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Discolor Online

Weblog of the sweetest person you never want to piss off.

 

Iran

CBS News is running the headline story "U.S. military officials on Sunday accused the highest levels of the Iranian leadership of arming Shiite militants in Iraq..."

Ok, so this is something that's been bothering me for a while. I mean, OF COURSE Iran is meddling in the situation! Don't they have a vested interest in what happens on their border? Iran and Iraq have a long history of armed conflict, border skirmishes, and of course the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988 (during which time the US materially supported Iraq's war effort. OF COURSE they're trying to sway the outcome of things now that the Bush Administration's bungled war effort has opened the door for them to try and secure a government more favorable to their interests.

Would the United States do any different if, say, Quebec finally decided to mount an armed revolt and separate from Canada (with Libertarian-style separatists from the prairies taking that opportunity to also declare independence) and Canada devolved into a bloody, sectarian civil war? Are we really expected to believe that the US wouldn't totally be helping out "our side" in the conflict with everything from money to arms to intelligence and even soldiers? That the US wouldn't feel we had a vested interest in what happened on our borders, and every right to meddle in the outcome? What if Cuba or Venezuela or Iran were involved in fighting for "the other side"?

I've seen a lot of finger pointing about how Iran's involvement in Iraq is the same as "war on the United States" or is "supporting terrorism" and I just can't buy it. As if the United States has more right to shape things in Iraq than neighboring Iran, or than the Iraqis themselves? Please. I'm sure the British forces during the American Revolution would have declared those revolutionaries who hid in haystacks and fought "dirty" against honorable men fighting in uniform and formation "terrorists" had the term been as much the rage then as it is now. By these terms, the United States of America was founded on "terrorism".

The current build-up intended to target Iran is extremely worrying. The propaganda pieces being seeded in the media right now are intended to make Iran seem like the enemy (one of an ever-shifting mass of convenient enemies) and to inflame American patriotism ("Those dirty Iranian bastards are responsible for the bombs that are blowing up good American soldiers! This means war!") in the same way we were manipulated about Osama bin Laden, weapons of mass destruction, Iraq's now thoroughly debunked "connections" with al Qaeda, and about seven or eight other excuses and justifications for war that have been trotted out through the course of this debacle. Again, I'm not buying it. I hope no one else is buying it either.

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Blogger Tabbias H. Black Says:

I don't buy it either. And I get a lot of flak for my peaceful stance on the current state of the world.

 
 
Anonymous Anonymous Says:

Amen, sister! I preached a nearly identical sermon the other night to my poor, unsuspecting husband (aka the choir).

If I wanted to release a great big product for the American market in, oh, let's say November 2008, this is about the time I'd start the teasers in my marketing campaign. . . . Déja vu. —Jenny

 

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