Books on the the Middle East always seem to depress me but somehow I'm always drawn to these non fiction books which allow me to develop a more objective perspective on what has happened there and how it contributes to what is happening there now. So imagine my surprise when I turned to a page depicting a map of the Middle East and I noticed something peculiar..have a look below?
Did you notice it? I didn't before, Iran is actually smack bang in the Middle of the hottest spots on the planet, Iraq on the left, Afghanistan on the right, and bordered by Pakistan, Kuwait and Turkmenistan. It is bigger, has more resources and is a country that is bordered by two wars, so imagine if the USA actually establishes dominance in Afghanistan and Iraq, with Pakistan and Kuwait being allies, its pretty hard to see how Iran would not be taking steps to ensure that they are able to defend themselves.
Which begs the question, what is all of this about, could Iran actually be the center of it all. Its rather interesting that in days (around 1953) before the gulf wars and the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Iran was actually an ally to the US. In that time the Shah of Iran welcomed Israeli dignitaries, there were regular flights between Tehran and Tel Aviv and the US vice President was a guest at the Shah's birthday party. All this while the people of Iran who saw the Shah as a puppet of the West were being mercilessly tortured using techniques learnt from the CIA as the author would have it. Today they are all enemies but it's all interlinked somehow and I get the feeling that Iran and Israel play a bigger and more central role in this Middle East conflict then I might have figured in the first place....
I'll probably write more on this but I am fairly convinced that what we see now is the manifestation of actions that were effected long before our time and its probably coming to a head now, my guess is that there will be an Iranian, US war, the US probably needs the right 'unknown unknown' to justify it..
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I have always believed the 'war on terror' was all about oil.
This just makes it so much clearer.
:P
What do you think the next step will be if the Republicans win?
I don't know about a US war with Iran precisely because it is a much more coherent force than either Iraq or Afganistan. The US might not want that particular fight, but who knows. I think its the same thing that keeps them out of China, but then Iran isn't China.
The thing with terrorist activities is that they are generally made by people who feel that they have no other recourse. The more countries the US invades the more terrorists it makes - and it isn't a finite number. And ultimately it will just lead to more instability in the region, and more destruction for the people who live there (and, I would guess, an increase in acts of terrorist outside the region too). It might be the search for absolute security that drives the US to a war, but it will not attain their goals.
I haven't read Fisk's book, but I hear its quite a good source of fact.