By Martin Love
America has become a malignant power without consequence given the ignorance and malfeasance of those in political power.
One would think that eventually the self-serving political “elite” in Washington would get their just desserts for deeds that go against rationality, morality, and common sense, and which now undermines the viability of the U.S. as a respected influence. Many people across the globe simply wait impatiently for the expected consequences of further U.S. decline, which have by some miracle been mostly held at bay for decades, especially in this century.
Joe Biden so far has offered no positive relief. Already, twice in his short term he has unleashed the military on illegal bombing runs in the Middle East (West Asia) – most recently an attack on Iraqi militias’ stores and personnel along the Syria-Iraq border region, the very militias which aim to obviate the resurrection of ISIS in Arab heartlands. These militias, who paraded in Baghdad this month, are claimed to be proxies for Iran, which they are not except that Iraq and Iran are allies for the most part. The U.S. claims it wants to destroy the likelihood of any future random attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq, but obviously the best way to do that is simply to withdraw the U.S. military from the region. This is just one of many moves that make no sense. The other biggest offense remains the U.S. posture of support towards Apartheid Israel.
Netanyahu, who was not popular with former President Obama, is not popular with Biden, who refused to call him for over three months after he became President last winter. Now, there’s Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, and who knows how long they can survive with such a motley coalition government? Lapid anyway is trying to mend relations with Biden and the Democrats, many of whom have already begun to challenge Israeli Apartheid and change the narrative about Israel as being some kind of enlightened democratic polity in the Mideast (West Asia). Many liberal American Jews agree with the shift in the narrative, which is superb. Prominent Jewish commentators and writers like Peter Beinart have become outspoken in their hostility to Zionism and Apartheid.
Bennett as PM may not yet have done anything particularly dramatic, but he has continued to bomb Gaza (after the 11-day “war” with Hamas) occasionally and seems to have done nothing to call off the “settler” dogs who are ramping up ethnic cleansing in vital Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank, while the IDF protects this rabble of thugs, many of whom happen to be Americans.
Meanwhile, Nizar Banat, who has opposed the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas for deep corruption and even complicity with the Zionists, was beaten to death by Fatah thugs leaving the Palestinians more divided than ever in the West Bank. Abbas has accomplished nothing for decades but make himself and his cronies relatively rich. He is nothing but a quisling. (This writer, living in the West Bank for several months in 2006, got a good look at PA “police” who are doing nothing for the Palestinian cause of liberation from occupation.)
But the most glaring example of Biden’s retrograde action is his June attack on press freedoms and access to over 30 news outlets, like Iran’s Press TV, in the Middle East that happen to be a part of the so-called “resistance axis” that has long been challenging U.S. imperialism, colonialism, occupations and murder. The U.S. clearly does not have an honest “free press” in the mainstream media with some modest reportage exceptions, and does not want Americans to have access to alternative points of view from other media outlets which in any case can’t be entirely obliterated. Biden also ought to set free Julian Assange from charges that this month have been exposed as false and were in fact discounted by at least one primary perp who has changed his story. But Biden has no mind of his own, apparently, and his administration fears the truth.
It is also deeply ironic that Florida governor Ron DeSantis, an aggressive longtime Trump supporter who has been aiming to become president, has just announced that Israel is sending a team to Miami to assist with the clearance of the collapsed Miami apartment building and the recovery of some 150 more bodies rotting somewhere in the rubble. Unreal! The very country that has wiped out homes and big apartment building in Gaza once again this spring and continues threats to “flatten” Gaza! DeSantis is actually more dangerous than Trump, because he is maybe wilier than Trump who is fading fast and likely to be indicted soon for various crimes, including the crime of ever becoming “President”.
Meanwhile, Iran warns it is not forever going to negotiate the resurrection of the JCPOA, which makes sense. This revival has been stalled for too long, probably because the U.S. wants to add additional restrictions on Iran’s capacity to defend itself and Iran has correctly refused. It’s a wonder Iran has not already withdrawn from the JCPOA under the elected President Raisi who has been called a “hardliner”. The U.S. must own up to its foolishness. It was precisely because of its withdrawal from the accord in 2018 that “reformists” were largely demoted and excluded as candidates for the Iranian presidency. Did the U.S. fail to realize that after Trump canned the U.S. participation in the nuclear accord Iran would circle the wagons? How moronic is this oversight by Washington? Very. Thoughtful minds wonder why Iran can’t successfully carry on building its alliances with over half the world’s peoples in Asia and not literally be bothered by U.S. sanctions.
So, in sum for now, there is regression from assured peace in West Asia even as Iran has reached out to neighboring Arab countries to establish better relations.
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