Trump’s Preservation - vs - National & Global Security (#310)

In spite of Trump’s, and his administration’s rhetoric about self-defence in the killing of General Qassem Suleimani of Iran, it’s really about self-preservation of Trump, his failing administration, and the retention of power by the Republicans. And about Iran’s curse, its resources, particularly its vast reserves of oil and gas.

When incumbent political power is in threat in America, it has often gone to ‘cooked-up’ wars, and this move again stinks of it.

The age-old animosity towards Iran of course has been because it has, so far, defied submission to American domination of the Middle East. And, with its vast reserves of oil and natural gas still intact and under its own control, in spite of decades of open and covert war, including continuous harsh economic and financial sanctions, American administrations, especially Republican, have salivated in bringing it all under U.S. control one day. But in spite of America’s best efforts, Iran continues to defy subjugation and has been successful in expanding its influence in spite of all U.S. efforts to-date. And its always all about ‘Oil’.

It was about ‘Oil’ when American and British intelligence agencies actively destroyed Iran’s democracy in 1953.

It was about ‘Oil’ when they put the Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, in place of the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, and established his notorious secret police, ‘SAVAK’ (with the help of Israel’s MOSSAD), which brutalized ordinary Irani people even suspected of opposing the Shah. And its been about ‘Oil’ ever since – through the ‘Revolution’, and through the U.S. arming of Iraq and Saddam Hussein, to wage a brutal seven-year war against Iran, in which millions were killed.

And when that didn’t destroy Iran, the destruction of Iraq followed, with the capture of its ‘Oil fields’, and the continuing war on Iran with Saudi (Sunni backed) proxies, and the decades of crippling economic sanctions that carry on even now.

[In Syria, Trump came clean, when he said that America will abandon Syria and the Kurds, but not the Syrian ‘Oil fields’ under its control.]

Iran happens to have a lot more ‘Oil’.

Iran’s sins? It just won’t submit.

And, it has a lot of ‘OIL’ and ‘GAS’, and it is ‘Shia’ - the minority Islamic Sect that is under constant attack by the 80% majority ‘Sunni’ Muslim countries, led by ‘America’s best friend’ Saudi Arabia – and its fellow Sunni countries, Kuwait, the other Gulf Sunni majority countries, such as United Arab Emirates, and large countries like Egypt and Pakistan. U.S. ‘interests’ lie with the Saudis and the majority ‘Sunni’ Muslim countries, and Iran just happens to be the hated ‘Shia’ minority (with ‘Oil’ and ‘Gas’).

It has long been established that mighty America has limited interest in going to war against ‘despotic countries’ and ‘dictators’ - and it has limited interest in the freedom of the people suffering under them, if there is not a lot of ‘Oil’ & ‘Gas’ there.

Additionally, these were bad days for Trump.

He is now the 3rd President in U.S. history, to be impeached by Congress - and in increasing jeopardy with the mounting evidence of his illegal behaviours in Office.

Trump desperately needed a major distraction to deflect the attention away from his deteriorating position as a failing President. So, he and his advisors turned to the old standby of all political leaders in trouble at home: War!

The first move was to strike at Irani backed Militias in Iraq and create news.

But that didn’t go too well, as the retaliation by Iraqis, and the Militias, on the Baghdad U.S. Embassy made for embarrassing, negative international news for America, and its heavy-handedness in Iraq.

The blowback in Iraq drew unwelcome comparisons to the disaster in ‘Benghazi’, Libya, where the U.S. Embassy was attacked and burned, and the U.S. Ambassador and three other American nationals were killed.

The retaliatory attack on the Embassy in Iraq, with the mob smashing windows and setting fires were far too reminiscent of ‘Benghazi’ and were politically unacceptable, and became a liability to Trump and his administration’s efforts to paint the President as ‘heroic’.

Another move had to be made to nullify the negative images and the reaction to the first move of just striking at the Iran backed Militias.

So, Trump and his team decided to go for the ‘Big One’, the ‘Hail-Mary’ – they killed Iran’s most beloved and heroic top General, the leader of the Elite Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Suleimani, with a drone attack on his car convoy near the Baghdad Airport in Iraq (without Iraq government’s permission). The attack killed several other people, including high ranking Iraqi military personnel.

The attack on Suleimani was considered a step-too-far by U.S. administrations so far. That is now changed, his murder by the drone attack, surely invites a significant retaliatory response from Iran, which means all U.S. Forces in the Middle East and the rest of the World will now be on high alert, apart from re-enforcements being flown in immediately to bolster U.S. Embassies and bases in the Region.

The U.S. now is on a war-footing – Mission Accomplished(!) - as all talk is now about Iran retaliating at some point, somewhere.

Likewise, the Middle Eastern Sunni allies of the U.S., like Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Sunni nations, will also be on high alert and on a war-footing - as will Israel - and all the shipping (‘Oil’) sailing out of the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

For all intents and purposes, it is war.

Nothing galvanizes attention and feelings of Nationalism on all sides like war; and Trump served it up as at one of his infamous hotels, practically with ‘Room Service’.

Of course, General Qassem Suleimani is being described as a blood-thirsty Irani terrorist that was responsible for thousands of American and other lives during the turmoil of the sectarian violence that ensued in the aftermath of the chaos that resulted after the U.S. led war on Iraq. But his blood-thirsty operations killed nowhere near the numbers of people that the U.S. led operations killed, during and after the Iraq War, and during the ‘War on Terror’ in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The destruction that the U.S. led coalitions wreaked across the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan is mind-boggling. Millions of innocent men, women, and children have been killed, maimed and permanently displaced by these coalitions.

The survivors are living in shattered countries like Iraq, Syria and Libya, or are living in gigantic refugee camps in foreign countries, a lot of whom resent them for being there. Or, are desperately seeking shelter and safety in Europe and other western countries like Canada, where again, they face resentment and often difficult acceptance. The wars of ‘freedom’ have brought anything but freedom or security.

These U.S. and Western-led operations have created havoc in entire Regions of the World. And now Trump, to save himself, has put the whole World in jeopardy, citing undisclosed and possibly non-existent ‘Intelligence’ about the grave threat that General Qassem Suleimani posed to U.S. troops and diplomats around the World. We all have heard these sincere sounding rationales from the U.S. administrations before, as purely fictional excuses were trotted out in order for America to go to war and destroy countries – such as Saddam’s Iraq, and the preceding loud and insistent warning cries of – ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’!!