Last Friday it was reported that the USA is preparing to bomb Iran in the coming weeks according to senior Australian government sources that remain anonymous. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was quick to dismiss the report but we should be paying close attention to this issue.
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The all caps threat that Trump tweeted earlier in the week quickly reached memetic status but the drums for war against Iran have been beating for decades. The Trump administration set forth to undermine the Iran nuclear deal (a multilateral deal whereby the US agreed to unfreeze Iranian assets and Iran agreed to allow inspections on their non-belligerent nuclear program, reducing tensions between the countries) with aggressive rhetoric and sanctions, violating the deal before unilaterally withdrawing last May. In 2017, John Bolton, Trump's current National Security Advisor, promised regime change in Iran before the end of 2018.
Modern USA-Iran relations can be said to have started in 1953, when the USA deposed the democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh (of course, mainly over decisions pertaining to Iranian oil) setting the stage for the 1979 Iranian Revolution which overthrew the American-backed Shah in favour of an Islamic Grand Ayatollah regime. Since then, USA-Iran relations have been on a rollercoaster with many ups and downs.
As I said, for the last several decades neocon warhawks have been foaming at the mouth for more war, because war is a racket and they stand to make a profit together with the military contractors that back them. The disastrous Iraq experience borne out of lies became a black hole of wasted US taxpayer money by the trillions, it empowered Iran in a perhaps ironic twist and was one of the worst moral obscenities of the last couple of decades due to multiple cases of torture, hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions more displaced and laying the groundwork for the rise of ISIS. But all that was not disastrous for these disgusting warhawks who either see the world as a geopolitical chessboard or as a means to make money. If Iraq was a such a disaster, a war against Iran could fare much, much worse. Not only is Iran a bigger, more stable country, but it's also backed by mid-to-big size geopolitical players such as Russia. After the wars in Iraq and Syria, Iran is the only major power in the region standing in opposition to Israel and Saudi Arabia, which would both love to see the USA, their constant ally, bring Iran down a couple of pegs by means other than economic sanctions. Furthermore, it would continue to alienate US allies (and adversaries) which are still on board with the Iran nuclear deal because it is actually working.
Perhaps the senior Australian government officials felt the need to leak the story due to valid reasons or perhaps it's too crazy even for good ole American imperialism. You can feed the military industrial complex to an extent just with the constant threat of war after all. But I thought it was convenient to quickly review where we stand today and to encourage us all to remain vigilant over further escalation.