First Syria, Then Iran

 

The news is not good. Three American security guards blown up in Gaza. Richard Perle stating that the Pentagon could easily commit troops to an attack on Syria because Syria is “militarily weak.” Meanwhile, Jack Straw (a misnomer if there ever was one) is in the news saying that a military attack on Iran has not been ruled out. Oh yeh, let’s not forget Iraq-more than a dozen US military and their Iraqi employees dead in the past week, plus a few other foreigners. These numbers do not even address the Iraqi and Palestinian casualties in either of those occupied countries.

As I write this, Al-Jazeera is reporting that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have both distanced themselves from the attack on the US security detail that was destroyed in Gaza. CNN has yet to acknowledge this statement, preferring as usual to publish Israeli statements that attribute the attack to the Palestinian resistance. This means that they believe it was Hamas or one of the other resistance organizations that committed the attack. However, the immediate denial by Hamas and Islamic Jihad lead me to believe that perhaps it was an Israeli organization (governmental or otherwise) that may have killed those guards. After all, Sharon and his government opposes the so-called road map to peace-which is why these Americans were in Gaza in the first place-and if the US can be scared away from even this poor excuse for a solution to the Palestinian situation, then the plan for a Greater Israel can move ahead.

No matter who committed this act, it (unfortunately) comes as no surprise. The US patronage of Israel was bound to blow up in its face sooner or later. For it to occur during the same time period that the US vetoed two resolutions condemning Israel for its attack on Syria and its construction of the apartheid wall makes sense from a Palestinian point of view and (if Israel wants to commit an act that it could blame on the Palestinians), an Israeli point of view. Why would the Palestinians want to get the US military involved, anyhow? That’s almost like committing suicide considering their meager resources.

As for Richard Perle and his bellicose ravings; he is quoted in the Jerusalem Post regarding the recent attack by Israel on Syria thusly: “I was happy to see that Israel has now taken a similar step (to the US in Afghanistan) in responding to acts of terror that originate in Lebanese territory by going to the rulers of Lebanon in Damascus.” What’s scary about this statement is the use of the word “happy.” How can a sane individual be “happy” that the world has moved a step closer to another war? Then again, how can a sane person continue to support almost any aspect of the U.S. policy in the Middle East? If the architects of this policy are ever put on trial, insanity can be their only defense because willful ignorance is no defense at all. Besides, who would believe that these policy makers don’t know what their doing? The problem is that they do know what they are doing: they are attempting to remold the world into their plantation and marketplace. They will do this through bribery, assimilation, threats and plain old mass murder. It’s not that these men don’t understand the world, it’s that they only see it the way they want to see it.

The British government suffers from a similar insanity. Jack Straw, who shares a name with the legendary 15th century British peasant organizer, told the British parliament that he had not ruled out armed action against Iran if it did not meet the US and UK’s requirements concerning its nuclear program. While Iran’s leaders certainly seem to suffer from their own particular insanity, Straw’s statement (echoed by many other Western madmen) is further evidence of the US-UK axis’ psychotic state. The Security Council vote that essentially gives the UN blessing to Washington’s occupation of Iraq indicates that most other world leaders are showing symptoms of this affliction.

What is the solution? Well, it’s going to take more than a couple weeks worth of meds. These maniacs need to be removed from their positions of power, before they can cause any more damage to the world or themselves. Their illusions and delusions are causing irreparable damage to their surroundings and, unless they are subdued, their arson and other destructive tendencies will continue to intimidate and convince others in their sphere of influence to go along with their madness. It has to be madness, for only madness has the energy and resoluteness it requires to destroy the world.

RON JACOBS is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground.

He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu

 

Ron Jacobs is the author of Daydream Sunset: Sixties Counterculture in the Seventies published by CounterPunch Books. He has a new book, titled Nowhere Land: Journeys Through a Broken Nation coming out in Spring 2024.   He lives in Vermont. He can be reached at: ronj1955@gmail.com