and die (also see Venezuela).

And now the US has Trump and an administration fuelled by bloodlust. If war becomes the reality in Iran, let it be known that the US bears responsibility for all events leading up to it since 1953. It will be a war that no one wins, as always.