“All warfare is based on deception.” ~Sun Tzu
This is the second part of my article about the Middle East. If you haven’t read the first part, I strongly recommend to do so before starting on this. I’ve already explained a little bit about the current affairs, how they relate to each other and what’s behind it. In this post I will go over Iran’s recent history, which is crucial to understand the agenda hidden behind the usual disinforming news coverage. The rabbit hole does go deep.
- Catching up on history
Iran is a country with quite a history. In fact it’s one of the cradles of civilization as we know it. Enough to write thousands of books about, but for the sake of this article I will focus on modern history. Unlike many other countries, Iran was never colonized, but has been the victim of wars and political pressure for centuries. They’ve fought numerous wars against Russia during the 18th and 19th century. During World War II Russia and Great Britain invaded Iran to safeguard supply lines through the Gulf and the oil refinery owned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
At the time Iran was a neutral country, yet friendly with the Germans. The Shah appealed to Roosevelt to come to their aid, but since the US arms industry was making a good buck through it’s lend-lease programme, he refused. After the invasion he was removed in favor of his son, who was basically a puppet to his new rulers; over the course of the following years he supplied the Allied war effort and even declared war on Germany in ’43.
By the end of the war the Russians refused to withdraw from their occupied territory and even helped separatists create the People’s Republic of Azerbaijan and the Kurdish People’s Republic. In fact Iran – being a founding member – requested the UN to intervene after the war, but the Security Council gave them their poker face. As a result of all that the Iranian economy was dealt a heavy blow and they were never refunded. The last request for a refund was made in 2009 by the current president Ahmadinejad. This just goes to show that those injustices are not forgotten nor forgiven.
- The Islamic Revolution
In 1951 the Prime Minister Mossadeq gave Iran’s resources back to its people by nationalizing the British oil firm that was exploiting the country’s oil supply. This happened shortly after the assassination of his predecessor Razmara, who was selling out Iran’s oil to the AIOC (an antecedent of BP). Of course the British were not amused and banded together with Eisenhower in ’53 to stage a coup, putting the Shah monarch in charge of the country.
This event effectively destroyed democracy in Iran by putting a Western-friendly dictator in charge, who exercized in a lot of political oppression and is responsible for the death and impoverishment of many Iranians. Of course, he sold the Allies his oil for a very friendly price. Then in ’79 the Islamic Revolution happened. The people demanded their Islamic spiritual leader Khomeini to be returned from exile and for the Shah to be proscecuted. However, the revolution didn’t improve life in Iran. The anti-American attitude of the newly formed government was nothing but a theatre performance.
Another interesting detail is that Iran’s secret service (SAVAK), set up by the CIA in ’53 after the coup to aid the Shah in controlling the Iranian population, was incorporated fully in Khomeini’s Islamic terror state. If anything, that proves that Khomeini betrayed the Islamic Revolution by absorbing a US made agency into his government, which was responsible for the torture and mutilation of many of its citizens and is still doing that to this day. It was even run by the same guy as before the coup – Hossein Fardoust.
That there are secret ties between the US and Iranian governments is suspicious considering their public appearances. To understand what’s happening despite the facade of hostilities we have to look at what’s going on behind the scenes. Cheap oil seems to be one of the core driving mechanisms behind US foreign policy in the Middle East, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. The US have been funding Islamic terrorism since ’79 in Saudi-Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan. Divide and rule seems to be part of the strategy; staging and fueling conflicts while the military industry does good business by supplying arms. The US grants its puppets regional authority in exchange for resources. Public appearances and gestures are there to appease the crowd, both in Iran and the US.
- On the warpath
The weakened state of Iran’s military due to the revolution did not stop Khomeini to provoke a war with Iraq. The US gave him about 8 billion dollars for releasing the hostages from the US embassy in Tehran and they supplied him with arms over the next decade. If Khomeini was an actual enemy of the US then its policies toward Iran would be questionable to say the least. Some of the arms shipments even went through Israel, a sworn enemy of Iran. However, despite arming an Islamic state to the teeth, Iraq came out victorious after Khomeini had no choice but to comply with a UN imposed cease-fire.
Of course this didn’t advance US geopolitical interests and that’s why the US decided on the first Gulf War in ’91. This gave Iran a breather lest they might be conquered by Iraq. The US got Kuwait to provoke a war with Iraq and then intervened. It was never about protecting their oil trade, but about protecting Iran. Over the course of time Iran has been actively contributing young men to US-funded Islamic terrorism in many places. The main goal being destabilization of the regions around competing superpowers like China and Russia.
At this time there is still a heavy US presence in the Middle East. Despite withdrawing some of its troops in Iraq, the US has also been making additional military preparations for another armed conflict it would seem. It’s disturbing that the US has supplied several of Israel’s sworn enemies (Iran and Saudi-Arabia) with an enormous amount of armaments. China is building up a strong navy to protect its trade routes and Israel is becoming very vulnerable now that Iran has gained a lot of influence in the Middle East over the past decades.
At the same time it’s suggested in the US media that Israel should dismantle its nuclear weapons in order to bring Iran’s nuclear program to a halt. That would be a strange bit of diplomacy if you’re made to believe that the US is an ally of Israel. We can definitely conclude that media appearances are not to be taken at face value. The question remains what all that military buildup is preparing for exactly. In the next part I will go over the US-Israeli relations to add some more pieces to the puzzle.
