"Saudi Arabia may purchase $110bn in sophisticated US armaments, but in two years its air force has failed to subdue irregular Houthi forces in Yemen, though its merciless bombardment has brought 17 million Yemenis to the brink of famine and an incipient cholera epidemic." Patrick Cockburn
Iran. Iran. Iran. Repeat. Iran. Iran. Iran. Morning, noon and night. State sponsor of terrorism, enemy of moderate elements in the Middle East, violator of human rights, mortal danger to Israel. Iran is the bogeyman of choice for Saudi Arabia, Israel and the U.S.
As it was under Obama so under Trump: the drumbeat for war never stops and the American warfare state never takes a holiday. If there is one lesson the Trump people have learned in the first five months of their regime, it is that military action makes corporate media news personalities salivate and poll numbers rise. Things going to hell on the domestic front? Launch cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield. Press coverage a little rough, too many uncomfortable questions about Russia? Rattle the saber against North Korea or drop a massive bomb on Afghanistan. The network mouthpieces, liberal (so-called) and conservative, will nod their heads in unison and describe you as “presidential,” even if five minutes earlier they were speculating about your mental stability and wondering if you will survive a full term.
And no matter what is happening at home, always, always, always, be prepared to accuse Iran of stirring up trouble and posing a direct, imminent threat to Israel. Never mind that Iran is virtually surrounded by US military assets...If we had the honesty to strip away the BS, lies, and propaganda about Iran, we would see that Iran has more to fear -- far more -- from the US than the US does from Iran.
Here’s what John Wight had to say in a recent piece for Counterpunch: “Specifically, on what planet can Iran be credibly accused of funding and supporting terrorism while Saudi Arabia is considered a viable partner in the fight against terrorism? This is precisely the narrative we are being invited to embrace by President Trump in what counts as a retreat from reality into the realms of fantasy, undertaken in service not to security but commerce.”
Most Americans are too stressed out about their falling living standards, student loan debt, medical bills, opioid addictions, car payments, foot fungus, erectile dysfunction and disintegrating financial circumstances to fret about what their government is doing in the distant Middle East. They don’t understand, or care, about the schism between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam. Most buy the fear-based lie that Islam is a religion that promotes violence and hatred against the West and is hell-bent on ruling the entire world. Likewise, we have been taught, conditioned like lab rats is more accurate, to believe that Israel is a righteous nation in a precarious situation, surrounded by murderous Arabs, and must be supported by America without question. And Saudi Arabia, oil-soaked Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most repressive regimes, where executions take place in public and all dissent is brutally stifled (the reason old Wilbur Ross didn’t see any protesters on the streets), is our staunch ally and bosom friend.
Donald Trump appears even more ridiculous outside our borders than he does within them, cozying up and kissing the asses of despots and tyrants, professing his love for the F-18 fighter jet. Everything about Trump screams the worst of our country: hubris, bellicosity, vacuousness, stupidity, vanity, cruelty, excess, hypocrisy, and narcissism. I feel sorry for Pope Francis, a man of decent instincts, who came face-to-face with Trump in Rome and probably felt a cold chill skitter down his spine. “Until now,” I imagine the Pope thinking as he looks heavenward, “I have considered you a merciful and just God.”
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