[Gareth] Porter notes that vice-president Dick Cheney “hoped to use the alleged [Syrian] reactor [bombed by Israel in 2007] to get President George W Bush to initiate US airstrikes in Syria in the hope of shaking the Syrian-Iranian alliance”.The dreaded Shia Crescent. How come we never hear of the dreaded Sunni Crescent?In fact, Cheney wanted far more sites in Syria hit than the bogus nuclear plant. In his memoirs, the then-secretary of defence, Robert Gates, observed that Cheney was “looking for an opportunity to provoke a war with Iran”.
The Bush administration wanted to find a way to unseat Assad, crush Hizbullah in Lebanon, and isolate and weaken Iran as a way to destroy the so-called “Shia crescent”.[1]
Just over 100 years since the end of The Great War and Energizer Bunny Pompeo and the presidential son-in-law are making policy for this nation. Four-star generals have to listen to The Boy Adviser. And we sink further and further into the quicksand of endless war and skyrocketing debt.
Notes
[1] "Monbiot still burying his head in sands of Syria." By Jonathan Cook, Jonathan Cook Blog, 11/21/17. (https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2017-11-21/monbiot-still-burying-his-head-in-the-sand/).
IMHO Iran is a threat - a global thread. Shiite Islam explicitly calls for a global conflagration as a necessary precondition to bring their version of the Messiah, the "Twelfth Imam"...
ReplyDeleteIs direct confrontation the way to take them down? I don't think so.
IIRC - and it's too damned early for me to research it - under Barackus Rex we cut off the Persian Gulf version of the "Voice of America"*
We need that back. We need to encourage Christianity's growth in Iran - which, as I understand it, is a fast-growing religion there.
* My USSR-born wife told me how her parents, at significant risk, would tune the radio to VoA on low volume, and listen.
I despised Ayatollah Kohmeini in his time and thought he was certifiable and the love of many Iranians for him I noted well. I also did not despise the Shah who was trying to do something akin to what the Syrians have done, namely, damp down the sectarian craziness. The communist president of Afghanistant (Najibullah) presided over Afghan coeds wearing skirts and sweaters IIRC. Someone made that possible if not he.
ReplyDeleteThat said, we supported Iraq's terrible war on Iran and, while the Khomeini fanatics were wrong to invade our embassy, they did not kill millions (?) of us in any war. If the Vietnamese can get over Americans having waged a terribly destructive war on them, then we can get over having our embassy invaded but, no, since that time it's been unrelenting hostility from us even though there's considerable affection for Americans in Iran I read somewhere on the internet (SOTI).
I think we've been quite unreasonable and aggressive toward Iran and eschewed each and every opportunity to patch things up with them. Color me one of those who think that a state of constant war and hostility benefits no one and that Iran and Russia would like nothing better than to pursue improving the lives of their citizens. Unlike ourselves, forgive me saying. The US is far more of a threat to world peace than any other nation on the planet, unless you add in Israel, SA, Qatar, France, Britain, and Turkey. And our Treason Class care not one whit for the welfare and interests of the American people.
OF course, direct confrontation should not take place. North Korea has been more oppressive and murderous than Iran and we've weathered moments of nastiness from them without having a meltdown or sacrificing any of our troops. The story of Iran's being the chief sponsor of terror in the world has been debunked. It's Saudi Arabia.
ReplyDeleteI don't see the percentage in our encouraging the growth of Christianity in Iran, much as I think that would be a good thing. I think the last thing any Iranian Christians need now is having it appear that they are somehow part of a US foreign policy initiative.
I well remember the role of VOA and Radio Liberty. We had not lost all intellectual and cultural coherence by then but now I doubt we have anything of value to impart to the Iranians. We are a confused, feeble and decadent nation that has imported our enemies and destroyers by the bucketful these last 50+ years and toys with debt, deficits and ruinous wars with abandon. Virtually every word in the so-called public realm is a lie or an absurdity. Shining city on the hill is like so yesterday! :-)