From The Iran Front Archives-Oh What Might Have Been

From The Iran Front Archives-Oh What Might Have Been-No War With Iran-Jesus, Don’t We Have Enough Troubles In The Middle East Without An Additional Madness In The Endless Wars

By Mercy Malone  

I was not even born when the post-Shah of Iran whoever he was and whatever that meant conflicts between Iran and the United States were never far from the daily news. As a child the only thing I knew about the place was around the ancient Zoroastrian religion and the fabled Whore of Babylon (mentioned recently in a posting in this publication by Laura Perkins about one of James MacNeil Abbott Whistler’s paintings which made me feel good). It was only later as an adult that I found out from my parents that they had known some of the people who were kept hostage by the Iranians in 1979 after the Revolutionary Guard and the masses overthrew that Shah. My father had been some kind of mid-level bureaucrat in the State Department then before he opened up his own consulting firm dealing with the interests of various foreign clients. The only word I ever heard from him about the Iranians were that they were savages and besotted, his term, by some Moslem weirdness, my term and should be blown from the face of the earth.

That was a while back and although my father probably still has the same views my own have veered away from some bloodthirsty revenge motive or calling for yet another war against another Moslem country in the endless wars that have melted down the Middle East (and elsewhere too). I don’t know from my short-list reading of history if diplomacy always is the right step, and how much before the gloves come off but I fully supported what the Obama administration along with other nations attempted to do to forestall Iran’s strong and inevitable push toward joining the nuclear club. Sure there were problems with the agreement as with any negotiations but I breathed a sigh of relief that for a while those efforts were on hold. And especially when after a million inspections by forces not friendly to the Iranians they were abiding by the agreement.  

Along comes one Donald J. Trump and then out of some form of hubris cuts the United States out of the deal leaving the remaining partners with egg on their faces. Leaving, more importantly, Iran in the face of serious gathering war clouds to ramp up their attempts to get nuclear weapons capacity. Leaving me with two pieces of wisdom to finish up. Here diplomacy worked and could continue to work and I’ll be damned, father be damned, that I will support war with Iran-No War.