Sunday, May 19, 2019

A low-hanging Fruit that America should pluck

In an effort to explain what happens inside the political arenas of the United States, Iran and Israel that may or may not lead to another regional war, perhaps even another world war, Tom Rogan wrote two columns.

At 1: 24 PM on May 17, 2019, Tom Rogan published: “How Trump must bring clarity to his Iran policy,” a column that was published in The Washington Examiner. And then, 2 hours and 50 minutes later, at 4:14 of the same afternoon, Tom Rogan published another column in the same publication under the title: “Why Israel doesn't want an American war with Iran”.

What is Tom Rogan trying to say, and what is he actually saying?

Rogan is trying to say that Mike Pompeo and John Bolton may or may not want war with Iran, but they created the perception that they do, which is contrary to what Donald Trump wants. In fact, all that Trump wants, according to Rogan, is to renegotiate the nuclear deal with Iran. To that end, Trump has taken a softer approach, says Rogan, and this is creating reverberations inside the Iranian political arena.

Rogan's view is that Donald Trump has managed to drive a wedge, however small it may be, between the moderates in Iran, such as Rouhani and Zarif, and the hardliners who are the Revolutionary Guards. This may be a good thing in itself, but the drawback is that the hardliners might interpret this to mean that Trump fears Iranian retaliation, thus be emboldened to escalate their aggressive moves in the region, says Rogan.

In addition, the reality is that the Guards have an extensive financial stake in the economy of Iran, he says, so they wish to reduce the effectiveness of the American sanctions, which are affecting the bottom line of their businesses. For this reason, the Guards may calculate that increasing their nefarious activities, may force Donald Trump to reduce the sanctions.

Trump can prevent this from happening, says Rogan, by maintaining the sanctions while also pursuing an aggressive military posture. But to balance his approach, Trump should invite Rouhani to the White House and get a new nuclear deal on the books. Apparently, Rogan believes that this is the magic formula that will resolve the world-threatening situation in the Persian Gulf. Good luck.

Now onto Rogan's other column, which addresses the equally world-threatening Levant situation. Going over the piece, you get the feeling that while trying to disabuse the readers of the false notion that Israel has a deterrent that can scare Iran or anyone in the Levant for that matter, Tom Rogan is careful not to humiliate the Israeli military by coming right out and saying that the emperor has no clothes. And so, the seasoned writer chose to carefully perform the euphemistic walk on eggshells, or maybe what he did was tiptoe on the tulips. Here is a sample of that:

“The Israelis recognize that a violent escalatory struggle with Iran carries outsize risks. Don't believe me? Then let's apply the notion to a US-Iran war. The Israelis would face a barrage of Iranian missile strikes, possibly armed with chemical warheads. But that's just the start. If Iran went to war with America, Iran's proxies in Lebanon and elsewhere would do the same against Israel. That would mean a full-scale rocket onslaught from Hezbollah. It would also mean bombing campaigns against Israeli government offices. It would mean bloody chaos”.

This being the case, where did the disconnect originate between the reality of the situation in that region of the world, and the false perception that the American public and political elites have ... for whom Tom Rogan has decided to write these two articles?

It all started in 1967 when Israel launched a Pearl Harbor style sneak attack on its neighbors and won a battle that turned out to be the only military victory Israel ever scored. That's because the neighbors made sure never again to be caught by surprise. The result has been that the neighbors won every war ever since, chasing Israel out of everywhere it tried to ply its old tricks.

Still however, until a dozen years ago, the Judeo-Israeli propaganda machine –– unopposed as it was in the marketplace of ideas –– had managed to trumpet the lies that Israel won 3 wars, 4 wars, 10 wars … every war against its neighbors. And this gave it the false aura of invincibility.

But the truth has managed to come out anyway thanks to the internet. Now, some people in America know that –– using modern jet fighters, helicopter gunships, tanks and armored vehicles received freely from America –– Israel could not win a war against a ragtag army of unarmed, bare-feet, half-naked Gaza children. But not everybody knows it. And these are the ones to whom Tom Rogan is addressing his words.

Will that be enough to start a movement in America that will match what happened in the 1960s when opposition to the war in Vietnam became so unbearable, Washington was forced to cut ties with its South Vietnamese ally, accept defeat at the hands of the North Vietnamese, and withdraw its forces?

Well, it does not have to be as dramatic as that. In fact, it does not have to be dramatic at all. To begin with, there is no draft today like there was in the 1960s. Also, the stakes this time are different. The worry back then was that the march of Communism across Asia duplicated the march of Nazism across Europe.

It was thought that if Communism were not stopped in Vietnam, it will go on to conquer the world, and we'll all become slaves. It did not happen that way, of course. Now, half a century later, America and a unified Vietnam are good friends and great trading partners.

As to the situation in the Persian Gulf, the Levant and occupied Palestine, what the local populations want is an end to the colonial mentality, which the Jews are implementing with unprecedented savagery in the region, using American power, wealth (much of it borrowed) and prestige.

Once the ordinary people of America realize how their government is being suckered by the Jews, the fires that the latter are igniting, will be extinguished as easily as shutting off the gas line.

And like the story of America in Vietnam, America will gain new friends in the region, all the way from North Africa to Central Asia, as well as regain the old friends it lost over the decades.