…by Akbar Montaser is Professor Emeritus, The George Washington University
From The noble 13th century Persian Sufi Poet Rumi:
“I go to a synagogue, church, and mosque, and I see the same spirit and the same altar.”
On July 22, 2019, President Trump told Americans he had resisted the impulse to exterminate 10 million Afghanis to end the long war! Expectedly, most Afghans were stunned to learn that the President could “in a week” murder millions of people!
Some also laughed. Chatter about crazy talk is an earnest loss of time. Besides, bullies lie, demean people’s purposes and thoughts, defame their characters, refute their courage, and underestimate their judgments.
The President is well defined by Deepak Chopra: Donald Trump “Thinks With His……………. Penis” – CONAN
Once again, Mr. Trump demeaned America in the eyes of the world. The Administration must be frustrated not being able to bring Iran to the negotiating table. Hence, Secretary Mike Pompeo sanctioned Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. The President must search for two jokers to replace Secretary Pompeo and National Security Adviser, Bolton!
In hindsight, however, the President is perhaps a better “leader” in foreign policy than the presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton. Back on April 22, 2008, Clinton said U.S. could “totally obliterate” Iran, elaborating, “If I’m President, We Will Attack Iran… We Would be Able to Totally Obliterate Them.” She concocted a fictitious story, describing Iran an “existential threat to Israel. Adolf Hitler killed six million Jews and millions of others, such as Gypsies during WW II. The population of Iran in 2008 was almost 73 million. Perhaps candidate Clinton intended to win the War Criminal Prize!
Still, almost every day, the President devises something that could put innocent Iranians and Americans in danger. Some Americans and a teensy number of ingenuous Iranians are assuming that he is sending a “beautiful,” peaceful signal to Iran for talks. On the other hand, considering the President’s “telepathic” conditions, he may also take note from Misters Pompeo and Bolton, and the Israeli-Saudi “leaders” and drop a nuclear bomb on Iran.
The President was at his best on July 22 seeking to jolt and flip a challenging adversary into playing his sport and terminating its nuclear energy program. As in North Korea, the President must understand that neither engagement nor sanctions alone have resulted in stopping nuclear energy, dubbed “nuclear weapons program” of Iran, its so-called “maligned” activities in the Middle East, and its defensive missile program.
Some 51 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. named the U.S. government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today,” suggesting that a nation that repeatedly spends more capital on military defense than on applications of social welfare is equaling “spiritual death.” He further asserted we must swiftly start the change from a material to person-oriented culture. Elegantly, he opined when machines, profit, and property rights are viewed more valuable than personages, the enormous trigon of hatred, foul materialism, and militancy are ineffective of being subdued.
As of 2018, the U.S. has nearly 800 formal military bases in 80 nations. The number could surpass 1,000 if one includes troops posted at missions, embassies and bases known as “lily-ponds.” America armed forces consists of 845,600 reserve personnel and 210,000 deployed personnel.
The book by David Vine (Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Overseas Harm America and the World) reports that only 11 other nations have 70 bases in foreign lands. An estimated 26 to 40 in nine countries relate to Russia. They are principally in former Soviet Republics, Syria and Vietnam. France, UK, and Turkey have four to ten bases each. There exist an estimated one to three foreign posts by India, China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. As of June 2, 2018, Iran has no mobile or fixed bases in Syria or elsewhere. Before the recent enforcements in the Persian Gulf, Robert Fantia reported on January 16, 2018 (American Herald Tribune) US encircles Iran with 45 bases, but concerned with Iran in Syria.
Interestingly, Misters Pompeo and Bolton keep asking Iran to behave like “a normal nation.” The world is inviting the America to act as a force for good, becoming a “normal” government!
The American government is acting worse than Hurricanes Harvey and Maria in 2017 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Our military destructive tear through the Middle East is one of the kind. American people have been witnessing the trail of devastation for a long time, expressly since 9/11.
Most Americans gradually have fathomed that this is just going to be something that happens from now on, it is just a fact of regular part of life. Across America people, stare blankly at pictures of destroyed homes, infrastructures, hospitals, schools, museums, cities, communities, parishes, markets, debris, and millions of refugies, expressly in the Middle East.
At home, America has become a suicide nation, the need to numb and to seek a final getaway. Based on USA Today on December 21,2018 suicide rate is up 33% since ’99. The reason is patent. Global Research reported January 20, 2019, America has been at war 93% of the time – 222 out of 239 years!
Iranians are not the foes of Americans, Israelites, and Saudis. They are the diehard opponents of governments that are ruining their wellbeing and the welfares of, for example, Palestinians, Syrians, Yemenis, and Afghanis.
There exists one significant difference between Iran compared with North Korea and Israel. Iran still does not have a verified nuclear weapon. Israel and North Korea have several. The U.S. has neglected the cause of the most alarming problem, which is nuclear power nations and climate change, focusing maximum attention on Iran! By withdrawing from the Iran Nuclear Deal, the President has created a pointless crisis from no disasters.
Iranians have seen threat movies for over forty years. President Trump’s first “fire and fury” moment with Iran was in July 2018. President Rouhani warned President Trump that while “peace with Iran is the mother of all peace… war with Iran is the mother of all wars.”
Not keeping his sweet, President Trump tweeted in all capital letters if Mr. Rouhani ever threatened the U.S. again, “you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before.” Interestingly, at the Foreign Ministry in a speech, President Rouhani repeated his threat again on August 5th, stating “Peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, war with Iran is the mother of all wars! As Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung. stated, the types of Mr. Trump are paper tigers! He added “the whole world, Britain included dislikes the United States” government.
For 40 years, the Iranians leaders have learned playing the long game, actively participating in achieving purposes which may take some time! They do not become distracted by sudden outbursts or developments. However, if conflicts occur, the U.S. compels Iran to develop nuclear weapons!
The President has already used his threat shuffles too many times. Granted, Iranians suffer the economic pressure campaign and a likely devastating war. In the process, Mr. Trump is gradually converting a larger number of 83 million diehard intelligent foes for Americans. Why lose natural friends and waste mutual economic benefits? Even now, average Iranians are the best admirers of ordinary Americans in the Middle East.
Much amusement can be garnered about the U.S. foreign policy concerning Iran by examining the four decades history of the Islamic Republic. The Iranian system of government is here to stay unless it agrees with the unjust demands of the U.S government! Along with the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Communist Revolution, the Iranian Revolution is one of the four greatest revolution in the world.
No foreign-inspired or funded inside and outside group, be it the terrorists’ People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran or other groups, can ever rule Iran. These bankrupt factions are parts of the wrongdoers. Brutal foreign powers have hired them. The Iranian prime minister, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh, is still alive in the hearts of Iranians. Indeed, he has been cloned, forming millions more imaginative and intelligent versions. The vast…