eagle1462010
Diamond Member
- May 17, 2013
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I'm well aware of the history.....I was in it..........First of all “the unofficial War” that “has been going on since 9/11” should have been a political war with Sunni terrorism. Not one Iranian was involved in 9/11. Indeed, the main and only consistent enemy of Sunni terrorism all these years has been Shia Iran. The U.S. and its Gulf ally Saudi Arabia financed Sunni terrorists from the late 1970s (Afghanistan) right through the war against Assad and his (secular) Syrian regime. 9/11 terrorists were Saudis and Sunni religious extremists.There will be NO OFFICIAL WAR..........although the unofficial War has been going on since 9/11 as they have killed more Americans with the IED's they supplied our enemies than all those killed by small arms fire.Those who think that Trump was just shooting off his big mouth in a tweet after watching the Fox TV report on Iran this morning, and that he really doesn’t want a war with Iran at this point may be correct.
But even assuming this is true, his tweet gives cover for any commander (already with extensive authority to take action based on their own judgement of threat) to interpret all sorts of ostensible “harassment” as an excuse to “destroy” Iranian ships. Which of course would lead the Iranians to retaliate. All U.S. naval vessels in the Gulf are vulnerable to Iranian land-based missiles. Forget torpedos and rockets launched from fast moving ships. The tweet was — in the best case — dangerous posturing.
Of course there are powerful interests that have long wanted such a war. Elements in the Military-Industrial complex, the Israelis, U.S. Oil interests now fed up with Saudi unwillingness to cut production to zero to raise oil prices, imperialist geo-strategists who know a war in the Gulf will hurt China most, etc.
Trump probably does not personally want a war (it may hurt his election prospects), but he has doubled the number of our troop and navy personel in the Gulf, and by unilaterally tearing up the international agreements with Iran and killing the Iranian #2 leader, he has set the stage for a bloody and unnecessary catastrophe.
REMEMBER THE GULF OF TONKIN. The stakes in Vietnam were mainly ideological and based on our desire not to “lose face” in the Cold War. We always want to be the “tough guy.” But the U.S. had no business or real national interest fighting that war. Our real interest would have led us to work with the nationalist HoChiMinh from the earliest days of his struggle against French colonialism, to encourage him to take a line like Tito (which he certainly was open to).
Obama was right that we need to take giant step back from taking sides in the Sunni/Shia Saudi/Iranian divide. Trump must act and not just talk about stopping “endless wars” in the Middle East. The oil in Syria belongs to Syrians, not us. We ought to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan ASAP. We should stop our own provocations in the Gulf, and withdraw our navy buildup. We should express our willingness to re-enter and renegotiate our treaty obligations with Iran. In light of the Coronavirus pandemic, we should end secondary sanctions against countries that wish to buy oil from Iran immediately, ending especially our abuse of supposedly neutral and private SWIFT banking communication systems which prevent even crucial medical trade with Iran.
Our own disgust with the Iranian regime is shared by many Iranians, but our policies leave little room for opening breeches in the Iranian political system through which Iranian pro-democratic patriots can pour themselves to overthrow the theocracy.
Given the geo-political reality and the powerful dark interests who actually are willing to gamble on war, nobody should believe anything they read or hear about the U.S. being “harassed.” In any case, none of this is an excuse for starting a shooting war!
Iran is in desperate shape and its theocratic regime has been driven into a corner. But the U.S. is not threatened by Iran, just as we were not threatened by our old ally Saddam or by HoChiMinh. The U.S. is now carrying out de facto extraordinary war sanctions against Iran and may bring bloody destruction upon them in the near future, disrupting oil shipments from the Persian Gulf entirely. This will, very conveniently for the U.S. empire, raise oil prices to save our otherwise non-competitive bankrupt domestic fracking and export oil industry, and hurt China (and virtually all our competitors except Russia).
A few of their ships go down......they WILL BACK OFF.....unless they want to commit Suicide.
Secondly, your arrogance about the results of deadly “NO OFFICIAL WAR” U.S. military strikes against Iran is breathtaking and profoundly immoral. The Iranian regime has already shown it has the capacity and willingness to directly attack unpopular American bases in Iraq, something the Trump administration clearly did not expect. If you want “unofficial war,” expect to get “the unexpected.”
There have been no Iranian terrorist attacks in many decades on targets in the West, but Iran has showed and surprised American commanders time and again how even indirectly they can lend effective assistance to forces opposing U.S. occupation troops in the region. You don’t like American soldiers getting their limbs blown off by IEDs? Then don’t put them in harm’s way! Even U.S. aircraft carriers are vulnerable if they dare enter the Gulf (with sick sailors). Maybe you just figure on using tactical ”smart” weapons on Iran’s “cultural heritage sites” ... without declaring war? That will make Raytheon Corporation very happy! But when all those expensive missiles have been fired, what then? Go all-out Nazi and use nuclear weapons on a population that right now neither hates Americans nor loves its own corrupt rulers?
We should have saved the world the trouble way back then and took care of it then.
We were not allowed.
They are a terrorist supporting Nation........and have been so since Peanut Head allowed them to keep our people for over a year.
Be glad Trump is in office.......i'd have ordered their butts blown away a long time ago.