By Daniel Patrick Welch
So you see this—I just talked off air—and it’s called the Forty Year Old Story. What can Iran expect from a new US regime? Is it going to expect something different that it has since the deposition of the Shah? Since the crushing of Mossadegh? I mean, these things don’t change.
The press seems to be on some sort of steroid-laced campaign to push the idea that this is going to be good. This is going to be good: We have the incoming—these are professionals, they know what they’re doing. They’re not crazy like Trump.
And how is Trump crazy? Well, we just heard from “sources” that Trump was going to bomb Iran! Oh, okay. That’s crazier than bombing the crap out of Libya? That extended war crime for which people in another century have been set to hand? No, no—this is brand new. Well, first of all, he didn’t do it. So what are they talking about?
The other thing he could do that is crazy—and this shows what their mindset is—he could draw down troops from Afghanistan! Oh my God! Isn’t that the end of the world, not to give Joe Biden and his crony, saber-rattling ghouls a good head start. Right? Don’t move any pieces on the chessboard! We want to come in, and the worst thing you could do is be too peaceful.
It’s an amazing thing, what we’re watching happen. This is a restoration. It is not a revolution at all. And you know what? You have to be honest: Trump was hardly an anti-imperialist. The assassination of General Soleimani was one of the most egregious diplomatic and military crimes of the last 10 years. But he didn’t initiate any new wars. When was the last president who did that? You have to give credit where credit isn’t due, or however you want to rephrase history.
And if past is prologue, what we have—Susan Rice?—we have all these people who have been hanging around the various echelons of the State Department, or the hack closet, just waiting to come back into the roles they held in prior administrations. This does not bode well for the fate of the world. In fact, I agree with another commentator who said that people may well be nostalgic for the Trump years.
Where were we when we were so rudely interrupted by Orange Man? We were at China and Russia’s throats, we had planes buzzing over the Black Sea, right up to the border. NATO planes getting into scraps with Russian planes, the conflict over Syria, Libya, the South China Sea—any one of which could have resulted in a misunderstanding. Enormous tinderbox potential. Very, very dangerous, imperialist foreign policy. And that isn’t going to change, except for the worse, potentially.
Sure, you had Trump’s swashbuckling. He’s like a pirate who is going to swing in on a chandelier. Everyone hated his approach. It was undiplomatic, it was boorish, it was weird. You had this whole arrogant America First thing. The Europeans hated him. Don’t you wish they had had the same reaction to Hillary Clinton’s War—to the War on Libya?
That was the biggest foreign policy disaster—Barack Obama admitted it—of his presidency. It was a terrible thing. And it was one in a long string of terrible things. You can’t just turn around and say, everything Trump did was bad, and therefore everything this guy is going to do is going to be better. That is exactly what they want to push. That’s what they want: for the entire narrative to be set before the regime starts so they can hit the ground running. That’s why they are so upset that this fool wants to wait until the recounts are done before giving up the codes, and just getting the hell out of the way.
It’s sad that so many people are so easily duped that they didn’t understand that a candidate that was just picked out of thin air—he didn’t really win anything—but was forced on them, that they bought the tirade and the narrative that he was the only thing standing between Trump and them: Certain death. The End of the World. Fascism. The only thing wrong that ever happened in the US. The terrible, terrible racism and descent into madness that happened miraculously between 2016 and 2020, and now it’s all better.
It’s a silly, dangerous narrative, completely ahistorical, made by—well at least made for idiots. N’t know if it’s by idiots. I tend to think that the people who spin these stories know exactly what they’re doing. And they take us for stupid. Like we said, this is a 40 year old story of the US threatening to attack Iran. Ever since the revolution. The US has never changed its stripes, has never changed its attitude, has never changed its position. These are not up for debate.
As far as the nuclear question, the talks and the sanctions, both are fully committed to medieval siege warfare. It’s a war. It is warfare by economic means, just as a medieval siege was, to surround the castle, poison the well, cut off the supplies. It is a murderous, ugly policy, it is a war crime, and it is a slow form of genocide. That was the policy under Obama-Biden. It was the policy under Trump, and it will be the policy under Biden-Harris. There is nothing new under the sun.
The only thing that will help Iran has nothing to do with regime change in Washington. It has to do with being under someone else’s nuclear umbrella. If they don’t have nukes of their own, they have to have assurance that Russia and China are going to have their back, and that it will a very, very dangerous thing for the US to attack. The only thing, short of having their own nuclear weapons, that will protect Iran from the Great Satan, its arch enemy, its endless enemy, its forever enemy, the United States.
The Empire is gnashing its teeth. And the emerging closeness between Iran and Russia and Iran and China is, I think, going to be the death knell of the US Empire—eventually. But it has nothing to do with a transition from Trump to Biden—that’s just complete nonsense.
Daniel Patrick Welch is a writer of political commentary and analysis. Also a singer and songwriter, he lives and writes in Salem, Massachusetts with his wife. Together they run The Greenhouse School. He has traveled widely, speaks five languages and studied Russian History and Literature at Harvard University. Welch has also appeared as a guest on several TV and radio channels to speak on topics of foreign affairs and political analysis--around his day job. He can be available for interview requests as time and scheduling permit. Despite the price of being outspoken against US foreign policy and military adventurism -- which can be steep in today's circumstances -- he believes firmly as did Rosa Luxemburg that "It will always be the most revolutionary act to tell the truth out loud."
Welch recorded this article for Press TV website.
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