The US has made a fine art of portraying the leaders of countries that it dislikes and seeks to overthrow or even invade as irrational and aggressive people with whom it is no use talking and that the only thing they understand is force and sanctions and threats. We have seen this time and again, with Iran being the latest target, though Syria has also emerged as a new enemy.
Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett are two people with solidly establishment credentials, working in the administrations of both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton on national security issues. They have written a new book GOING TO TEHRAN: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Here is an interesting 30-minute interview given by the Leveretts to Glenn Greenwald where they examine the various arguments put forward by the warmongers as to why Iran should be attacked with sanctions and even military strikes.
The Leveretts say that it is a huge mistake to think of that country as run by religious fanatics. They say that Iran’s leadership is fundamentally defensive and rational in its behavior and fiercely devoted to preserving Iran’s independence. It has good reason to think that they are being attacked by the US and its proxies in the region. The US can and should be able to reach a deal with them.
If you look at a map of the middle east, Iran is surrounded by US conquests, satrapies, or colonies; I don’t understand why the iranians would look at that map and not wonder if they’re next.
Iran’s strategic situation includes:
-- to the north, having Russia as a neighbour. Russia has often had imperial pretensions towards Iran in the past, and cooperated with the UK to invade Iran in the Second World War.
-- to the east, having Pakistan as a regional almost-neighbour. Pakistan has nuclear weapons, is mostly Sunni, and is a hotbed of Sunni extremism.
-- to the west, having Israel as a regional almost-neighbour. Israeli politicians have often made remarks to the effect of desiring to attack Iran, and although not officially acknowledged observers do not rule out a nuclear attack.
-- as Marcus notes, Iran’s neighbours and almost-neighbours are US formal allies (Turkey), informal allies (Israel, Pakistan) or puppets (Afghanistan, Iraq).
-- the US itself, while not a ‘neighbour’ in the conventional sense, has the ability to reach Iran militarily, including with nuclear weapons -- and like Israel, a non-trivial lobby of US politicians have advocated attacking Iran -- including openly suggesting the use of nuclear weapons.
I’ve said it before on this blog, but Iran’s political & military leadership would be irrational to not be considering getting nuclear weapons to act as a deterrent against attack.
Re Singham composer99, & Ranum
How does this grab you. All Obama has to do is call Bibi on the phone and tell him to go get ’em.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-not-israel-faces-an-existential-threat/
The United States needs a demon both at home, to distract the citizenry from the bipolar society created by plutocracy, and abroad, to scare other nations into supporting U.S. hegemony. As the American financial system heads towards the bursting of yet another bubble, the foreign side of this equation is becoming critical in order to safeguard the primacy of the U.S. dollar.
What the propagandists of empire neglect to mention is the extent to which the U.S. has created its own demons. Besides the well-known case of support for Afghanistan’s “freedom fighters” during the Soviet occupation, which boosted bin Laden’s cause, the ouster of Saddam Hussein left Iran without a counterweight, immediately rendering it more useful as a potentially threatening bete noire. Like a gangster, the U.S. then offers itself up as a benevolent protector. Truly, this is a brilliance befitting a shining city on a hill.
I’ve said it before on this blog, but Iran’s political & military leadership would be irrational to not be considering getting nuclear weapons to act as a deterrent against attack.
Do you really think nuclear weapons would DETER an attack? It looks to me like they’d do nothing but JUSTIFY an attack. No one is really inclined to attack Iran right now, for any reason, and the few belligerent morons who want (someone else) to attack Iran are screaming about their alleged nuclear program in order to justify an attack, not to talk us out of it.
Seriously, nuclear weapons have got to be the most overrated waste of military resources in history. When have they done anyone any good?
As the American financial system heads towards the bursting of yet another bubble, the foreign side of this equation is becoming critical in order to safeguard the primacy of the U.S. dollar.
Oh great, another silly-assed Chomsky wannabee pretending to understand AMerica’s “true” foreign policy objectives. Seriously, this “war for the primacy of teh dollar” PRATT is as tiresome as it is old.
slc1: There are a few problems with the article you cited. First, while Israel may be able to kill millions of Iranians (if they were dumb enough to nuke Iran, thus making them even more overwhelmingly hated than they are now), that’s not the same as an “existential threat” to the nation of Iran as a whole. And second, there’s this:
Cordesman, a former national security aide to Senator John McCain…
INSTAFAIL!
But is it wrong? I don’t think so.
I don’t “think” it’s wrong, I KNOW it’s wrong, and so does anyone with even a basic grasp of monetary policy.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’m giving a talk on Iran to my local CND group soon, and the Leverett’s book will be extremely useful.
Professor Hillary Mann Leverett presents the idea that America needs to renounce 34 years of failed policy.
An inquring mind asks, what failed policy? The US reigns supreme in the world, largely coming from the fact that the US Federal Reserve has pursued an interventionist monetary policy, that up until May 2013, drove down interest rates, and enabled the US Dollar to serve as the world’s reserve currency, providing monetization of debt and carry trade financing galore for moral hazard based investment choices, providing great reward to those invested in a number of investment vehicles, such as 1) vice mutual funds like VICEX, 2) retail stocks like PSUN, 3) small cap value ETFs, like RZV, 4) nation investment, like EIRL, and 5) global banks, like LYG.
She presents Why the United States must come to terms with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
I reply that God never desired that there be any coming to terms with Iran; instead He destined that there be two global kick ass empries, the UK and the US, as foretold in bible prophecy of the statue of empires, seen in Daniel 2:25-45, where liberalism’s two iron legs of global hegemony fail, and a ten toed kindgom of authoritarianism would rise to rule the world, with its toes being regional zones of iron diktat combined with clay democracy, a miry mixture that cannot be sustained; and which will usher in the tyranical end time one world government lasting three and one half years, that is rule in the time known as Great Tribulation.
Yes the US is going to war with Iran; but first, the Isaiah 17 war is coming, where Damascus will be totally obliterated, destroyed, and utterly wiped out,,by who, or what, I do not know; but God said it and I believe it.
Then comes the Ezekiel 38 War, a massive middle east confligration, with destination Tehran Iran by Western powers, and destination Jerusalem by Islamic powers.
There will never ever be another realigning of relations with the People’s Republic of China like that in the early 1970s; instead, bible prophecty foretells that a Sovereign System, Revelation 13:1-4, a Sovereign Ruler, Revelation 13:5-10, and a Sovereign Prophet-Banker, Revelation 13;11-18, will come to rule first the Eurozone, and eventually the entire world.
The Sovereign Ruler is known as the Prince who is to come; this Price of the People, will move from Europe to establish his world wide kingdom in Jerusalem, Daniel 9:25.
And then after much global tribulation, this King of the North, will meet his doom on the plains of Megiddo, about 70 miles north of Jerusalem, when the King of the South, Daniel 11:1, and Daniel 11:40-42, and where a 200 Million army man led by the king of the East, will come to challenge him, at which time, Christ will return to establish his Millenial Kingdom.