The U.S. has become a threat to itself, too…

By Martin Love

I can’t help but imagine what a glorious world we might have were there to be accord between the U.S. and Iran, and if not actual accord, at least a Middle East where the U.S. treats each country in the region individually and equally, determining policies and initiatives and even criticism in a two-way give and take, the critique based solely on whether any actor is pursuing their own foreign policies with an aim to rid the region of violence and focus on beneficial, mutual trade and better relations.

Islamic history did erect one polity in a corner of its vast medieval realms like no other before or since – in a small corner of the Islamic world where the concepts of Oneness and Fraternity among citizens prevailed for several centuries with a sublime kicker. I am referring to al-Andalus in Muslim Spain around 1000 years ago. The kicker was simply that it was extremely inclusive and tolerant of citizens who happened to be Jewish and Christian, too.

I had the pleasure of corresponding briefly with the expert on al-Andalus, Maria Rosa Menocal, a Cuban born Yale University professor, before she died in 2012. Her last book was titled what Andalusians actually called their realm: “The Ornament of the World,” And it was just that – profoundly dazzling. This extraordinary and vigorous society with its capital at Cordoba in southern Spain, and a bit later at a nearby royal city called Medinat az-Zahra, was marked by three achievements: ethnic pluralism, religious tolerance and what she called cultural secularism.

 And none of these aspects were in fact or considered to be anti or un-Islamic. Menocal asserted these three qualities were inherently mandated as ideals anyway by Islam’s core message, the holy Qu’ran. But then along came intolerant Christians from the north who by 1492 had destroyed the last holdout Muslim Nasrid kingdom centered on Grenada and the famous al-Hamra (Alhambra). At any rate, everything seemed to flourish for a while in al-Andalus, particularly cultural syncretism with inputs and achievements from Jews, Christians and, of course the dominant Muslims then in Spain.

It’s worth noting that anyone who has some familiarity with the U.S. government’s primary “allies” in the Middle East especially, Saudi Arabia and “Israel”, are nothing like al-Andalus was: the former is a medieval monstrosity of social and political dementia harboring a gross distortion of ideal Islamic values, the latter a modern fascist apartheid replication of intolerance of both Christians and Muslims, native Palestinians, as wrong headed and cruel as Nazi Germany was towards Jews.

 Not having been able to visit Iran, it remains reasonably obvious that Iran, for all its internal problems, remains more “democratic” and inclusive than either Saudi Arabia or Zionist Israel. In other words, more willing to adhere to the core, idealistic tenets of all the monotheistic faiths, including Islam. And yet, at the same time, Iran is demonized by some Western countries and by U.S. Mideast allies for at least advocating the elimination of injustice in the Middle East. (This is not to say that Iran under its current leadership has become as enlightened and broad minded as anything like al-Andalus allegedly was, but Iran seems perhaps father along in this respect even if one might argue maybe not far enough along yet.)

And lately one can read in the U.S. media an occasional story suggesting that the U.S. will launch a military attack on Iran’s assets before summer’s end -- correct or not, a startling and frightening prospect if even remotely possible or true. Consider how vacuous, to cite just one example, the U.S. mainstream media has become: MSNBC has broadcast stories about a buxom prostitute, Stormy Daniels, hundreds of times this past year because she allegedly had an extramarital affair with Donald Trump, while NOT ONCE reported on the humanitarian disaster in Yemen because of the war on Yemen by the Saudis and the UAE with U.S. logistical support.

 Iran must be commended for trying to draw attention to the suffering there, and Iran’s posture is clearly not entirely a matter a jockeying for geopolitical power or advantage, as any country may attempt. The key to understanding Iran, one would imagine, is that Iran has not offensively attacked any other country in over 200 years and just apparently wants to be left alone, or not harassed or sanctioned, to develop more harmonious and mutually beneficial relations with others wherever it can.      

Trump (and his administration), especially under Neocon and Zionist control or influence, is without question such a loose cannon that no one can predict whether the threats are real or just bluster. While Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has been offering “peace” between the U.S. and Iran, as well as with other regional neighbors, and rightly said that war would be a disaster for the entire Middle East, the crucial and primary problem or fault with the U.S. government, as it has been for decades, is the fact that Washington has literally defined “peace” with other countries as simply submission to whatever the U.S. wants. This is a longstanding insanity.

Trump allegedly tried to contact Rouhani several times when Rouhani was at the same time in New York at the UN. Rouhani refused the contact. Was Trump literally trying to create the kind of accord, albeit superficial, he managed to generate with Kim Jong Un of North Korea at their meeting in Singapore? One cannot know. There have been faint glimmers that Trump alone may have at least some decent intentions, even if his close advisors like John Bolton do not. Trump has lately met with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, and is said to be planning to host Putin in Washington later this year.

 But making matters much worse, whatever Trump believes or desires, is the absolute madness of the hatred of Russia and Putin by the vast majority of politicians in the U.S. Perhaps it’s the case that the U.S. literally needs an “enemy” like Russia to keep the Military Industrial complex humming along and profiting the few. And in the background is the fact that Trump won the election in 2016 in part because many voters liked his stated promises to seek détente with Russia! Now, Trump is being called a “traitor” by powerful interests in the U.S. aiming to destroy him politically.

With regard to Iran, Trump, having rejected the JCPOA in May (and Netanyahu has been bragging that he was behind the rejection), has this month claimed he wants to renegotiate a “better” nuclear agreement with Iran. But again, if Trump believes a “better” deal with Iran must involve Iran’s complete subservience and submission to U.S. demands, he is way off base and in fact no wiser than the morons in Washington who have been leading the U.S. towards economic and moral bankruptcy for decades, starting spectacularly with the Vietnam War and leading onwards to the wars this century in the Middle East.

One good bit of news amid the gloom is that a recent poll in the U.S. suggested that almost three quarters of Americans do not want any kind of war with Iran. And most do not want a cold (or hot) war with Russia. That stands to reason as the latter could end human life on the planet. War on Iran, to satisfy the Zionist deplorables, unbeknownst to them in their wicked hubris, could easily spell their own end and wreck the Middle East further. It could also wreck the U.S., too.

Whatever anyone inside or outside thinks of Iran’s leaders, they do in any case seem relatively rational and benign, and not deserving of attacks, sanctions or whatever, and I believe many ordinary Americans believe the same. But inasmuch as real “democracy” has fallen by the wayside in the U.S., it’s not just Iranians who are at risk.