The governments of Iran, Israel, and America all have imperial and aggressive ambitions in the Middle East, so casting either side as good or bad in this drama represents a failure of our imagination and our intellect. The political elite of all three nations are morally, intellectually, and politically bankrupt. At the moment, American leaders are arming the Saudis, and supporting their intervention in Bahrain to suppress legitimate protests, while taking a more idealistic line in Libya and Iran. This is what hypocrisy looks like. And the Iranian leadership is not innocent either. They speak of an "Islamic Awakening" in the streets of Egypt, Bahrain, and other countries but they are lying because what's happening in the greater Middle East is not an Islamic awakening. As James Carroll writes:
For those same two months, jihadists who think nothing of slaughtering innocents in the name of Allah have been nowhere in sight, as millions of ordinary Arabs launched demonstration after demonstration with a non-violent discipline worthy of Mohandas Gandhi.The leadership of Iran, and the leadership of America and Israel all use the rhetoric about an Islamic awakening to promote their own geopolitical interests in the region. The Mullahs lie about the strength of Islamic fundamentalist groups in order to advance their mixture of politics and religion in the Middle East; and the war criminals in Washington and Tel Aviv lie about Islamic fundamentalism because they want to stop real nationalist and democratic movements from rising in the Arab world, which would pose a legitimate and serious threat to Israeli and U.S. aggression in the region. Another reason U.S. leaders lie is because they want to maintain the myth about the dangers of radical Islam, a myth which allows them to continue their illegal wars and take away freedoms in the name of protecting America and the West from this largely exaggerated menace.
Noam Chomsky wrote in a recent article that the U.S. backs radical Islamic groups to further its imperialist interests in the region:
A common refrain among pundits is that fear of radical Islam requires (reluctant) opposition to democracy on pragmatic grounds. While not without some merit, the formulation is misleading. The general threat has always been independence. In the Arab world, the U.S. and its allies have regularly supported radical Islamists, sometimes to prevent the threat of secular nationalism.The people of America and the West are trapped by the myth of radical Islam and Al-Qaeda. The wars in the Middle Wast will go on until people face the truth that Al-Qaeda is not real, and never did pose a threat to the United States of America. Osama Bin Laden didn't attack New York and Washington on September 11, 2001 - the guilty parties for the crime of the millennium are the corrupt, illegitimate, and diabolical governments of the United States and Israel. The deceptive leaders of these two countries are beyond redemption, they deserve to be hanged for crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and crimes against the general welfare of Mankind.
II. Peace Now, Not Tomorrow
At the start of every world war a big lie is spread from above to the people that it will be the "war to end all wars," but after the war is done, after blood by mostly young men has been spilled, a new age of international tension and turmoil begins. The same cycle of national aggression and resistance repeats itself, new ideological enemies are created, new myths are generated, and new profits are made by the masters of war.
John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated at the hands of powerful elitist gangs in the American establishment who profit from unwinnable wars because they challenged and sought to end this flawed, immoral, and criminal way of doing business. Author and attorney William F. Pepper wrote a book about the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. called "An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King," and author and activist James W. Douglass wrote a book about the murder of John F. Kennedy called "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters." These two brave men posed a threat to what Professor Peter Dale Scott has termed "The War Conspiracy," which is why they were killed.
We must finish what JFK and MLK started more than four decades ago. Their war against war is also our war. We must peacefully protest and bring our war-minded leaders back down to Earth. A world war between the U.S., NATO, and Israel versus Iran and its allies is absolutely unacceptable. Peace is the only option.
Writing after the end of World War II, Albert Camus wrote:
The fate of people of all nations will not be settled until the problems of peace and world organization have been settled. There can be no effective revolution anywhere in the world until this revolution has taken place. (Camus at Combat, pg. 270).World peace is no longer just a slogan, it is a necessity for human survival. Leaders who stand against peace in the United States, Israel, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and Iran are insane and must not be listened to by the people of all nations. We should treat them like pariahs because they are alien to mankind, and to God. A World War in the nuclear age is madness, there is no other way to put it.
"Somehow this madness must cease," said Martin Luther King Jr. in his speech at Riverside Church in New York on April 4, 1967, "We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak of the -- for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours."
