Surviving Capitalism (Not) : War on Iran & Calling America’s Bluff

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

War on Iran & Calling America’s Bluff

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Consortium News. (the “escape from Malacca”, which he uses as a metaphor, refers to a video game.)

Escobar persuasively argues that the Trump administration (really the Deep State's) economic war on Iran is a very dangerous game fraught with all kinds of hazards and strike's deep in the heart of the economic planning and strategy of China, Russia, and Iran. This analysis accords with my theory that the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire is desperately grasping at all kinds of dangerous straws that conceivably might interfere with activities of their antagonists who want a multipolar world free from domination of the Empire.

Those subscribing to the ultimate U.S, neocon and Zionist wet dream – regime change in Iran – may rejoice at this declaration of war. But as Professor Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran has elegantly argued, “If the Trump regime miscalculates, the house can easily come crashing down on its head.”

And Escobar agrees with this warning.

The full–frontal attack on Iran reveals how the Trump administration bets on breaking Eurasia integration via what would be its weakeast node; the three key nodes are China, Russia and Iran. These three actors interconnect the whole spectrum; Belt and Road Initiative; the Eurasia Economic Union; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization; the International North-South Transportation Corridor; the expansion of BRICS Plus.

So there’s no question the Russia-China strategic partnership will be watching Iran’s back.

A major factor that Escobar sees in this dangerous geopolitical game that the Empire is playing is the reaction of those countries who will be affected by the end of the exemptions to economic sanctions against Iran.

... the Trump administration unilaterally smashed a multinational, UN-endorsed agreement, the JCPOA, or Iran nuclear deal. Now the waivers that magnanimously allowed eight nations to import oil from Iran without incurring imperial wrath in the form of sanctions will expire on May 2 and won’t be renewed.

The eight nations are a mix of Eurasian powers: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy and Greece.

Once again, we politically aware people must worry where this will lead because the world is entering another dangerous phase because of the capitalist Empire's dangerous games.