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Yesterday I welcomed –\u00a0“with all due tepidity”\u00a0<\/em>– a Guardian piece earlier in the week by Owen Jones on the violence in Iran; the welcome bit for its opening sentence: “What does it take to shake illusions in western intervention?” …<\/em><\/p>\n … and my tepidity for two related reasons. One is Owen’s ‘plague-on-both-houses’<\/em>\u00a0 damning of the ayatollahs even as – rightly but ineffectually – he reminds those who call for ‘outside help’ of the carnage and chaos such ‘help’ invariably begets. <\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Much of my output on Iran this week has targeted the absurdity, if we’re being kind, of this position as ably summarised by Caitlin Johnstone<\/strong><\/a>:<\/h6>\n This post turns its attention to the other thing Owen gets wrong. With the self-same uncritical approach that marked his understanding of Syria<\/strong><\/a>, he takes as read that the protests are indeed genuinely grass roots through and through. He says nothing of much larger rallies in support of their government by a people for whom the US-Israeli attacks in June, which caught Iranian air defences off-guard as its diplomats negotiated with the Americans, had revealed the extent of Anglo-Zionist perfidy, and consequent folly not only of appeasement but of looking westwards for disinterested help. <\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n And, again with the same uncritical approach marking his understanding of Syria, he is silent on the fact CIA, Mossad and in all likelihood MI6 fingerprints are all over this. <\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 FWIW I think that’s more ignorance than mendacity, though this is meagre mitigation given (a) the responsibilities attendant on his privileged platform and (b) an abundance of evidence of empire machinations in a quarter-century of ‘colour revolutions’ and coups which by divine coincidence advanced the interests of a US oligarchy masquerading as a democracy and determined at all costs, up to and including thermonuclear Armageddon, to shore up its weakening but still murderously powerful grip on the planet.<\/p>\n With these thoughts in mind, I offer two short videos. The first, by Kernow Damo, overlaps – but with sufficiently different emphasis to make it worth the watch – with several featuring former UK diplomat and highly erudite Middle East commentator Alastair Crooke. Specifically, it asks why both Washington and Tel Aviv might conclude that, following their failure in June, any new decapitation strike on Iran will be met with a response devastating for Israel<\/strong><\/a> and for US assets in the Gulf.<\/p>\n And why Trump, ever ready to declare ‘mission accomplished’ where everyone else sees climb-down, has walked back his ‘strong options’ against Iran on the risible ground of a promise not to hang ‘protestors’. (As if Trump gave a damn, other than as window dressing, <\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and as if this was some huge concession by Tehran.) Then again, it could equally be that he and Bibi seek yet again to wrong-foot by signalling peace while preparing to strike.<\/p>\n As does Alastair, Kernow rules out neither in a podcast a shade over fifteen minutes.<\/p>\nI see some lefty types going \u201cI oppose the US empire AND the Iranian regime!\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 No, you support the US empire. If you desire the downfall of the Iranian government in today\u2019s geopolitical reality, you desire the expansion of US imperial power.<\/h6>\n
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