Washington’s imperialist shenanigans continue unabated in the midst of a global pandemic, one that has killed over 50,000 Americans and counting. On March 26, for instance, the US “indicted” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on charges of “narco-terrorism.” The news was, is, nonsensical. Venezuela is not a narco-state. It does not produce cocaine or any other narcotic drug.
According to a report published by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, “Colombia remains the primary source for the majority of cocaine seized and analyzed in the United States. … [I]n 2018, approximately 90 percent of cocaine samples tested were of Colombian origin, six percent were of Peruvian origin, and four percent were of Unknown origin.”
As for the transit of cocaine, it’s true that some passes through Venezuela. The amount is negligible, however, especially when compared to the quantity passing through US allies Honduras and Guatemala (both swimming in corruption), and there is no evidence that Maduro’s government has anything to do with it. Nevertheless, Doctor Trump announced that he was prescribing additional warships to the Caribbean to counter the “growing [sic] threat” posed by Caracas’ nonexistent narco activities.
Trump appears to fancy himself a great naval warrior. On Wednesday he tweeted that he had “instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.” Later, in a press briefing, he vowed to “shoot them out of the water,” presumably into the sky. His comments were apparently in response to an incident in the Persian Gulf, whereby a few Iranian naval gunboats allegedly made “dangerous and harassing” maneuvers around American military vessels.
Similarly, in August 1964, the USS Maddox was attacked by a North Vietnamese torpedo boat in the Gulf of Tonkin … Wait a minute, that’s not right. Here it is: in August 1964, the US government falsely accused the North Vietnamese of attacking the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. Then Congress gave Lyndon B. Johnson authorization to deploy conventional forces against North Vietnam, and you know the rest.
“For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there,” Johnson admitted privately at the time.
That is one of many examples of the US government lying itself into war. We do it all the time. Hence the need for countries we deem “adversarial” or “rogue” to develop formidable military deterrents. Say what you will about Kim Jong-un, his obsession with nuclear weapons is an extension of his desire not to be invaded and overthrown by the United States. He remembers what happened to Saddam and Gaddafi, both of whom were taken out after ceasing their nuclear activity. (If Saddam had WMDs, we would not have attacked him.)“For all I know, our Navy was shooting at whales out there,” Johnson admitted privately at the time.
Trump’s threat to “shoot down” Iranian boats coincided with Iran’s first successful launch of a military satellite into space. The US, which has a good number of these satellites in orbit, protested that the launch reflects an effort by Iran to advance its long-range missile program.
“It goes right along with the harassment from the fastboats,” vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Hyten said. “You put those two things together and it’s just more examples of Iranian malign behavior and misbehavior.”
Meanwhile, Mike Pompeo said the satellite launch violates UN Security Council resolution 2231, which calls on Iran not to “undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons” for eight years after the signing of the nuclear agreement. “Iran needs to be held accountable for what they have done,” he said.
His reasoning is a bit flawed. Maybe he forgot, but the US put the kibosh on the Iran nuclear deal two years ago. It wasn’t until we reimposed crippling sanctions (barred by UNSC 2231, by the way) that Iran announced it would resume enriching uranium past the 3.67 percent limit. Prior to this, the UN repeatedly declared that Iran was in perfect compliance with the terms of the agreement. Now the US government, which has never been held accountable for anything, demands that Iran pay some kind of price for breaching the JCPOA.
The disdain for truth and logic is extraordinary. I’m reminded of former diplomat Chas Freeman’s description of the US as the “foreign relations equivalent of a sociopath—a country indifferent to the rules, the consequences for others of its ignoring them, and the reliability of its word.”
Despite what Mike Pompeo and Benjamin Netanyahu tell you, Iran’s military doctrine is defensive. Even the Pentagon concedes this point. In a 2019 assessment, the Defense Intelligence Agency wrote that “Iran's military strategy is primarily based on deterrence and the ability to retaliate against an attacker.” And regarding ballistic missiles, “Iran has embraced ballistic missiles as a long-range strike capability to dissuade its adversaries from attacking Iran.” (Emphasis mine.)
And yet we are told over and over again that Iran wants long-range missile technology so that it can wipe Israel off the map, then hit us for good measure. This rhetoric booms from the White House and State Department, then finds its way onto the pages of the largest newspapers. It’s Fake News in the real sense of that term, and, unfortunately, it’s very successful: Americans dislike Iran more than any other country.
The situation was bad before Trump; now it’s much worse. Taking his cues from AIPAC, he has brought a simmering conflict to a boil. If Iran is advancing its ballistic missile program, it has good cause to want to do so. The Iranians, too, remember what happened to Saddam and Gaddafi. (The latter was sodomized with a knife, in case you forgot. And Hillary Clinton shrieked with glee.) They watched what almost happened to Assad. They will do everything in their power—short of building a nuclear weapon, which Khamenei maintains is forbidden under Islamic law—to avoid meeting the same fate. The military satellite launch is one step in that direction. We can expect others.
Resolving the conflict with Iran, or any other conflict for that matter, is not possible with Donald Trump in the White House. The coronavirus crisis has put his enormous incompetence and stupidity into sharp focus. It’s a horrifying sight. The important thing now is to make certain that “the most dangerous president in modern history,” to borrow a phrase from Bernie Sanders, is not given another four years to impose his diabolic agenda on the world. If that means voting for Joe Biden, so be it.
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