The 67+ years war with Iran

On December 16th, I started this blog titled “The Pragmatism of Iran”. In it, I was going to speak to the current situation of the Iranian Nuclear agreement, and what the disruption of the United States has caused by backing out of it. I was going to speak about Trump, and he visceral hatred towards anything Barack Obama achieved during his administration, and how this childish behavior, is unraveling the foundation of the United States being a global leader. The assassination of Qasem Soleimani has changed all of that, and so has my title. Yes, that’s right I said it, assassination. To be even more blunt, we’ve been at war with Iran for 67+ years, and it all boils down to…OIL, the black curse.

Before I continue, please read my following blog:

To kill a nuclear deal…

My blog spoke of many topic that lead up to the United States pulling out of the nuclear deal with Iran which was a remarkable achievement for the Obama administration and the world for that matter, curbing the spread of nuclear weapons given the hostility between Iran and the United States. Iran, to put pressure on the remaining signatures of the treaty by announcing they will abandon the treaty, which may invite intervention from the United States. This is all because of an impulsive President, now trying to stir up a distraction to his impeachment hearing, surrounded by people who are willing to do his bidding instead of guarding the interests of the United States and follow the constitution. What I’m about to say will not happen because of the big black bags of money left on the back porch of many republican senators and congressmen. The fear of  maga hat wearer backlash. They also fear the twitter tirade from the turd in chief. But it’s time that tRusmp has to go.

And it all began in 1953. At the time, the United States, sill in a subdued glow from the victory in WWII, was in somewhat of a quagmire on the Korean Peninsula and, was alarmed about it’s dwindling supply of oil. An agreement was reached with Saudi Arabia to supply oil to the United States (on that infamous day in February 14, 1945 with FDR and King Saud) and its European allies in exchange for protection and free flow of shipping in the Persian gulf. England, was in dire straights as well. Still reeling from WWII, it lost its crown jewel of India, and was loosing ground in the Sini Strait, and Iraq which also had huge oil reserves, which England helped discover. The Sini was England’s gateway to the middle east.

 

In Iran, the Anglo-Iranian oil company was selling oil and making lots of money, and the greedy Brits did not want to give up there huge profits from it. Iran’s newly elected leader, Mossadegh wanted the same deal the Saudi’s had, and demanded documentation from the Anglo-Iranian oil company of their percentage of profits made from oil sales, but the Brits and the Americans were having none of it. Red fear was in the air, and they were afraid of communist influence and eventual takeover, or even worse, Iran would nationalize their oilfields( Mossadegh did nationalize the oilfields).  In addition, Iran only received 16% of the revenue of the oil sold from the 1901 agreement. So, President Eisenhower and Prime minister Churchill decided to overthrow the Iranian government, using the CIA and the British intelligence service. This allowed Mohammad Reze Pahlavi to be installed. Pahlavi was Iran’s last Sha.

A new consortium of Oil holding companies were created, British Petroleum, Gulf oil, and Royal Dutch Schell.

As a side note, it was the United State who introduced nuclear power in Iran. Sold as atoms for peace, they sold and built nuclear technology to the Iranians. Under a program called atoms for peace under President Eisenhower, they even build a nuclear plant on Tehran’s university campus. The first plant was in 1957, which was a research nuclear reactor.  Hmmmmm.

To continue a connected article, I created the virtues of what a dictator is, and how he is used by his overseer.

Ain’t Nuttin’ wrong with a Dictator

From 1953 to 1979, the Sha, modernized his country, educating engineers to maintain and develop there nuclear power, and expand it. This lead to the nuclear genie being let out of the bottle.  The Sha also kept the peace by having a ruthless secret police force, kidnapping, deporting, and murdering anyone who opposed him. With any dictatorship, when your young are sent to the United States to be educated, they learn how corrupt their country really is.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution shook the world in 1979. A new term was created, “West-toxification” was created and used to denote pernicious Western influence that was to be rejected. The Iranians took hostages from the American embassy and held them there until Ronald Reagan was voted in as president. It also gave rise to a new leader in Iran, a huge backlash, and his name was Ayatollah Khomeini. The chant “death to America” and “the great Satan” was the rally call to western hegemony. The United States used sanctions against Iran ( dang, no more Iranian pistachios), and froze all of Iran’s foreign assets. People mistake President Obama “giving” the Iranians money when he only returned which was legally theirs as a part of the JCPOA agreement.

Strict rule was in order of the day, they de-westernized, women wore the head to ankle burka’s  and could no longer wear skirts or dresses. This attitude lasted into the 1980s. But by then, Iran was fighting a brutal war against neighboring Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein. As part of that war, Saddam repeatedly bombed the Bushehr nuclear facility, which was not operational at the time.  This was an eight year war, with advanced jets, well trained soldiers, artillery, tanks, and even chemical weapons by Iraq. No one flagged Saddam for that war crime. But just as Hitler rose as a result of WWI, an anti-hero emerges, Qasem Soleimani came out of the 8 year war with Iraq. He stayed and fought and rose through the ranks for 8 years. Afterwards, he gained another reputation during border patrols of Afghanistan as a fighter against drug trafficking.

So, in essence, a young construction worker in the mid 70’s turns into a rock star Islamic fighter and military planner after finishing the 8 year war with Iraq. The number of battles he either fought in or planned is numerous. REMEMBER, that war was started by Saddam Hussain, which the United States and Saudi Arabia backed.

All the while, through the Iran/Iraq war there was the United States sanctions. Crippling sanctions, which has been in the Iranian’s mind, is a state of war.  Saddam now turned his attentions on Kuwait, who help fund his war against the Iranians, but was angered by the dumping of oil on the spot market by the Saudi’s and the Kuwait. In addition, he accused Kuwait of slant drilling, which taps oil across a country’s border underground. This prompted the first of two large scale wars and continuous occupation, the first Desert storm war, which was lead by the United States an it’s coalition partners.

Now the stage has been set. Saddam is isolated, Iran still under sanctions, and a new president, George Bush in 2000. He pulls out of the agreement with the North Koreans to supply them coal and help with a light water nuclear plant. 9/11 happens, and the weakest link on the planet was put in place to justify invading Iraq. Remember this presidency because it helped create a more belligerent North Korea, and invaded the sovereign nation Iraq. No centrifuges were found, but something new was unleashed, Sunni rule was over in Iraq, the majority Shia come back in power, and the influence comes directly from Iran.

No weapons of mass destruction were found, all the while, Iran was sill being sanctioned, still refining their nuclear power plants, and becoming a bad actor in terrorist activity supporting the PLO and Hezbollah,  helping bomb Israel from the Gaza strip.

During the presidency of Barack Obama, and under intense negotiations, a breakthrough occurred, and an agreement of settled, with Iran, the United States, China, Russia, and the European partners. This included the return of Iranian assets, totaling 56 billion, and 1.8 billion cash that was frozen since 1979.

The dominos began to fall towards the Shia once Saddam was toppled and eventually put to death. They infiltrated the country, aligning it with Iran. When Donald Trump became president, he had already said that he would cancel the JCPOA, despite the fact that Iran had been keeping part of the bargain up with the treaty, calling it “the worst treaty ever”. He also left the Trans Pacific Partnership. Once the United States left the JCPOA and slapped Iran with sanction penalties, he backed them into a corner.

Iran has not been a good actor in this as well. Iran as been supporting factions in Yemen to which they are essentially fighting a proxy war with Saudi Arabia. They continue to support Hezbollah, Israel’s sworn enemy. They have introduced themselves into the Syrian civil war, backing Assad. They are the new neighborhood bully, seeking to drive the United States out of the middle east. And, they continue to develop midrange rockets.

At this date, the middle east is still unfolding, and as I’d like to “catch up” with the model real time. In the mean time, it’s nothing less than a war, and we didn’t even know we were in it…