Rally: NO WAR ON IRAN
Saturday, June 22 @ 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm ~ Park Street Station, Boston
The U.S. war and media propaganda machines are currently gearing up for war with Iran. We will rally to say no to war with Iran! To attempt to justify their actions the U.S. government has put out blatantly false propaganda, including the frankly ridiculous assertion that there is a link between Iran and al-Qaeda. If the U.S. attacks Iran it will certainly be a disaster for the people of Iran and the whole region, and it will be a disaster for people here in the U.S. as well.http://masspeaceaction.org/event/rally-no-war-on-iran/
“IRANIAN AGGRESSION”
The NY Times reports today (reprinted in the Globe here) that Trump had ordered an attack on Iran in response to the disputed events around the downing of a US military drone near or over Iranian territory. Typically, the most evenhanded reports have come from foreign media: Iran accuses US of 'provocation' as Trump downplays drone downing (US press tends to omit or downplay the Iranian point of view). Despite US claims of support for “Iranian Democracy” the spy drone was launched from one of the major US base in the Gulf region based on autocratic monarchies in Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia – each more repressive than the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Interestingly, the Times report indicated unanimous support for war from the White House’s hawkish civilian advisors but qualms from the Pentagon:
Mr. Trump’s national security advisers split about whether to respond militarily. Senior administration officials said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; John R. Bolton, the national security adviser; and Gina Haspel, the C.I.A. director, had favored a military response. But top Pentagon officials cautioned that such an action could result in a spiraling escalation with risks for American forces in the region.
Whether Trump was bluffing all along, listened to his cautious generals – or was genuinely concerned about disproportionate escalation of the crisis -- is impossible to know. It could be that Iran had decisiveevidence to back up its claim that the US drone was shot down over its territory. Factions in government continue to struggle over gaining Trump’s support for more or less aggressive actions in the Middle East.
Additionally, it is impossible to fully understand US policy without noting the wishes of Israel and its US agents in ramping up confrontation with Iran. The rightwing Israeli press was salivatingover the potential for a US attack – and its security establishment is expressing disappointment with the apparent climb down: Israel said worried US may not respond decisively to drone downing. Reliable pro-Israel neocons have echoed the warmongering sentiments.
An important new development is that Israel is not able to swing Democrats in Congress toward Trump’s war with Iran or for support for its new-found allies in the Gulf. Reliable pro-Israel Reps and Senators (like New Jersey’s Bob Menendez and Minority leader Chuck Schumer) have opposed arms sales to Saudi Arabia, support for its Yemen War or a unilateral White House decision to go to war with Iran.
Back from Iran War Brink:
Trump wants to Walk back Iran Crisis that He created with Severe US Sanctions
Trump created this crisis by breaching the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Having pocketed Iran’s mothballing of 80 percent of its uranium enrichment program, Trump slapped the harshest sanctions ever seen against any country on Iran, unilaterally and in the teeth of opposition from NATO allies and the permanent members of the UN Security Council. In other words, he screwed Iran over… So Trump’s attempts to back peddle from his hard liners are useless as long as the US has a financial blockade on Iran preventing it from selling its petroleum. A naval blockade preventing a country from exporting a key commodity is considered an act of war in international law. It is hard to see the difference between that and an effective financial blockade. More
The Fog of Selling a War
Much of the current war-selling fog is remarkably similar to the selling of the Iraq War of 2003, in which the sales campaign depended on fear and an unthinking thirst for revenge after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The apparent failure to have learned lessons from that blunder reflects another common human tendency, which is to focus narrowly on events of the moment while losing sight of context, background, and history, even recent history… And amid the fog, roaring illogic gets overlooked. When asked about Iran indicating that, after more than a year of the United States reneging on its obligations under the nuclear agreement, Iran may start exceeding some of the limits on low-enriched uranium, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared, “This tells you how flawed the deal was, right?” The absurdity of that statement—attributing to an agreement a problem that directly results from a U.S. assault on the agreement—is breathtaking. More
America’s Confrontation With Iran Goes Deeper Than Trump
Iran could very well have been behind the attacks on the two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. But as I wrote for NBC last week, we should be mindful of Trump’s contentious relationship with the truth; Israel’s, Saudi Arabia’s, and the UAE’s deep interest in provoking a US-Iran war; and National Security Adviser John Bolton’s track record as a serial fabricator of intelligence for the purpose of starting wars… But if war is the endgame of their escalation, what is the endgame of their war? Dominance—perpetual dominance of the Middle East (and the globe as a whole) by the United States. That is and has been Washington’s grand strategy, regardless of whether a Republican, a Democrat, or a reality-TV star has occupied the White House. More
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