Whom The Gods Would Destroy, They First Make Mad

Whom The Gods Would Destroy, They First Make Mad

The world is still reeling in horror from the deadly Sri Lanka bombings that may have been the work of Islamic State madmen.  Poor Sri Lanka has suffered so much after three decades of civil war and communal strife.  We weep for this beautiful and once gentle nation.

But behind the horror in Sri Lanka, a huge crisis was building up of which the world has so far taken insufficient notice: renewed tensions in the oil-producing Gulf.  This is the latest attempt by the United States to crush Iran’s independent-minded government and return it to American tutelage.

The Trump administration has demanded that the principal importers of 1.2 billion barrels of Iranian oil halt purchases almost immediately.  This imperial diktat includes China, South Korea, Turkey, India and Japan.  The comprehensive embargo is very close to an all-out act of war.  In 1941, America’s cut-off of oil to Japan provoked the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The oil embargo not only violates international law, it sets the US on a collision course with some of its most important allies and vassal states.  Brazen threats against Iran by Trump’s two main enforcers, National Security advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have reinforced America’s unfortunate image as an imperial power that threatens war against disobedient satraps and independent-minded nations.

Iran, a proud, ancient nation of 80 million, has become, with Turkey, the most effective opposition to America’s imperial domination of the Mideast and a key supporter of Palestinian rights and statehood.  This has put Iran on a collision course with Israel and its influential American supporters, notably the Evangelical hard right which somehow believes that Jesus will only return to earth after Israel expands its border and mankind is destroyed.

Meanwhile, the Trump Administration, which has now become indistinguishable from Israel’s hard-line far right ruling coalition, has declared virtual war against Iran.

To benefit Israel, the White House cancelled a $20 billion order from Iran for Boeing aircraft, embargoed trade with Iran, reneged on the internationally backed nuclear deal with Tehran, cut off all aid to Palestinians, and keeps sustaining the savage Saudi/Emirati war against Yemen that has caused mass starvation and epidemics.