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It seems similar conscionable yesterday that United States President Donald Trump was pushing a “diplomatic resolution” to the Iranian atomic issue.
Now, the US has joined Israel’s amerciable assault connected Iran, striking 3 Iranian atomic sites connected Saturday successful what Trump has boasted was a “very palmy attack”.
As CNN dramatically enactment it, “a midsummer nighttime successful June 2025 could travel to beryllium remembered arsenic the infinitesimal the Middle East changed forever; erstwhile the fearfulness of atomic annihilation was lifted from Israel; erstwhile Iran’s powerfulness was neutered and America’s soared”.
Of course, a “fear of atomic annihilation” has thing to bash with Israel’s existent strikes connected Iran, which person been dutifully portrayed successful the US media arsenic targeting subject and atomic facilities but person someway managed to slaughter hundreds of civilians. The victims see 23-year-old writer Parnia Abbasi, killed on with her household arsenic they slept successful their Tehran flat building.
As is wide arsenic time to anyone not successful the concern of defending Israeli depredations, the attacks connected Iran are simply a warfare of convenience for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is sidesplitting each sorts of birds with 1 chromatic successful his run against Iranian atomic facilities.
In summation to distracting the satellite from Israel’s ongoing genocide successful the Gaza Strip, wherever starving Palestinians continue to beryllium massacred connected a regular ground arsenic they question nutrient and different aid, Netanyahu has besides managed to divert attraction from his ain embroilment successful galore corruption charges astatine home.
Plus, the warfare connected Iran is wildly fashionable among Israelis, which translates into large points for a premier curate who has faced important home opposition.
Trump’s archetypal insistence connected diplomacy with Iran people got Netanyahu’s panties into a elephantine clump – but the concern has present been rectified by the midsummer night’s bombing, which, according to the president, has “obliterated” Iran’s atomic sites.
To beryllium sure, Iran has agelong occupied US crosshairs, with galore an constitution fig salivating astatine the imaginable of bombing the state to smithereens. Some person salivated much openly than others, arsenic successful the lawsuit of John Bolton – a erstwhile US ambassador to the United Nations and concisely the nationalist information advisor successful the archetypal Trump medication – who successful 2015 took to the sentiment pages of The New York Times with the pursuing advice: “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.”
That the editors of the US paper of grounds did not bat an oculus successful publishing specified a blatant telephone for the usurpation of planetary instrumentality is indicative of the grade to which Iran has been thoroughly demonised successful US nine and media. Recall that successful 2002, then-US President George W Bush appointed the federation to his infamous “axis of evil” on with Iraq and North Korea.
And yet, speech from being a persistent thorn successful the broadside of US imperialism, Iran’s behaviour has been alternatively little apparently, um, “evil” than definite different planetary actors – similar the US itself. For instance, Iran is not the 1 presently backing a straight-up genocide to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
Nor is Iran the 1 that has spent the past respective decades bombing and different antagonising folks successful each country of the satellite – from backing right-wing authorities terror successful Latin America to conducting wide slaughter successful Vietnam.
Furthermore, the sole clandestine atomic weapons powerfulness successful the Middle East is not Iran but Israel, which has refused to motion the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has ne'er allowed UN safeguards connected its facilities.
Those who applaud the strikes connected Iran citing the “oppressive” quality of the Iranian authorities would, meanwhile, bash good to revisit the US way grounds of fuelling oppression successful the country. In 1953, the CIA orchestrated a coup d’etat against Iran’s democratically elected leader, Mohammad Mossadegh, which paved the mode for the extended reign of the torture-happy shah.
Historian Ervand Abrahamian notes successful his publication A History of Modern Iran: “Arms dealers joked that the shah devoured their manuals successful overmuch the aforesaid mode arsenic different men work Playboy.” Indeed, the shah’s obsessive acquisition of US weaponry did overmuch to alteration his regularisation by terror, which was enactment to an extremity by the Iranian Revolution of 1979. And the Iranian atomic programme that Trump has present bombed? It was started by that precise aforesaid shah.
Now, arms dealers are presumably not excessively upset implicit the midsummer night’s events and the wide escalation of the situation successful the Middle East. For his part, Netanyahu has gone retired of his mode to thank Trump for his “bold decision” to spell aft Iran “with the awesome and righteous mightiness of the United States”.
In Netanyahu’s words, Trump’s enactment volition “change history” – arsenic though making the satellite harmless for much warfare is thing new. And arsenic the US media scramble to warrant amerciable attacks connected a sovereign nation, the sinister hypocrisy of 2 heavy nuclear-armed nations undertaking to constabulary atomic “threats” cannot beryllium overstated.
It is anyone’s conjecture what Trump, who prides himself connected spontaneous and manic behaviour, volition bash next. But remainder assured that, immoderate happens, the arms manufacture won’t beryllium going bare immoderate clip soon.
The views expressed successful this nonfiction are the author’s ain and bash not needfully bespeak Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.