The Laurel and Hardy negotiating team of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner,
coupled with Trump’s appalling ignorance of world affairs and megalomania, seem
set to push the U.S.͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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The Suicidal Folly of a War with Iran
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| Chris Hedges |
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| Feb 20 |
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The U.S. Navy's Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group (Photo by Tajh Payne/US
Navy via Getty Images)
The Laurel and Hardy negotiating team of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner,
coupled with Trump’s appalling ignorance of world affairs and megalomania, seem
set to push the U.S. into yet another debacle in the Middle East, one the
Congress has not approved, and the public does not want.
The demands imposed on Iran by the Trump White House are no more acceptable to
the regime in Tehran than those imposed on Hamas in Gaza under Trump’s sham
peace plan.
Trump’s demand that Iran shut down its nuclear program and give up its missile
capabilities in return for no new sanctions is as tone deaf as calling on Hamas
to disarm in Gaza. But since we have long dispensed with diplomats, who are
linguistically, politically and culturally literate, who can step into the
shoes of their adversaries, we are being led to another war in the Middle East
by our newest coterie of buffoons. The U.S. and Israel foolishly believe they
can bomb their way to decapitating the Iranian government and installing a
client regime. That this non-reality-based belief system failed in Afghanistan,
Iraq and Libya eludes them.
The promise of no new sanctions will not incentivize Iran to broker an
agreement. Iran is already crippled by onerous sanctions that have gutted its
economy. This will do nothing to break the economic stranglehold. Iran will not
give up its nuclear program, which has the potential to be weaponized, or its
ballistic missile program, which Israel said it would target in an air attack.
Israel’s reputed nuclear arsenal of some 300 warheads is a powerful incentive
for Iran to retain the capacity to build a nuclear arsenal of its own. Iran,
like Hamas, is never going to render itself defenseless against those seeking
its annihilation.
An aerial attack on Iran will not be like the 12-day assault last June against
Iran’s nuclear facilities and state and security facilities. Then Iran
calibrated its response with symbolic strikes on Al Udeid air base in Qatar in
the hopes that it would not lead to a wider, protracted conflict. If an aerial
assault is launched, Iran will have nothing to lose. It will understand that
appeasing its adversaries is impossible.
Iran is not Iraq. Iran is not Afghanistan. Iran is not Lebanon. Iran is not
Libya. Iran is not Syria. Iran is not Yemen. Iran is the seventeenth largest
country in the world, with a land mass equivalent to the size of Western
Europe. It has a population of almost 90 million — 10 times greater than Israel
— and its military resources, as well as alliances with China and Russia, make
it a formidable opponent.
Despite Iran’s relative military weakness, when set against the combined forces
of the U.S. and Israel, it can inflict a lot of damage. It will do this as
swiftly as possible. Hundreds of American troops will likely be killed. Iran
will certainly shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil
chokepoint that facilitates the passage of 20 percent of the world’s oil
supply. This will double or triple the price of oil and devastate the global
economy. It will target oil installations along with U.S. ships and military
bases in the region.
Mounting losses and a huge spike in oil prices will provide the fodder for
Trump, and his vile counterpart in Israel, to ignite a sustained regional war.
This is the cost of being governed by imbeciles. God help us.
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