Thursday, September 21, 2017

First the Yellow Peril, now the Persian Peril

Actually, there was one more peril between the Yellow and the Persian, which you see in the title of this piece; there was the OPEC peril.

First, the highly paid professional alarmists tried to scare the non-Asian world about a rising Asia that will turn the globe into a forced labor camp. This will be achieved, they said, with the coming together of the industrial might of Japan and the massive population of China. Hordes of them will conquer the planet, said the alarmists, as unruly as they are seen in action, participating in the Chinese Cultural Revolution that was unfolding at the time.

But then, it happened that by the time the Chinese phenomenon began to quiet down, and the Japanese economy was beginning to slow down, the OPEC nations were jacking up the price of petroleum. And so, the same alarmists got to work again telling the world that soon enough the entire planet will be working to produce petrodollars, and send them to the Arab Sheiks who will live in splendor while the rest of us will live in squalor.

But when the surplus money that the Arab Sheiks were making, selling their barrels of oil at a higher price, was deposited in “Western” bank accounts, the alarmists began to see that the peril might be someone else. Because these events coincided with the rise of revolutionary fervor in Iran, the alarmists found it convenient to point the finger at the rising Persian Peril.

That notion was steadily reinforced with the passage of time to a point where some alarmists now see the Persian Peril as the foremost peril in the world. In fact, this is the content of the article which came under the title: “The new Persian empire” and the subtitle: “Why American troops must not serve as Iran's expeditionary forces.” It was written by Clifford D. May and published on September 19, 2017 in The Washington Times.

The point that Clifford May is making begins with his denunciation of the actions taken by two former Presidents of the United States, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The first destroyed Persia's archenemy Saddam Hussein, says Clifford May; the second withdrew America's troops from Iraq ... deployed there by W. Bush after the destruction of Saddam's forces. If by that, Clifford May is suggesting that America can never get it right when interfering in the affairs of other nations, it would be the one smart observation he made in a long time.

He goes on to say that America's blunders caused the erosion of Iraq's stability, opening the door for Iran to take its turn interfering with the internal affairs of Iraq. This happened, says the writer, when Iran's rulers started to twist arms in Baghdad. But take heart because all is not lost, he hastens to add, because the U.S. is back again “playing a key role in the defeat of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq”.

But wait a minute; even Clifford May saw something wrong with that development. He put it this way: “If the territories taken from the Islamic State are bequeathed to Iran, American troops will have served as Iran's expeditionary forces.” And that's just the excuse he needed to segue to his favorite pastime: railing against the Iran Nuclear Deal. He says this was the American blunder that allowed the transfer of confiscated Iranian wealth back to Iran. It was a windfall, he says, that made it possible for Iran's rulers to bankroll the defense of Syria's regime, thus establish a foothold in Syria. Because of this, “Iran's imperial project is becoming a colonial project as well,” says Clifford May.

Without assigning the slightest blame to America's ill-advised activities or to Jews such as himself who provided the bad advice, Clifford May went on to make a number of false observations. He then built on them scary scenarios filled with speculations that assume the Persians are evil characters bent on hurting America. The writer began this segment of his argument with the following introduction: “Imagine what it will mean if Iran succeeds in becoming the hegemon in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen … imagine too if this empire goes on to acquire nuclear weapons...”

Having learned through bitter experience that no matter what argument he creates to support the advice that America must attack Iran, it will be demolished by a critic, he refrained this time from making a direct suggestion to that end. But he made a subtle one that went this way: “Iran's rulers represent the fulfillment of a dream of imperial rule, if the United States does not stop them, no one else will stand in their way”.

As critic, I have news for him: No one needs to anymore than did the Yellow Bellies or the Arab Sheiks.