IS TRUMP TARGETING IRAN?
Facing domestic headaches, will the U.S. president go to war?
Wasn’t it Karl Marx who wrote that history repeats itself, “first as tragedy, then as farce”? Had he been alive this past week in the United States, he would have felt some sense of vindication.
As expected, Donald Trump’s Republicans reminded Americans in Thursday’s epic Supreme Court nomination hearing that they have learned very little since their politically disastrous handling in 1991 of Anita Hill’s indictment of Clarence Thomas.
But earlier in the week, the echoes from a recent past were even more ominous, because they could potentially lead to war.
Not unlike 15 years ago, when the administration of President George W. Bush presented a fraudulent justification for its invasion of Iraq, there are growing signs that Trump’s government — as it sinks deeper into political crisis — sees regime change in Iran as one of its undeclared foreign policy goals.
That was the implicit message of the U.S. president when he spoke to the United Nations this week. It was a combative speech, stressing “America First” and the marvels of “sovereignty,” but it was also widely ridiculed by many in the international audience.
But Trump was deadly serious in his condemnation of what he called “the corrupt dictatorship” in Iran. It is sig- nificant that he leads an administration with many senior political advisers and military officials who have spent much of their careers promoting regime change in Iran.
As Trump’s legal and political problems have mounted, there is increasing worry among his critics that he will concoct some sort of contrived military action to distract the public from his own crises and gain public support.
It is a familiar playbook among Republicans since that is exactly what happened with the 2003 American invasion of Iraq. It was surreal this week to see John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, warn Iran in language similar to his warnings against Iraq in 2002-03 when he served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations:
“If you harm our citizens, if you continue to lie, cheat and deceive, yes, there will indeed be hell to pay.”
Bolton has often pushed for regime change in Iran. In January, he wrote: “America’s declared policy should be ending Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution before its 40thanniversary (next year).”
Another Trump associate, his attorney Rudolph Giuliani, told Iran’s self-described “government in exile” last Saturday that the U.S. government supported their efforts to overthrow Iran’s official regime:
“I don’t know when we’re going to overthrow them. It could be in a few days, months or a couple of years, but it’s going to happen.”
Giuliani’s inflammatory remarks last weekend were made on the same day terrorists killed at least 29 people, including children, in an attack on a military parade in southwestern Iran. It was the deadliest attack Iran has seen in years, and the government blamed U.S.-backed insurgents.
The campaign against Iran by the U.S. government is a lonely one for Trump. Not surprisingly, it is supported by Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu — who has framed his entire political career by identifying Iran as a menace — and Saudi Arabia, which resents Iran’s power and potential as its regional rival.
But most of America’s western allies, including Europe and Canada, have so far been more conciliatory.
An irony is that America’s hawkish approach toward Iran coupled with incidents such as last weekend’s terror- ist attack are only serving to strengthen the hardliners within the country, and undermining the moderates, including president Hassan Rouhani.
In 1953, Iran’s secular and democratic government was overthrown in a coup funded and organized by the CIA and Britain’s intelligence service. This led to the return of the Shah of Iran, and his long and despotic regime.
In 1979, the Shah was finally toppled by Iran’s ayatollahs and their Islamic Revolution.
Unlike most Americans, Iranians remember their history.