The US: Unwitting Maker of a New Superpower - Iran
The US has finally met its superior.......Iran. And Iran will have the last laugh and will leave a demoralized, emasculated, and economically damaged US gasping for life in the dust, in our lifetime. "Incredible!", you might say. But the facts are staring us directly in the face as a result of the Bush's ill conceived, personal-vendetta-inspired war in Iraq. American policy and present actions in Iraq have not only anointed Iran as the first Middle Eastern superpower, but also set the stage for it to, perhaps, be one that will be even more powerful than China, at least in the short term. You can read about this on the Uruknet website which brings you news from inside Iraq and which I think makes many valid points and raises serious warnings that the US needs to heed in terms of its foreign policy in Iraq.
Basically the article states that the US has had to unwittingly support the Shiite majority (which is Islamic and has strong Iranian leanings) against Sunni (secularists) rebels so that Saddam's former supporting groups would not return to power. This is a dangerous game and one that is sure to backfire on the US. If an Islamic government takes root in Iraq, which is almost assured now that the country has disintegrated into Civil War (and a pox on those who still maintain it is not there yet), it will primarily have the Iranians who have sponsored and armed the Shiite militias to thank. Iraq will also feel more kinship toward its fellow Islamic brothers in Iran than it will ever feel toward the US with its present bullying and disastrous occupation being carried out in cahoots with Iraq's old colonial nemesis: Britain. With Iran and Iraq controlling a significant portion of the world's oil and with these countries abutting Arab monarchies which will then be targeted for instability and taken over by similar Iranian Islamic puppet regime's that will depose and dispose of the monarchies in those countries just as the Russians eliminated the Czars during the Russian Revolution, Iranian control of the world's oil will be assured. Add to that the Iranian nuclear capabilities which will have then matured. Just think of the impact that Iran's decision to impose oil sanctions on the US will have, when it has all of the oil in the Middle East under its control. To tell you the truth, the economic impact will be devastating, and I am sure the irony of imposing sanctions on the US will not be lost on Iranian leaders.
But economics is not everything, there is still the moral high ground that the US could claim to rally its allies and friends to keep it from fading into developing country status once it is deprived of it petroleum life blood. Unfortunately, Bush has damaged all that was considered good about America so severely that the US, even under control of a different Congress or Administration will not be able to recover for 2 or more decades. And it will take a Herculean effort to overcome the tremendous xenophobic fear that has been instilled in the US public in the last 5 years and has whipped conservatives and fundamentalist Christians into a political frenzy. It is amazing to me that after 100 years of building up the reputation of being the defender of the free world, the universal force for good, an advocate for human rights, a shining star in a black and foreboding sky, that one administration in six short years could destroy all that and leave us defenseless against what will certainly be a major power play by Iran to economically destroy us in the next decade.
When I look at the legacy of the Bush/Cheney Administration, with regard to what we have reaped and sown in Iraq, this is what I see: now uncovered lies and a global deception on Bush's part as to why a war with Iraq was necessary; unilateral warmongering with no recognition of international collaboration; the flaunting of the Geneva Convention and US law in terms of prisoner abuse and detention: the institution of a US Homeland Security Office (smacking of Hitler's "der fatherland" efforts prior to World War II and the beginning of the holocaust); the invocation of open-ended war-time powers for the president to fight an unidentified and unidentifiable enemy; the unobstructed abuse of an American citizen's right to privacy; the Bush Administration's tacit and sometimes active support of torture for those it identifies, sometimes mistakenly, as terrorist suspects; the running of secret CIA prisons in third party countries and the shipping of suspected terrorists to prisons in countries known to practice torture on a regular basis; Guantanamo where there are no rights for the accused; the raping and murdering of innocent Iraqi women and girls by some US service men for their personal violent and sexual motives, the purposeful wholesale humiliation of much of the male Arab populations in some areas by the US military; the embarrassment of atrocities carried out by US service people in the name of the US and stabilizing Iraq; and the incredible corruption and political nepotism in letting contracts to rebuild Iraq that have fleeced the US taxpayers of billions and billions of dollars. All this as a result of Bush's refusal to see the world as more than the black and white of a religious zealot who only needs his personal motivations and message from God and the advice of boot-licking syncophants to know what is right.
As a result, Bush and the US have unwillingly played into Iran's skillful plans and cagey hands. I predict that in 10 to 15 years time. Iran or Iran and their puppet regimes will have a strangle lock on the world's oil reserves and that the US will be a declining society, looking fondly back at its glory days, much like Britain looks back at its days as the ruler of the world.
Basically the article states that the US has had to unwittingly support the Shiite majority (which is Islamic and has strong Iranian leanings) against Sunni (secularists) rebels so that Saddam's former supporting groups would not return to power. This is a dangerous game and one that is sure to backfire on the US. If an Islamic government takes root in Iraq, which is almost assured now that the country has disintegrated into Civil War (and a pox on those who still maintain it is not there yet), it will primarily have the Iranians who have sponsored and armed the Shiite militias to thank. Iraq will also feel more kinship toward its fellow Islamic brothers in Iran than it will ever feel toward the US with its present bullying and disastrous occupation being carried out in cahoots with Iraq's old colonial nemesis: Britain. With Iran and Iraq controlling a significant portion of the world's oil and with these countries abutting Arab monarchies which will then be targeted for instability and taken over by similar Iranian Islamic puppet regime's that will depose and dispose of the monarchies in those countries just as the Russians eliminated the Czars during the Russian Revolution, Iranian control of the world's oil will be assured. Add to that the Iranian nuclear capabilities which will have then matured. Just think of the impact that Iran's decision to impose oil sanctions on the US will have, when it has all of the oil in the Middle East under its control. To tell you the truth, the economic impact will be devastating, and I am sure the irony of imposing sanctions on the US will not be lost on Iranian leaders.
But economics is not everything, there is still the moral high ground that the US could claim to rally its allies and friends to keep it from fading into developing country status once it is deprived of it petroleum life blood. Unfortunately, Bush has damaged all that was considered good about America so severely that the US, even under control of a different Congress or Administration will not be able to recover for 2 or more decades. And it will take a Herculean effort to overcome the tremendous xenophobic fear that has been instilled in the US public in the last 5 years and has whipped conservatives and fundamentalist Christians into a political frenzy. It is amazing to me that after 100 years of building up the reputation of being the defender of the free world, the universal force for good, an advocate for human rights, a shining star in a black and foreboding sky, that one administration in six short years could destroy all that and leave us defenseless against what will certainly be a major power play by Iran to economically destroy us in the next decade.
When I look at the legacy of the Bush/Cheney Administration, with regard to what we have reaped and sown in Iraq, this is what I see: now uncovered lies and a global deception on Bush's part as to why a war with Iraq was necessary; unilateral warmongering with no recognition of international collaboration; the flaunting of the Geneva Convention and US law in terms of prisoner abuse and detention: the institution of a US Homeland Security Office (smacking of Hitler's "der fatherland" efforts prior to World War II and the beginning of the holocaust); the invocation of open-ended war-time powers for the president to fight an unidentified and unidentifiable enemy; the unobstructed abuse of an American citizen's right to privacy; the Bush Administration's tacit and sometimes active support of torture for those it identifies, sometimes mistakenly, as terrorist suspects; the running of secret CIA prisons in third party countries and the shipping of suspected terrorists to prisons in countries known to practice torture on a regular basis; Guantanamo where there are no rights for the accused; the raping and murdering of innocent Iraqi women and girls by some US service men for their personal violent and sexual motives, the purposeful wholesale humiliation of much of the male Arab populations in some areas by the US military; the embarrassment of atrocities carried out by US service people in the name of the US and stabilizing Iraq; and the incredible corruption and political nepotism in letting contracts to rebuild Iraq that have fleeced the US taxpayers of billions and billions of dollars. All this as a result of Bush's refusal to see the world as more than the black and white of a religious zealot who only needs his personal motivations and message from God and the advice of boot-licking syncophants to know what is right.
As a result, Bush and the US have unwillingly played into Iran's skillful plans and cagey hands. I predict that in 10 to 15 years time. Iran or Iran and their puppet regimes will have a strangle lock on the world's oil reserves and that the US will be a declining society, looking fondly back at its glory days, much like Britain looks back at its days as the ruler of the world.
