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Inventing a Nonexistent Iranian Threat

Written by Subject: Iran

Inventing a Nonexistent Iranian Threat

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

From Jimmy Carter to Trump, the US invented and reinvented an Iranian threat when none exists — not earlier or now, not at any time throughout Islamic Republic history.

Its ruling authorities seek world peace, stability, and cooperative relations with other nations — polar opposite how US-dominated NATO, Israel, and their imperial partners operate, threatening all nations not bending to their will, a prescription for endless wars.

The neocon/CIA-connected Washington Post moaned over increasingly ineffective US bullying tactics — China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and other nations unwilling to subordinate their sovereign rights to US interests, countering its imperial aims.

The US war department is the nation's largest employer with 2.15 military service members and 732,000 civilian personnel, according to its own data.

Its annual budget is likely up to nearly threefold its official $716 billion total — with all categories included, including black amounts and frequent add-ons.

It operates on every continent in over three-fourths of world countries at about 4,800 reported sites — plus countless unknown numbers of unreported ones.

Pentagon operations have nothing to do with "deter(ring) war" as the DOD website claims, everything to do waging endless aggression on nations threatening no one, wanting them transformed into US vassal states, their resources controlled, their people exploited.

America's only threats are invented. No real ones exist anywhere. Yet the Pentagon reportedly presented the Trump regime with a plan to send another 10,000 US combat troops to the Middle East, a move to counter a nonexistent Iranian threat.

Claiming the move is defensive defies reality. US deployments are all about offense, not defense. Waging endless wars in multiple theaters speak for themselves.

Will Iran be the Trump regime's next target? What's unlikely is possible. On Thursday, Iranian Armed Forces chief of staff General Mohammad Baqeri called Trump's actions against the Islamic Republic a "clash of wills," adding:

"(T)he confrontation and faceoff between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the wicked government of America…will result in a hard, crushing and destructive response to (the) bullheaded and adventurist enemy."

US relations with Iran have been on a downward trajectory since Trump took office. During his first foreign trip to Saudi Arabia in May 2017, the Arab world's most ruthless regime, he signaled his extreme hostility toward the Islamic Republic by reciting a litany of bald-face Big Lies about the country.

He lied about Washington's regional and global agenda, ignored its endless wars of aggression, and pretended the US is combatting the scourge of ISIS it created and supports, along with other terrorist groups.

He turned truth on its head about Iran, falsely claiming its ruling authorities are responsible for supporting "extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region" — a US, NATO, Israeli, Saudi speciality, not how Iran operates.

He and other regime officials continue vilifying the nation for its sovereign independence, its unwillingness to subordinate its rights to US interests, and for standing in the way of Israel's hegemonic aims. 

Throughout his tenure, he waged war by other means on the country. His policies and actions risk turning things hot.

The Pentagon has a vast network of global military bases. No one outside its commanders and the US intelligence community knows how many, scores in the Middle East alone, an estimated two dozen in Syria, maybe a like number in Iraq.

Like crabgrass, they're everywhere — for offense, not defense. It's unclear how many combat troops the US has in the Middle East. Official numbers way understate the true total.

They're part of US global war of terror, a scourge threatening everyone everywhere. Sending more numbers to a part of the world boiling from US aggression risks more of it.

Earlier in May, acting war secretary Shanahan discussed sending 120,000 US troops to the region with possible war on Iran in mind.

Trump denied the report, calling it "fake news," adding if he intended war on the country he'd send "a hell of a lot more troops than that."

Iran is about four-times the size of Iraq geographically with double its population. Its military is the region's strongest along with Turkey and the Pentagon's regional presence — much stronger than Israel except for its nukes.

US rage to replace all sovereign independent governments with puppet regimes it controls makes anything possible ahead — even war with Iran, Russia, and/or China.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

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