Iran and the United States - "1979 Redux?"

The re-emergence of tensions between Iran and the United States was perhaps inevitable. In reality the tensions never really abated that much, but one can certainly ascertain that the struggles in Iraq have much to do with the current sabre-rattling between the two.

The whole sad situation in the Middle-East is largely an American creation. And not just in terms of the recent events post-9/11. In reality, the maintenance of the Pahlavi regime by Anglo-American, but certainly a mostly American influence, has laid much of the groundwork for today's troubles in the besotted region.

I am generally a staunch supporter of Israel as a beacon of Western Civilisation in the Middle-East, but the tragic reality is the genie was really let out of the bottle (forgive the analogy ...) in 1956. For it was at Suez that the US Government and their Liberal minions in Canada dropped the ball. Had the US and Canada supported the Anglo-French Invasion it is very possible that two things could have evolved: (A) the Canal Zone would either be in Western Hands, or at least in the Hands of the United Nations, or (B) there would have been a region-wide War much earlier in history, that would likely have ended with some form of a Mandated settlement and occupation. Either way, the forces of modernisation and civilisation would have been implanted.

But No. The US and the United Nations beat back the Anglo-French force and put the region into a crisis - borne of isolation from civilising influences. Nasser seemingly won the day, and the forces of Islamist radicalism and nationalism were allowed to fester - thereby plunging the region into potentially greater chaos in 1967 and 1973, the latter year which saw Richard Nixon contemplating the use of Nuclear Arms in defence of Israel.

Six Years after the Yom Kippur War, the Shah's regime went down in flames. Fairly soon thereafter, Iran and Iraq were at War with one another. The United States, with a poor view to the future, again chose to support one of wrong sides and supplied Saddam Hussein with as much support as they could in that War. Of course, Hussein then thought he had a free-hand in the region and would later use that freedom to invade Kuwait. Which was opposed by Who ? The Americans of course ...

This fueled the Iranian flames of hatred for the USA even more, and would provide even more impetus for the Iranians to provide much financial and ideological support for the Palestinians throughout the 1980's & 1990's. This further destabilised the region and forced the Israelis to adopt harsher measures - which in turn fanned more flames of hatred throughout the Islamic world.

This is how we got to 9/11. And I am leaving out many more damning details ...

And now Iran is apparently trying to build a P2 Centrifuge, which can be used to develop Nuclear Weapons capability. Of course the US opposes this - as they must, but the fact remains that this is a bad situation that has been continually mismanaged by the US Government and US Intelligence for close to 60 years.

Could we finally be approaching the "end-game" in the region ? I see that China will no longer stand in the way of the US, with respect to Iran. That just leaves Russia now.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose ...