One must ask oneself (as a USA citizen) is the world safer and better for the actions of our nation? And for the trillions upon trillions of US tax dollars spent in pursuit of “regime change”, “teaching them a lesson”, “standing up to tyranny” and “building democracy”, as well as that old favorite: hitting “terrorists abroad so they don’t come here”. Almost all of these quests are and were Quixotic, expensive, and unproductive. In retrospect we find that the windmills of La Mancha continue to rotate as well and as fast as they were when we started our journey of death and destruction. Often we only make things worse than they were. Yet we persist.
Over the last decades any informed and honest person must wonder—what would the world be like without an America with an aggressive international agenda? Could it possibly have been better?
In 2003 George Bush invaded Iraq on the lie of WMD. His policies destroyed and destabilized that nation, and initiated a wave of death and destruction which surged through the entire region upending governments, killing thousands upon thousands of innocent non-combatants and displacing millions. The millions of homeless fleeing the carnage began perilous —often deadly—migrations across the Mediterranean into Europe. There their presence elicited even more disruptions, but of a political and economic nature. These events of the past continue to harm as they reverberate in the halls of governments in the EU and elsewhere.
In Syria our CIA —under Obama and Clinton— actually helped precipitate the long and deadly civil war in that nation—where strife continues to this day. The Obama government policy of using initial Syrian demonstrations over food shortages as an “opportunity” to undermine the Assad regime and eliminate it was a terrible mistake. The Obama “regime change enthusiasts” were ignorant or dismissive of the the fact that Assad —like other dictators in that region—held power because they were the lesser of the other possible evils. So we forged ahead using CIA cash and arms deliveries to support the “even more evil” opponents of Assad. In doing so we helped extend the war, add to the deaths and create another failed state. In these and other matters Americans have proved over and over again that we are simply not sophisticated enough to be effective world hegemons.
So here we are again in early January 2020 now with Iran in our sights —for regime change—and apparently ignoring the smoldering swath of devastation and death we created around that nation in the ME.
Let’s understand this. Iran was an ally and a virtual colony of the USA prior to 1979. Our entrepreneurs and investors were happy as pigs in slop in That nation. We developed their oil fields, sold them farm products, armed their military and air force. We developed their nuclear infrastructure and propped up the corrupt “Shah of Iran” as their powerful but USA compliant leader. As per usual, we did some “bad stuff” there too. We eliminated any Iranian leadership that did not toe to the US line. In 1953 the CIA planned and executed a violent and deadly coup against the legitimately elected democratic Mossedegh government and in his place installed the unpopular, corrupt but pro-American Shah Pahlavi regime.
One of our presidential historians (M. Beschloss) presciently noted in a review of Iran policies that “the chaos that the agency (CIA) had created in the streets of Tehran would return to haunt the United States”, As we review our history with Iran today almost seven decades later we may understand the terrible cost of that miscalculation by the CIA and the Eisenhower government. Evil events have a nasty way of reverberating through time and continue to have their costly and unpredictable consequences.
Under Shah Pahlavi, after twenty six years of corruption, terror, US-trained-secret-police, torture chambers and corruption the Iranians in 1979, under their religious Islamic leadership they threw over the pro American Shah and imprisoned 52 of our US diplomats in our embassy in Tehran as they installed an anti-western Islamic republic.
The USA never forgave Iranians for the embarrassment, the “dents” to US reputation in the ME and the financial losses we “suffered” as a result of the Iranian revolution which deposed the American controlled Shah.
After 1979 to 2015 a Cold War reigned between the USA and the Islamic Republic of Iran with conflicts too numerous to detail here. But finally in 2015, after years of concern about the development of Iranian nuclear capability in Iran the Obama Administration completed a deal with five other nations which promised to ease relations, eliminate sanctions of Iran, return the bulk of impounded cash bank reserves in return for Iran limiting its nuclear development and submitting to inspections of its facilities. Thus by 2015, the USA had a nuclear treaty in place with Iran (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of 2015) that effectively blocked Iran from developing nuclear weapons for decades.
Soon after his election President Trump walked away from that agreement, leaving the other signers China, Russia, France, UK and EU holding the bag. While Iran remained in compliance these nations were unable to maintain provisions of the agreement—which held out relief from the onerous sanctions on Iran-if the USA would not agree to the relief. In fact, soon after summarily breaking the treaty and tantamount to a declaration of economic war on Iran the President placed more sanctions( 2018 )on Iran as well as preventing them from marketing their major source of income —oil. The intention of this plan was claimed to be to “force Iran back to the bargaining table for a “better deal”. But that never happened. Only more sanctions and more tense interactions .
As in years past a new period of “Cold War”” ensued during the Trump presidency in which the USA acted in concert with other anti-Iran states such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Gulf Emirates to oppose Iranian influence in the region. The two major combatants, the USA and Iran like boxers simply feinting at each other as they circled the ring, punched at the air, but no leather landed. Then —one combatant moved too close and flicked a glove that struck a light and glancing blow which precipitated a greater response .
During the Syrian Civil War Iran supported Assad. That often place pro-Iranian and pro USA (anti Assad) forces on opposite sides. During this period President Trump placed the Iranian Quds force on the US “terrorist” list in effect isolating a branch of the Iranian government for targeting killing. The Iranians pushed back by interfering with shipping in the Gulf and other provocations.
These problems came to a head in December 2019 just after Christmas when a Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia attacked an air base in northern Iraq that was occupied by Iraqi and US advisor troops. The rocket attack killed a US contractor and wounded several Iraqi troops.
Two days later on December 29, President Trump in retaliation sent a flight of F15 jets to bomb several pro Iranian milita bases in Syria and Iraq killing 25 and wounding 50 islamists.
In response to this —some called a US over reaction—a few days later, groups of relatives and supporters of the pro Iranian Hezbollah militia group attacked the massive fort-like US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. They demonstrated outside, defaced the walls, broke into the outer compound and set fires. No one inside —staff or defenders—were hurt or wounded. The demonstrators left a few days later. But the attack was too much for President Trump to accept with a measured response. This attack was too similar to Benghazi.
Two days later on December 29, President Trump in retaliation sent a flight of F15 jets to bomb several pro Iranian milita bases in Syria and Iraq killing 25 and wounding 50 islamists.
In response to this —some called a US over reaction—a few days later, groups of relatives and supporters of the pro Iranian Hezbollah militia group attacked the massive fort-like US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. They demonstrated outside, defaced the walls, broke into the outer compound and set fires. No one inside —staff or defenders—were hurt or wounded. The demonstrators left a few days later. But the attack was too much for President Trump to accept with a measured response. This attack was too similar to Benghazi.
The attack on Baghdad’s US embassy was too similar to the now infamous and deadly attack on the Benghazi embassy in Libya which occurred during the Obama Administration and which candidate Trump and President Trump had criticized repeatedly as an example of Obama’s weakness. In what this author suspects was a means of foiling any damaging attacks from his supporters on the right and his detractors on the left, as well as creating a smoke screen to ameliorate the bad publicity of his ongoing impeachment —but mainly for not wanting to appear weak, he was forced to react —or overreact. .
On January 3 2020 President Trump authorized a drone strike against Iranian General Quasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Quds Force and Iran’s top field general. Soleimani who was killed by a US Reaper Drone in the outskirts of the Ba ghdad airport is known to have been in charge of Iran’s irregular allies in Syria and Iraq as a way of projecting its power in the region.
There is little to defend in this action of the President. It was illegal. It was an act of war without congressional approval . It was probably unjustified and it will have unintended consequences. It also opens the door to other nations deciding that any of their political enemies -not on a battlefield or in a military context, but anyone anywhere may be subject to “termination”. If President Trump decides that Pope Francis is somehow a threat to his presidency would the Pope become a target for a reaper drone? Well that is where we are at.
There is little to defend in this action of the President. It was illegal. It was an act of war without congressional approval . It was probably unjustified and it will have unintended consequences. It also opens the door to other nations deciding that any of their political enemies -not on a battlefield or in a military context, but anyone anywhere may be subject to “termination”. If President Trump decides that Pope Francis is somehow a threat to his presidency would the Pope become a target for a reaper drone? Well that is where we are at.
The unintended consequences of the killing are now rolling in.
The Iranians were forced to respond to this outright murder of their top general and act of war. They did so a few nights later (January 8, 2020) launching 15 or 20 ballistic missiles against known US occupied bases in Iraq and Syria. There were no US deaths or casualties.
But sadly about six hours after the last Iranian rockets were launched, a defensive missile battery on high alert in Teheran mistook a commercial jet liner taking off from Teheran airport for an incoming cruise missile and shot it down. The target was a Ukrainian commercial flight with 176 on board, all died in a fiery crash.
The delay in response for the shoot down from Iran officials who originally claimed the plane suffered an “on board fire” was heavily and sharply attacked in the press by the USA and the Trump government.
Few have mentioned that Iran itself suffered a similar fate in 1988 when the USS Vincennes operating illegally in Iranian coastal waters (directly below Iranian commercial flight routes) shot down an Iranian commercial jet by accident— misidentifying it as an Iranian F14 fighter jet. The Iranian liner went down with the loss of 290 lives. The USA denied accountability and never apologized for the loss of life. Though ten years later monetary compensation was paid to settle a suit in the International Court.
As this author has stated elsewhere, President Trump was elected on the basis of his claims of ending interminable expensive, resource and tax dollar gobbling foreign wars and foreign entanglements. His recent bellicosity toward Iran can only lead one place to a hot war. In fact were it not for the restraint of the “mullahs” in charge in Tehran war would be raging now. So President Trump has damaged his own election chances with his recent tough guy tactics. Tweeting in Farsi and encouraging dissent in Iran can only push leadership to the wall where there is no out but a long bloody conflict.
Think again Mr President. O
As this author has stated elsewhere, President Trump was elected on the basis of his claims of ending interminable expensive, resource and tax dollar gobbling foreign wars and foreign entanglements. His recent bellicosity toward Iran can only lead one place to a hot war. In fact were it not for the restraint of the “mullahs” in charge in Tehran war would be raging now. So President Trump has damaged his own election chances with his recent tough guy tactics. Tweeting in Farsi and encouraging dissent in Iran can only push leadership to the wall where there is no out but a long bloody conflict.
Think again Mr President. O
No comments:
Post a Comment