The Iran situation is building up to be a repeat of Iraq.
Donald Trump, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo: was there ever such a trio of warmongers?
They claim there is solid evidence that Iran is behind the attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. This is a reprise of the “ solid evidence” that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
The Iraq war cost millions of lives of innocent people and set the Middle East alight and it is still burning.
But America’s objective was achieved: US companies now have their hands on Iraq’s oil.
It was Trump who pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and is now piling on the sanctions.
The Iranian regime is nasty, led by bigoted religious extremists. Trump’s regime is nasty and in hock to bigoted religious extremists of the far right. There is little to choose between them.
But it is Trump who started this latest threat to world peace and Trump who has been daily pumping out the poison. He is not to be trusted.
Why would Iran attack oil tankers in its own backyard? This crisis threatens to bring oil exports from the Middle East to a halt just when Iran is desperate to salvage its economy by boosting oil exports.
Would Iran attack a Japanese ship in the midst of a visit by the Japanese premier to Tehran, which is highly prized as an opportunity to salvage its economy by a trade deal with Japan?
Trump’s main bit of evidence is a video of Iranian soldiers removing, yes, not planting, removing a supposed limpet mine from a tanker. Hardly bang to rights.
Of course, our limpid, puppet government falls in line, just as Blair’s government did in 2003.
So, who could be responsible for the attacks?
There are plenty of non-government nihilist groups in the Middle East only too eager to stir the cauldron of chaos. I would not put it beyond Saudi Arabia, Israel or the US CIA, who all want to see Iran brought low, regardless of the cost.
Jeremy Corbyn is right to urge caution, just as he was right to disbelieve the dodgy dossier that led to war with Iraq.
A few months ago when you said in an e-mail that you wrote a blog I asked you how I could access it. I had imagined that you would be writing under a pseudonym, as many people do, and the few I had read didn’t appeal to me. Anyway in the absence of an answer from you I “googled” you name and found your blog in seconds – the Rational Man comes at the top of people with the same name as you.
The first thing I read was your views of Trump “the most dangerous man in the world”, and I was won over immediately: not a unique or original view point I guess but nevertheless exactly mine, for what it’s worth. Your judgement of Trump is confirmed on a daily basis and sometimes, like with the oil tankers and drone incidents, it literally stops me sleeping at night. Trump’s stupidity and egocentrism could easily lead to imperialism and indeed is already doing so. He really lives in delusion that he is the world’s keeper and owner and that he will not accept any defiance of his views and dictats over the sanctions he imposes on Iran. Everyone of his whims has to be endorsed and followed by his vassals.
This is of course why I think it is so important to have a strong Europe that is able to confront him and resist his push for a war against Iran. It would even be possible that on such an issue there should be an alliance with Putin to avoid a repeat of the Iraq war. Anything to stop this stupidity. In fact in the Iraq war I was glad to see that Chirac, who was the French president at the time, had refused to back Britain and US in the warmongering effort ( I wasn’t one of his admirers but I had voted for him in 2002 to keep Le Pen out in the second round of the presidential elections and I was glad of his decision on that point).
All your blog headings converge obviously because on Boris Johnson, if he becomes Prime Minister, I am afraid that lots of people, even in London, think it would be what the UK needs, their own look alike version of Trump. I have even heard people say that he would be “such a laugh” and that he had done so much for London in his 8 years as Mayor. They forget about his repeated lies and contradictions, in the Brexit campaign of course, but also as a Mayor, in Greenwich people should remember that there was a huge petition against him because one of his first decision was to say that CrossRail shouldn’t stop in Woolwich. In the end he had to relent, not because of the residents I am afraid but because Berkeley Homes that had a huge part in the regeneration of the area with their construction plans decided that if Woolwich didn’t have CrossRail then they were pulling out and Boris soon relented. And there was all the money he spent for nothing like the water canons which were bought at great expense and never used of course, as BOJO didn’t even check whether or not their use was legal in the UK.
Anyway Colin, I just wanted to say hello, I found your writing and I am reading you but I have got carried away.
Just one thing though, why does 5***** says “gorgeous” instead of e.g “great” ? So because of that I will only give you 4****
On second thought I’ll give you 5***** because you made me laugh about this other repulsive character you refer to as Fromage. I bought a second hand car from the Volvo garage in Orpington and I collected it the salesman came running to me saying “oh no! you’ve just missed him! when I asked who I had missed he said “Nigel of course!” I am not regretting the car but I really regretted the opportunity of saying “you can keep your car” if i had found myself face to face with Fromage.