In this Sunday, July 21, 2019 photo, two armed members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard inspect a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz by the Guard, in an Iranian port. (Morteza Akhoondi/Mehr News Agency via AP)
From the sound of things, the West is gearing up for a possible war with Iran; in reality, Israel is working from within the US government to bring the US into a war that Israel wants.
by Ron Paul, reposted from the Ron Paul Institute (July 22, 2019)
[Editor’s note: while animosity between Iran and the West is nearing crisis level this summer, Iran has been targeted for years by US administrations. Behind each economic sanction have been Zionists in high places – some of them possibly dual American/Israeli citizens. Alison Weir writes of “the [2004] creation of the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (OTFI),” which is “really all about safeguarding Israel’s perceived interests.” OTFI works closely with AIPAC and other pro-Israel orgs; its policy is to blow the whistle only on states, orgs, and individuals that Israel chooses.]
The U.K. got a taste of its own medicine this week as Iran seized a British tanker, the Stena Impero, just two weeks after U.K. Royal Marines seized a tanker near Gibraltar carrying two million barrels of Iranian oil.
As could be predicted, the U.S. and U.K. media are reporting Iran’s seizure of the Stena Impero as if it were something out of the blue, pushing the war propaganda that “we” have been attacked and must retaliate.
Media criticism of the U.K. is limited to claims that it has not put enough military into the Persian Gulf, not that it should never have seized the Iranian ship in the first place.
The truth is, the U.K. seizure of the Iranian ship was calculated to force Iran to retaliate and thus provide the pretext the neocons need to get their war.
As usual, Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton is in the thick of this operation. Bolton Tweeted that he was so surprised — but pleased — by the U.K. move against the Iranian tanker. However it is becoming clearer that Bolton was playing a role behind the scenes pushing London to lure Iran into making a move that might trigger the war he’s long been yearning for.
The ramping up of tanker wars comes just as the Pentagon has announced that it will send 500 US troops to Saudi Arabia — the first such U.S. deployment since the U.S. withdrew its troops in 2003.
At that time, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz hailed the move out of Saudi Arabia as denying al-Qaida one of its prime recruiting tools — U.S. troops in their holy land.
What will 500 troops do in Saudi Arabia?
Some say they will help prepare the Prince Sultan military air base for a possible U.S. air squadron deployment.
We must be clear on how we got to the very edge of war with Iran. President Trump pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) promising he would exchange it for a much better deal for the US. He quickly re-applied all previous US sanctions on Iran and demanded that our allies do the same. The US policy would be to apply “maximum pressure” to Iran which would result in Iran capitulating and agreeing to all U.S. demands.
U.S. economic warfare against Iran would bring the country to its knees, the administration claimed, and would deliver a big win to the U.S. without a shot being fired.
But the whole plan has gone terribly wrong.
Iran did not back down or beg for mercy in the face of Trump’s actions, and the Europeans have at least attempted to keep the JCPOA agreement alive. And the U.K. following neocon orders has led the country in a serious and unnecessary crisis that does not look to be easily resolved.
How could the U.S. administration have miscalculated so badly?
Many of us could have told President Trump that the neocons always promise a “cakewalk” when they are talking up a military action. Time and time again — Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria – they promise a quick victory and deliver a quagmire.
The American people overwhelmingly do not want to go to war with Iran and the president wants to be re-elected. Will he return to the political base that elected him on promises of getting along with the rest of the world, or will he continue to follow his neocon advisors down the road to a failed presidency?
Ron Paul is a physician, author, and former Republican congressman. Paul also is a two-time Republican presidential candidate, and the presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1988 U.S. presidential election. His latest book is “Swords into Plowshares.”
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