Re: [blind-democracy] Why Is Iran Our Enemy?

Too bad the American Empire can't spread democracy as effectively as
it spreads murder, oppression and plunder. And now, unless we really
do get Donald Trump, enter Hillary Clinton, a candidate who has
promised to maintain the status quo and move very cautiously in the
direction of social reform within the USA, much less in the nations
the Empire desires to dominate. Certainly the American Empire has its
valid reasons for trashing one government after another, including
many that had been elected by the people, but that is not to say that
the Empire's needs are those of the American Working Class.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the world entered what Western
historians came to call, the dark ages.
Despite the giant advances in the Arts and Science, these years were
considered Dark Ages because, in part, modern historians are
conditioned to think of civilizations in terms of Law and Order being
dispensed by dominant Governments.
Western historians saw the Dark Ages melt away as France, England and
Spain emerged as major Empire builders.
Carl Jarvis


On 6/15/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > Why Is Iran Our Enemy?
> ________________________________________
> Why Is Iran Our Enemy?
> By Jeff Faux [1] / The Nation [2]
> June 14, 2016
> "Where are you from?" the elderly man asked politely, as my wife and I
> strolled through his small Iranian village in early May.
> "America," I answered.
> "Wonderful," he said, grabbing my shoulders and giving me the traditional
> three kisses on my cheeks. "I am so glad you are here."
> Then he asked, "But why does your government hate us so much?"
> I am not shy about criticizing U.S. government policies-when I'm home in
> America. But, when I'm abroad, I tend to get defensive about my country.
> So,
> I muttered something about the importance of people of different nations
> getting to know each other independent of their politicians, and turned our
> conversation to the history of his ancient town.
> But his question-asked of us by many other ordinary Iranians happy to meet
> American visitors-deserves a better response. Not so much to explain our
> foreign policy to Iranians, but to ourselves.
> Demonization of Iran runs wide and deep in our mainstream politics. Hillary
> Clinton [3] and Donald Trump [4] tell us that Iran is the world's chief
> sponsor of terrorism, aimed at taking over the whole Middle East, if not
> the
> world (this echoes the State Department, which in its recently released
> annual report [5] calls Iran the world's greatest state sponsor of
> terrorism). Both have declared themselves ready and eager to "strike" and
> "obliterate" Iran. Republican Senator Ted Cruz says flatly that Iran
> intends
> to launch a nuclear attack against the United States. Mike Huckabee and
> Benjamin Netanyahu, who must be considered an American as well as an
> Israeli
> politician, say that Iran is preparing the ovens for another holocaust of
> the Jews. In 2013, when there was no evidence that Iran was building a
> nuclear bomb, Vice President Joe Biden announced [6] that-just in case-"all
> options, including military force, are on the table."
> Following their leaders, most Americans have strongly negative opinions of
> Iran. Polls report [7] that they see the country as only slightly less
> dangerous than nuclear-armed North Korea. Despite the public's support for
> non-proliferation, a majority opposed Barack Obama's nuclear agreement with
> Iran. To protect that agreement, Obama is piling on to the already massive
> U.S. military assistance to Saudi Arabia and Israel, with the curious
> rationale that Iran, now that it has forsworn nuclear weapons, is somehow
> more of a menace to them than it was before.
> The animosity, of course, is mutual. Since 1979, Iran has been ruled by
> Islamic theocrats who use the Quran to justify the suppression of domestic
> political freedom and the denial of civil and human rights. With
> materialist
> goals subordinate to religious values, and hobbled by U.S.-led global
> sanctions, the economy consistently sputters. The sanctions allow the
> ruling
> mullahs to divert discontent by blaming outsiders for the nation's
> troubles-in particular, the "Great Satan," America, and its ally Israel.
> To American ears this language sounds shrill and paranoid. It recalls
> images
> of the angry mobs that in 1979 stormed into the U.S. embassy in Tehran and
> held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days [8]. But to Iranians it is rooted in
> historical experience. After all, the United States engineered the 1953
> coup
> against their democratically elected secular government and imposed a
> ruthless monarchy on the country for 25 years. The organization of the
> Shah's murderous and torture-addicted secret police was a joint venture [9]
> of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Israel's Mossad.
> When the Iranians finally revolted and deposed the Shah, the U.S. backed
> the
> 1980 attack on Iran by Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The eight-year war cost
> Iran an estimated million casualties, including at least 300,000 soldiers
> killed and tens of thousands still suffering the effects of the chemical
> weapons used by the Iraqi army, with the collaboration of the United
> States.
> Today, enter almost any urban neighborhood or rural village in Iran and you
> will see prominently displayed photos of the local men-and a few women-who
> were killed in that war.
> During that war, a U.S. missile cruiser entered Iranian waters and shot
> down
> an Iranian civilian airliner, killing some 290 passengers [10]. We never
> apologized, and the trigger-happy U.S. naval commander was later decorated
> for "exceptionally meritorious conduct." U.S. warships continue to violate
> Iranian sovereignty in the Persian Gulf.
> The accumulated distrust of American intentions extends to the
> U.S.-engineered economic boycott over Iran's nuclear program. Our
> expressions of angst over nuclear proliferation seem less than honest,
> given
> that America tolerated the development of nuclear weapons in both Israel
> and
> Pakistan-both of whom have refused, unlike Iran, to sign the
> non-proliferation treaty. Today, many Iranians doubt the United States will
> actually deliver on the commitments it has made to loosen financial
> restrictions on investment and trade.
> Still, despite the inflammatory rhetoric of its leaders, Iran is by no
> stretch of the imagination a serious threat to the United States, Europe,
> its Arab neighbors, or Israel. At best, it is a third-rate military power
> with a dysfunctional economy who's entire GDP is only a little over 60
> percent of the U.S. military budget. The supposedly terrified Israel has
> somewhere between 80 and 200 missiles [11] with nuclear warheads that could
> send Iran back to the Stone Age in minutes. There is no evidence to suggest
> that even the most fanatical elements in the Iranian government are
> suicidal.
> Pakistan, on Iran's border, is similarly armed. The two other major powers
> in the region, Turkey and Egypt, are militarily superior to Iran. Even
> Saudi
> Arabia, with one-third of Iran's population, has a bigger and better air
> force.
> Beyond its military weakness, Iran's "soft power" appeal in the region is
> also limited. Neither its people nor their language is Arabic. And in a
> part
> of the world where religious sectarianism is taken very seriously, Iran's
> brand of Islam is Shia, which represents less than 15 percent [12]of the
> Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa.
> Like all sovereign states, Iran tries to influence events in its
> neighborhood. Given the lingering trauma of the war with Iraq, the
> Saudi/Sunni rivalry and the hostility of the U.S. superpower, Tehran's
> primary objective is stability on its western border. This means friendly
> governments in Iraq, which has a Shia majority, and in Syria, where despite
> a Sunni majority, the ruling class is Alawite, an offshoot of Shiism.
> Like all Islamic states, Iran supports the Palestinian cause against
> Israel.
> Here again, a sub-context is rivalry with Saudi Arabia. Iran was a major
> supporter of Hamas until recently, when the wealthier Saudis elbowed them
> out. It also remains the primary outside backer of Lebanon's Hezbollah,
> although in recent years Iran's economic troubles led to cutbacks in its
> financial support. In any event, there has been no significant fighting
> between Hezbollah and Israel in ten years, save for a few skirmishes when
> one or another's soldiers get too close to the border.
> Coming from the U.S. foreign-policy hawks whose Middle East interventions
> lit the fuse of civil war, religious fanaticism, and barbarism, the charge
> that Iran is the source of regional instability is absurd.
> It becomes more so when you consider that Iran is arguably the Middle
> Eastern country that is most unequivocally opposed to ISIL, al-Qaeda, the
> Taliban, and other militant Sunnis. Indeed, Iranian support for the Iraqi
> army and the affiliated Shia militias is now crucial to U.S. success
> against
> ISIL, including the plan to recapture Mosul. As Vali Nasr, former adviser
> to
> Barack Obama and now dean of the School of Advanced International Studies
> at
> Johns Hopkins University, told The New York Times [13], "The only way in
> which the Obama administration can credibly stick with its strategy is by
> implicitly assuming that the Iranians will carry most of the weight and win
> the battles on the ground."
> Moreover, while our supposed allies, the Saudis, were busy covering up
> their
> links to the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, the Iranians granted the
> United States permission to fly to Afghanistan over their territory, agreed
> to help rescue downed American pilots, and provided assistance to the
> Northern Alliance-America's military ally in the U.S. invasion. All of
> which
> American officials have acknowledged.
> In return, George W. Bush, in his 2002 State of the Union speech, attacked
> Iran as part of an international "Axis of Evil," helping to undermine those
> within Iran calling for a softening of relations. As Michael Axworthy, a
> former head of the Iran desk at the British Foreign Office, notes, "It
> reinforced the hardliners' position on the U.S. and the West-that they
> could
> not be trusted."
> This fear of the West is enormously useful to the Islamic reactionaries in
> their ongoing struggle to keep control of Iran's future. The conservative
> Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rules for life and commands the
> loyalty of the armed forces. But there is a sizable and growing popular
> movement in Iran for more liberal foreign-as well as domestic-policies,
> including more contact with the United States. Despite the obstacles to
> democracy, in 2013 the people elected a progressive reformer, Hassan
> Rouhani, as president, who, after a two-year struggle, led Khamenei to
> accept the nuclear agreement.
> Evidence of growing Westernization is widespread in Iran-in the shops and
> shopping malls, the billboards advertising appliances and cars, the
> cellphones and selfies, and especially in the visible pushback by women
> against the strict Islamic dress code. Social life is nowhere near as
> repressive as in the U.S.-supported theocracies of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain,
> United Arab Emirates, Oman, or Turkmenistan. Women in Iran drive cars,
> manage businesses, and are elected to public office.
> Between 20,000 and 30,000 Jews live in Iran-the largest Jewish population
> in
> the Middle East [14] outside of Israel. There are some 60 synagogues, a
> Jewish Member of Parliament, and a memorial in Tehran to Jewish soldiers
> [15] who served in the war with Iraq. Jews, like Christians and
> Zoroastrians, are allowed to practice their religion, but not to
> proselytize. It's no liberal democracy, but hardly Nazi Germany-or Saudi
> Arabia.
> So, as the Iranian villager asked, why does our government hate them so
> much?
> The only answer that makes sense is that it reflects the subordination of
> U.S. policy in the Middle East to the interests of 1) the despotic
> dynasties
> that rule Saudi Arabia and the gulf sheikdoms; 2) the Israeli government,
> especially under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and 3) the American
> politicians, pundits, lobbyists, and national-security bureaucrats whose
> careers and bank accounts are enhanced by both. It is in the interests of
> all three to divert attention from the catastrophic consequences of our
> intervention in the region.
> How else can you explain the Bush and Obama administrations' reluctance to
> confront the ruling classes of the gulf sheikdoms for their nurturing of
> ISIL and other terrorists groups inspired by the Saudis' own Wahhabi
> fundamentalism? Only when ISIL threatened the Saudis themselves did their
> support for the Islamic State cease, although it continues to flow to the
> principal al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. And how else can we explain the U.S.
> supply of weapons (including cluster bombs) and aerial intelligence to the
> Gulf States' intervention against the Houthi Shias in Yemen, while letting
> them go AWOL in the war against the Sunni ISIL?
> For Netanyahu, Iran provides the monster needed to rationalize and divert
> attention from his own disastrous and brutal policies in the West Bank and
> Gaza. During the 1980s, the monster was Iraq under Saddam Hussein. After
> Saddam's regime was destroyed and Iraq was occupied by the United States,
> an
> alleged genocidal and irrational Iran became the principal horror narrative
> of the Israeli right wing, a line promptly echoed by the U.S. policy class.
> To Barack Obama's credit, he was willing to push through the snake pit of
> divided Washington loyalties to achieve the nuclear deal-far more important
> to our national security than isolating Iran. To complete the deal he must
> also make sure that the United States lives up to its promise that it will
> not punish international bankers who provide capital for urgently needed
> economic development projects in Iran.
> A growing economy should in turn reinforce the still fragile shoots of
> liberal democracy sprouting in that ancient land. It will of course take
> time to erode the mutual mistrust between the governing classes of the two
> countries. But for ordinary Americans, understanding that Iran is not our
> existential enemy should help us to answer the larger question of exactly
> what we are doing in the Middle East.
>
> Jeff Faux is the founder and former president of the Economic Policy
> Institute and the author of the new book, The Servant Economy: Where
> America's Elite is Sending the Middle Class. [16]
> Share on Facebook Share
> Share on Twitter Tweet
>
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [17]
> [18]
> ________________________________________
> Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/world/iran-not-threat-us
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/jeff-faux
> [2] http://www.thenation.com
> [3] http://time.com/3945704/hillary-clinton-iran-nuclear-deal/
> [4]
> http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/trump-calls-iran-biggest-sponsor-of-terr
> orism-in-aipac-speech/
> [5] http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/258249.pdf
> [6]
> https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/03/04/remarks-vice-presiden
> t-aipac-policy-conference
> [7] http://www.gallup.com/poll/116236/iran.aspx
> [8]
> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-h
> ostage-crisis/
> [9]
> http://www.ibtimes.com/irans-feared-savak-norman-schwarzkopfs-father-had-gre
> ater-impact-middle-east-affairs-976502
> [10]
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/10/16/the-forgotten-s
> tory-of-iran-air-flight-655/
> [11] https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat
> [12]
> http://www.pewforum.org/2009/10/07/mapping-the-global-muslim-population/
> [13]
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/world/middleeast/us-strategy-in-iraq-incre
> asingly-relies-on-iran.html?_r=0
> [14]
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/irans-jewish-community-refl
> ects-a-complicated-relationship-with-israel/2013/10/02/e531039e-2ac4-11e3-b1
> 41-298f46539716_story.html
> [15]
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/12/18/iran-unveils-a-
> memorial-honoring-jewish-heroes/
> [16]
> http://www.amazon.com/The-Servant-Economy-Americas-Sending/dp/0470182393
> [17] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Why Is Iran Our Enemy?
> [18] http://www.alternet.org/
> [19] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > Why Is Iran Our Enemy?
>
> Why Is Iran Our Enemy?
> By Jeff Faux [1] / The Nation [2]
> June 14, 2016
> AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to
> Google+More
> AddThis Share optionsShare to Email
> "Where are you from?" the elderly man asked politely, as my wife and I
> strolled through his small Iranian village in early May.
> "America," I answered.
> "Wonderful," he said, grabbing my shoulders and giving me the traditional
> three kisses on my cheeks. "I am so glad you are here."
> Then he asked, "But why does your government hate us so much?"
> I am not shy about criticizing U.S. government policies-when I'm home in
> America. But, when I'm abroad, I tend to get defensive about my country.
> So,
> I muttered something about the importance of people of different nations
> getting to know each other independent of their politicians, and turned our
> conversation to the history of his ancient town.
> But his question-asked of us by many other ordinary Iranians happy to meet
> American visitors-deserves a better response. Not so much to explain our
> foreign policy to Iranians, but to ourselves.
> Demonization of Iran runs wide and deep in our mainstream politics. Hillary
> Clinton [3] and Donald Trump [4] tell us that Iran is the world's chief
> sponsor of terrorism, aimed at taking over the whole Middle East, if not
> the
> world (this echoes the State Department, which in its recently released
> annual report [5] calls Iran the world's greatest state sponsor of
> terrorism). Both have declared themselves ready and eager to "strike" and
> "obliterate" Iran. Republican Senator Ted Cruz says flatly that Iran
> intends
> to launch a nuclear attack against the United States. Mike Huckabee and
> Benjamin Netanyahu, who must be considered an American as well as an
> Israeli
> politician, say that Iran is preparing the ovens for another holocaust of
> the Jews. In 2013, when there was no evidence that Iran was building a
> nuclear bomb, Vice President Joe Biden announced [6] that-just in case-"all
> options, including military force, are on the table."
> Following their leaders, most Americans have strongly negative opinions of
> Iran. Polls report [7] that they see the country as only slightly less
> dangerous than nuclear-armed North Korea. Despite the public's support for
> non-proliferation, a majority opposed Barack Obama's nuclear agreement with
> Iran. To protect that agreement, Obama is piling on to the already massive
> U.S. military assistance to Saudi Arabia and Israel, with the curious
> rationale that Iran, now that it has forsworn nuclear weapons, is somehow
> more of a menace to them than it was before.
> The animosity, of course, is mutual. Since 1979, Iran has been ruled by
> Islamic theocrats who use the Quran to justify the suppression of domestic
> political freedom and the denial of civil and human rights. With
> materialist
> goals subordinate to religious values, and hobbled by U.S.-led global
> sanctions, the economy consistently sputters. The sanctions allow the
> ruling
> mullahs to divert discontent by blaming outsiders for the nation's
> troubles-in particular, the "Great Satan," America, and its ally Israel.
> To American ears this language sounds shrill and paranoid. It recalls
> images
> of the angry mobs that in 1979 stormed into the U.S. embassy in Tehran and
> held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days [8]. But to Iranians it is rooted in
> historical experience. After all, the United States engineered the 1953
> coup
> against their democratically elected secular government and imposed a
> ruthless monarchy on the country for 25 years. The organization of the
> Shah's murderous and torture-addicted secret police was a joint venture [9]
> of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Israel's Mossad.
> When the Iranians finally revolted and deposed the Shah, the U.S. backed
> the
> 1980 attack on Iran by Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The eight-year war cost
> Iran an estimated million casualties, including at least 300,000 soldiers
> killed and tens of thousands still suffering the effects of the chemical
> weapons used by the Iraqi army, with the collaboration of the United
> States.
> Today, enter almost any urban neighborhood or rural village in Iran and you
> will see prominently displayed photos of the local men-and a few women-who
> were killed in that war.
> During that war, a U.S. missile cruiser entered Iranian waters and shot
> down
> an Iranian civilian airliner, killing some 290 passengers [10]. We never
> apologized, and the trigger-happy U.S. naval commander was later decorated
> for "exceptionally meritorious conduct." U.S. warships continue to violate
> Iranian sovereignty in the Persian Gulf.
> The accumulated distrust of American intentions extends to the
> U.S.-engineered economic boycott over Iran's nuclear program. Our
> expressions of angst over nuclear proliferation seem less than honest,
> given
> that America tolerated the development of nuclear weapons in both Israel
> and
> Pakistan-both of whom have refused, unlike Iran, to sign the
> non-proliferation treaty. Today, many Iranians doubt the United States will
> actually deliver on the commitments it has made to loosen financial
> restrictions on investment and trade.
> Still, despite the inflammatory rhetoric of its leaders, Iran is by no
> stretch of the imagination a serious threat to the United States, Europe,
> its Arab neighbors, or Israel. At best, it is a third-rate military power
> with a dysfunctional economy who's entire GDP is only a little over 60
> percent of the U.S. military budget. The supposedly terrified Israel has
> somewhere between 80 and 200 missiles [11] with nuclear warheads that could
> send Iran back to the Stone Age in minutes. There is no evidence to suggest
> that even the most fanatical elements in the Iranian government are
> suicidal.
> Pakistan, on Iran's border, is similarly armed. The two other major powers
> in the region, Turkey and Egypt, are militarily superior to Iran. Even
> Saudi
> Arabia, with one-third of Iran's population, has a bigger and better air
> force.
> Beyond its military weakness, Iran's "soft power" appeal in the region is
> also limited. Neither its people nor their language is Arabic. And in a
> part
> of the world where religious sectarianism is taken very seriously, Iran's
> brand of Islam is Shia, which represents less than 15 percent [12]of the
> Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa.
> Like all sovereign states, Iran tries to influence events in its
> neighborhood. Given the lingering trauma of the war with Iraq, the
> Saudi/Sunni rivalry and the hostility of the U.S. superpower, Tehran's
> primary objective is stability on its western border. This means friendly
> governments in Iraq, which has a Shia majority, and in Syria, where despite
> a Sunni majority, the ruling class is Alawite, an offshoot of Shiism.
> Like all Islamic states, Iran supports the Palestinian cause against
> Israel.
> Here again, a sub-context is rivalry with Saudi Arabia. Iran was a major
> supporter of Hamas until recently, when the wealthier Saudis elbowed them
> out. It also remains the primary outside backer of Lebanon's Hezbollah,
> although in recent years Iran's economic troubles led to cutbacks in its
> financial support. In any event, there has been no significant fighting
> between Hezbollah and Israel in ten years, save for a few skirmishes when
> one or another's soldiers get too close to the border.
> Coming from the U.S. foreign-policy hawks whose Middle East interventions
> lit the fuse of civil war, religious fanaticism, and barbarism, the charge
> that Iran is the source of regional instability is absurd.
> It becomes more so when you consider that Iran is arguably the Middle
> Eastern country that is most unequivocally opposed to ISIL, al-Qaeda, the
> Taliban, and other militant Sunnis. Indeed, Iranian support for the Iraqi
> army and the affiliated Shia militias is now crucial to U.S. success
> against
> ISIL, including the plan to recapture Mosul. As Vali Nasr, former adviser
> to
> Barack Obama and now dean of the School of Advanced International Studies
> at
> Johns Hopkins University, told The New York Times [13], "The only way in
> which the Obama administration can credibly stick with its strategy is by
> implicitly assuming that the Iranians will carry most of the weight and win
> the battles on the ground."
> Moreover, while our supposed allies, the Saudis, were busy covering up
> their
> links to the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, the Iranians granted the
> United States permission to fly to Afghanistan over their territory, agreed
> to help rescue downed American pilots, and provided assistance to the
> Northern Alliance-America's military ally in the U.S. invasion. All of
> which
> American officials have acknowledged.
> In return, George W. Bush, in his 2002 State of the Union speech, attacked
> Iran as part of an international "Axis of Evil," helping to undermine those
> within Iran calling for a softening of relations. As Michael Axworthy, a
> former head of the Iran desk at the British Foreign Office, notes, "It
> reinforced the hardliners' position on the U.S. and the West-that they
> could
> not be trusted."
> This fear of the West is enormously useful to the Islamic reactionaries in
> their ongoing struggle to keep control of Iran's future. The conservative
> Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rules for life and commands the
> loyalty of the armed forces. But there is a sizable and growing popular
> movement in Iran for more liberal foreign-as well as domestic-policies,
> including more contact with the United States. Despite the obstacles to
> democracy, in 2013 the people elected a progressive reformer, Hassan
> Rouhani, as president, who, after a two-year struggle, led Khamenei to
> accept the nuclear agreement.
> Evidence of growing Westernization is widespread in Iran-in the shops and
> shopping malls, the billboards advertising appliances and cars, the
> cellphones and selfies, and especially in the visible pushback by women
> against the strict Islamic dress code. Social life is nowhere near as
> repressive as in the U.S.-supported theocracies of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain,
> United Arab Emirates, Oman, or Turkmenistan. Women in Iran drive cars,
> manage businesses, and are elected to public office.
> Between 20,000 and 30,000 Jews live in Iran-the largest Jewish population
> in
> the Middle East [14] outside of Israel. There are some 60 synagogues, a
> Jewish Member of Parliament, and a memorial in Tehran to Jewish soldiers
> [15] who served in the war with Iraq. Jews, like Christians and
> Zoroastrians, are allowed to practice their religion, but not to
> proselytize. It's no liberal democracy, but hardly Nazi Germany-or Saudi
> Arabia.
> So, as the Iranian villager asked, why does our government hate them so
> much?
> The only answer that makes sense is that it reflects the subordination of
> U.S. policy in the Middle East to the interests of 1) the despotic
> dynasties
> that rule Saudi Arabia and the gulf sheikdoms; 2) the Israeli government,
> especially under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and 3) the American
> politicians, pundits, lobbyists, and national-security bureaucrats whose
> careers and bank accounts are enhanced by both. It is in the interests of
> all three to divert attention from the catastrophic consequences of our
> intervention in the region.
> How else can you explain the Bush and Obama administrations' reluctance to
> confront the ruling classes of the gulf sheikdoms for their nurturing of
> ISIL and other terrorists groups inspired by the Saudis' own Wahhabi
> fundamentalism? Only when ISIL threatened the Saudis themselves did their
> support for the Islamic State cease, although it continues to flow to the
> principal al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. And how else can we explain the U.S.
> supply of weapons (including cluster bombs) and aerial intelligence to the
> Gulf States' intervention against the Houthi Shias in Yemen, while letting
> them go AWOL in the war against the Sunni ISIL?
> For Netanyahu, Iran provides the monster needed to rationalize and divert
> attention from his own disastrous and brutal policies in the West Bank and
> Gaza. During the 1980s, the monster was Iraq under Saddam Hussein. After
> Saddam's regime was destroyed and Iraq was occupied by the United States,
> an
> alleged genocidal and irrational Iran became the principal horror narrative
> of the Israeli right wing, a line promptly echoed by the U.S. policy class.
> To Barack Obama's credit, he was willing to push through the snake pit of
> divided Washington loyalties to achieve the nuclear deal-far more important
> to our national security than isolating Iran. To complete the deal he must
> also make sure that the United States lives up to its promise that it will
> not punish international bankers who provide capital for urgently needed
> economic development projects in Iran.
> A growing economy should in turn reinforce the still fragile shoots of
> liberal democracy sprouting in that ancient land. It will of course take
> time to erode the mutual mistrust between the governing classes of the two
> countries. But for ordinary Americans, understanding that Iran is not our
> existential enemy should help us to answer the larger question of exactly
> what we are doing in the Middle East.
> Jeff Faux is the founder and former president of the Economic Policy
> Institute and the author of the new book, The Servant Economy: Where
> America's Elite is Sending the Middle Class. [16]
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
> Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [17]
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[18]
>
> Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/world/iran-not-threat-us
> Links:
> [1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/jeff-faux
> [2] http://www.thenation.com
> [3] http://time.com/3945704/hillary-clinton-iran-nuclear-deal/
> [4]
> http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/trump-calls-iran-biggest-sponsor-of-terr
> orism-in-aipac-speech/
> [5] http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/258249.pdf
> [6]
> https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/03/04/remarks-vice-presiden
> t-aipac-policy-conference
> [7] http://www.gallup.com/poll/116236/iran.aspx
> [8]
> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-h
> ostage-crisis/
> [9]
> http://www.ibtimes.com/irans-feared-savak-norman-schwarzkopfs-father-had-gre
> ater-impact-middle-east-affairs-976502
> [10]
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/10/16/the-forgotten-s
> tory-of-iran-air-flight-655/
> [11] https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat
> [12]
> http://www.pewforum.org/2009/10/07/mapping-the-global-muslim-population/
> [13]
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/world/middleeast/us-strategy-in-iraq-incre
> asingly-relies-on-iran.html?_r=0
> [14]
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/irans-jewish-community-refl
> ects-a-complicated-relationship-with-israel/2013/10/02/e531039e-2ac4-11e3-b1
> 41-298f46539716_story.html
> [15]
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/12/18/iran-unveils-a-
> memorial-honoring-jewish-heroes/
> [16]
> http://www.amazon.com/The-Servant-Economy-Americas-Sending/dp/0470182393
> [17] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Why Is Iran Our Enemy?
> [18] http://www.alternet.org/
> [19] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
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>