DOES AMERICA REALLY WANT WAR WITH IRAN?
By Vincent Lyn
2020 most of us all woke up into a new decade with optimism, resolutions and a new change in our lives. A few days later it seemed that was shattered into a million pieces with the U.S. drone attack and assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, the military tactician who literally planned and executed the downfall of ISIS in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Though I hope by now anyone with any knowledge knows full well who created ISIS in the first place thanks to George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Qassem Soleimani was an international hero and loved by countless Shia Muslims and many other groups throughout the Middle East and around the world. And now because of Trump’s ultimate incalculable blunder he has now put the U.S. closer to a war that could end all wars. Putting American lives in increasing danger around the world and at home.
In 2019 approximately 1,000 out of 327 million Americans traveled to Iran and I was one of them (though I traveled on my British passport). It was exactly one year ago I was there and I spoke with numerous people and the conversation always started with how did I like Iran and ended with did I think Trump would start a war with Iran? First off I loved Iran and definitely want to return. Personally it’s always about the people and I found them to be friendly, warm and hospitable. I wanted to return this year but traveled to Syria instead. The West and especially here in America are very misinformed regarding Iran and the Middle East in general. Most know very little about the country, its history, culture, landscape and language. Everyone I spoke with in Iran felt that Trump wanted to invade. Well sadly that might come to pass. A day after Soleimani was killed my phone was ringing off the hook from my friends and colleagues in Syria, Iraq and Iran concerned about my safety and telling me to please be extra vigilant going forward. Ironically I was also calling friends in Iran to find out what the feeling on the ground was from Iranian citizens and for them to please be safe. Not in a century has the fervor of the Iranian people been so united in mass protests against Trump and American foreign policy. Speaking with colleagues in Iran they are also surprised to see so many people who dislike politics but have taken to the streets in protest. The mass protests of millions across Iran have united the country chanting death to America!
With the advent of social media the amount of news on this has been sent into media frenzy. Not just by the usual culprits of CNN and Fox but every major network in the world and of course citizens around the globe ringing in their two cents. I find it absolutely comical that everyone quickly becomes an expert on the foreign policies of the Middle East especially here at home. 2019 was the largest numbers for Americans traveling around the world of which nearly 42 million flew to overseas destinations. Less than 6% traveled to the Middle East mostly to countries like Morocco, Turkey and Egypt as opposed to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran that are always on the U.S. State Department list of countries not to travel to. So it wouldn’t be surprising that most of the so-called experts spouting their foolish diatribe on the news networks have never even been to these countries especially Iran, including most Americans who’ve never ventured anywhere near the region.
Do Americans really want another war? This is not Iraq of 2003 a much weaker nation militarily than Iran? Iran a country of 85 million of which 70% are under the age of 35 and who would be more than glad and capable of fighting for Iran against America. Iran could never fight the U.S. head to head, yes we all know that the U.S. military might is unequalled, so Iran would use its proxy forces throughout the region. Iran is in no position to take on the might of the U.S. military head on, so any retaliatory actions will most likely be an asymmetric warfare, relying on terrorist strikes on U.S. and their allies vulnerable soft targets.
During Obama’s presidency, there was relative peaceful relationship between U.S. and Iran following their nuclear agreement, also ratified by China, Russia and the European Union. Once Trump entered the White House, he tore up the agreement and reapplied economic sanctions. Gradually, the words of war between the two adversaries are ratcheting to where potentially a real war can ensue. The killing of Soleimani is a watershed moment, just as the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand triggered the First World War. The blood that would be spilled would be catastrophic and would affect Americans here at home.
America has always believed it was safe from wars primarily because of its geography protected by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We haven’t had a war on U.S. soil since 1865. But we don’t need to, for it to disrupt the cushy lifestyle that so many Americans are used to. If Iran were to disrupt the channel and flow of oil in the Straits of Hormuz, the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and one of the world’s most strategically important choke points. Gas prices could reach $10 a gallon like they are in Europe and everything would cease to stop in a heartbeat throughout America. The average Americans life would be abruptly halted and would cause unlimited chaos throughout the country. Iran has the capability of causing such strife to America and though their loss of life would be catastrophic our life style would change forever.
Americans need to remember something very important. Trump cares very little for you and I. We are mere pawns on the chessboard in his sad play for world dominance. We are very much expendable and many of us would die because of his utter stupidity and diabolical acts of war. War is more profitable to those in power and Trump has drastically escalated the ongoing conflict with Iran and sadly it brings out the absolute worst in the American foreign policy community. Iran threatens to retaliate by attacking U.S. military assets in their region. Trump threatens to retaliate by attacking civilians and destroying cultural sites. His very own insane diatribe speaks volumes. Every top Democratic presidential candidate except Bernie Sanders was careful to foreground that Soleimani was a bad guy before condemning the assassination. The truth is that Soleimani was not all that different from any of about dozens of current and former American politicians and bureaucrats. If anything, he was considerably more restrained about the use of force. Yes, he was involved in a lot of bloody wars, but so was every American President since 2000, and besides half the wars he fought in were started or fueled by the United States. It’s just another instance of America’s gigantic hypocrisy when it comes to war.
Noam Chomsky states “The U.S. poses the greatest threat to world peace. Not Iran! The United States has become a rogue state, indifferent to international law and conventions, entitled to resort to violence at will. United States is free to resort to unilateral use of military power, even for such purposes a to ensure uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies and strategic resources — let alone security or alleged humanitarian concerns.”
Yet even the worst of Soleimani’s record pales in comparison with the most blood-drenched American warmongers. If Soleimani deserves condemnation for arming Iraqi insurgents, then George W. Bush and Dick Cheney deserve 10 times as much for starting the war in the first place. It was a pointless war that killed 500,000 people and orphaned 3 million children. An illegal war of aggression sold on lies that obliterated Iraqi society, its people, almost all of them innocent civilians.
Indeed, the Quds Force itself was originally created during the Iran-Iraq War, which was started by a heavily U.S.backed Saddam Hussein in 1980. One million lives were lost on both sides in the grueling eight-year conflict. And the reason the Islamic Republic exists in the first place is because the United States and Britain toppled the regime in 1953 and installed a brutal dictator. America has unleashed Thirty Years of War and violent chaos around Iran for no good reason at all.
The apparent fact that the Soleimani assassination was carried out by a drone strike at a civilian airport really is the perfect capstone for the last two decades of lunatic American violence. American warmongering that for the last decade the signature U.S. method of killing people, vaporizing somebody who can’t defend themselves or fight back in any way. But I believe there well will be serious blowback from this assassination. The Iraqi government, which is teetering on the edge of collapse, was at this contemptuous violation of its sovereignty, has now voted to expel the U.S. troops from the country. With the Europeans still annoyed with Trump unilaterally pulling out of the nuclear agreement, and Iraq now demanding U.S. remove all their troops following the assassination of Soleimani on their territory; it is likely the U.S. would have to fight any future war with Iran alone, except perhaps with token support from Israel and Saudi Arabia. However, Iran is fully aware that even U.S. by themselves would annihilate the Iranian military, but they also know that even the largest aircraft carriers and smart weapons cannot protect the millions of defenseless civilian and commercial targets from terror attacks. And once Iran develops its own nuclear weapons, which invariable it will now seek to do after announcing that it would completely abandon limitations on enriching uranium, or it simply purchase such weapons of mass destruction from another rogue anti-American sympathizer, then terrorism may well be taken to levels that the world has never experienced.The blood of Americans, Iranians and Iraqis will be clearly on Trumps hands. There are a dozen places Iran could strike back, either at overextended American bases, or as I stated earlier by disrupting oil shipping, which I feel would be the most effective way of hurting the American way of life.
The United States has always believed its almighty and powerful, that it has been able to get away with decades of pointless atrocities. One of these days it will pay for its imperial and over excessive pride. That day may be quite soon and about time America got a wake up call in thinking it can be the world’s police. It is certainly a sad day for anyone who desires a peaceful world!
“You consider war to be inevitable? Very good. Let everyone who advocates war be enrolled in a special regiment of advance guards, for the front of every storm, of every attack, to lead them all!”
- Leo Tolstoy
Vincent Lyn
CEO/Founder at We Can Save Children
Director of Creative Development at African Views Organization
Economic & Social Council at United Nations
Rescue & Recovery Specialist at International Confederation of Police & Security Experts