I last put Owen Jones and Iran in the same sentence in a post – CIA/Mossad fingerprints are all over this! – of January 18. At the time I was less than pleased with the man, accusing him of “bothsidesism”, a stance ably summarised by Caitlin Johnstone:
I see some lefty types going “I oppose the US empire AND the Iranian regime!” No, you support the US empire. If you desire the downfall of the Iranian government in today’s geopolitical reality, you desire the expansion of US imperial power.
If he’s dropped that stance, one informed by a ‘universalism’ I critiqued seven years ago in the context of Syria, he’s kept quiet about it. But I’ve issued a fatwah on throwing baby out with the bathwater. Not only have Owen’s pro Palestine writings and podcasts been eloquently and witheringly accurate; he does what few of us do. He takes the fight to the enemy, facing down Zionists on such reactionary platforms as GB News, handling a smirking Ed Balls, or running rings round Israeli propagandists.
More to the point here, in a podcast yesterday he gave a summary of what is about to hit us all as a direct consequence of the US-Israeli war of aggression on Iran. I’ll be looking at its impact – already a slam-dunk colossal negative 1 even in the event of a US unconditional surrender this afternoon, and re-opening of Hormuz 2 – in greater depth in a forthcoming post drawing on the more heavyweight thinking of Michael Hudson.
Meanwhile the boy done good in a shade over fifteen minutes on the trainwreck ahead.
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- For Europe the economic consequences will come on top of those of another needless war, that in Ukraine which Europe’s comprador leaders continue to prosecute against the interests of their own citizens to benefit Washington and Wall Street.
- Actually Hormuz is not closed (except by Lloyds of London refusing to insure ships) but passage is denied the aggressors, including a UK and Germany which, while making a song and dance about not sending warships to help US-Israeli criminality, respectively allow RAF bases and military hospitals for use by the same. Moreover, two conditions Iran is now well placed to impose are a Suez style toll, and all oil transactions in yuan: a further nail in the petrodollar’s coffin.
Hudson briefly covers the fact that any economy depends totally on energy inputs. No energy, no economy.
A point covered in more detail in a number of recent articles by Warwick Powell which are worth studying.
Thanks Dave. As indicated, I’ll be featuring Professor Hudson as soon as I can. Ditto Warwick Powell, Richard Wolff, Radhika Desai and I dare say our old friend Yanis Varoufakis.