How to reconcile the harsh treatment of Russia with the kid-glove treatment of Iran
By Ted Belman (April, 2022}
The US is facing two bad actors Iran and Russia. If they were equally bad you would expect the US would mete out the same treatment to both. But they are not equally bad. Iran is demonstrably much worse yet the US treats them with kid gloves whereas the US treats Russia as harshly as they possibly could, short of waging war against it. Is there a unifying theory?
Iran wants to extend its hegemony over the UAE and Saudi Arabia and perhaps others. It already has done so over Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. It continually calls out “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” Iran has no qualms about killing American soldiers. In Iraq alone, as of 2019, its militia have killed 603 American soldiers according to the Military Times. No one doubts that it will destroy Israel if it can.
Since the Mullahs took power in Iran in 1979, they have shown themselves to be aggressive, imperialist, immoral, ruthless and duplicitous.
President Trump recognized this and adopted a policy of severe sanctions and containment while exacting a price for subsequent terrorist actions
Biden wants to undo what Trump did and wants to ignore what Iran says and does. He wants to give them a sweetheart deal even though it means alienating Israel and the Gulf States.
Russia
Russia, on the other hand, since the fall of the Iron curtain, has shown itself to be reactive rather than proactive and certainly not aggressive.
Russia disbanded the Warsaw Pact expecting NATO to also be disbanded but it wasn’t. Instead, NATO changed its purpose to one of spreading “democracy” and expanded membership to 28 states since then. Russia felt threatened by NATO’s eastward expansion.
In 1995, NATO, which was originally conceived as a defensive alliance, took the offense in the Balkan wars claiming to do so for “humanitarian” purposes. She bombed Bosnia/Herzegovina and then in 1999 bombed Serbia for 78 days. 1000 NATO planes flew 38,000 combat missions killing about 2000 people and injuring another 5000. In both cases, it did so without the approval of the UNSC. Russia complained bitterly over such actions as Serbia was her ally.
In both cases, NATO lacked any sanctioned approval by the UNSC.
Following a subsequent legal analysis, the claim was made that NATO acted under an “assertion of anticipatory collective self-defense”. A defense that could be employed by any organization to defend any military action. It is this very defense that Russia claims currently in Ukraine, but Russia is disqualified from using this defense given that they are acting alone, as a nation state rather than an international body, highlighting the marginalization of nationalities below that of an organized international hierarchy.
Following the bombings in Serbia, in 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia much to the chagrin of Serbia and Russia, while also setting a dangerous precedent for future breakaway national regions to similarly proclaim their own national identity into existence. To date, less than half the countries of the world have recognized Kosovo’s independence.
Later that year, war broke out between Georgia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia invaded Georgia to defend these two provinces and Georgia retreated in a few days. And now South Ossetia wants to be annexed by Russia.
Then in 2011, NATO led the attack against Libya, again justifying the attack as being an “humanitarian intervention”. This time, NATO acted under the premise of a UNSCR declaring a no-fly zone over the nation. NATO enforcement of a no-fly zone, however, quickly gave way to mission creep at a dizzying pace. Following a period of only three weeks, the no-fly zone matured into disproportionate bombing raids, supported by cruise missile attacks along with reports of Special Forces on the ground. These operations continued for more than seven months until they finally found Gadhafi, they killed him. Til then, Russia had a good relation with Libya. One of the reasons for the attack was to destroy that relationship.
Which brings us to Ukraine
In 1783, Crimea was annexed by the Russian Empire following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Crimea became an autonomous republic within the Russian SFSR in the Soviet Union.
In 1954 Khrushchev transferred Crimea to Ukraine. In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine was re-established as an independent state and most of the peninsula was reorganized as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The city of Sevastopol retained its special status within Ukraine. Russia was allowed to continue basing its Black Sea Fleet in Crimea
Crimea has a population of 2.4 million, made up mostly of ethnic Russians.
In late February 2014, following a coup instigated by the CIA that ousted the pro-Russia Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, Russian troops were deployed to Crimea.
Following a disputed referendum in which its official results showed over 90% support for reunification with Russia, the Republic of Crimea declared its independence on March 16 , 2014. Two days later, Russia formally annexed Crimea . Then the US levied sanctions on Russia which remain in place today.
At the same time, Russia-backed separatists seized control of a third of the southeastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, known collectively as Donbas, but they lost control of the strategic port city of Mariupol overseeing the Sea of Azov.
They held a referendum on whether to declare independence to which the vote was overwhelmingly “Yes” but was challenged by Ukraine and the US.
The NAZI Azov Battalion of the Ukrainian Army has been waging war on these areas since then and has killed about 14,000 people and injured another 30,000 according to the Ukraine’s MFA.
Finally on Feb 21/22, the separatists declared independence. Russia was quick to recognize their independence paving the way for the official presence of Russian troops in the rebel-controlled areas.
Prior to making a full scale invasion, Russia demanded assurances from both NATO and Ukraine that Ukraine would not join NATO. This demand was refused. So on Feb24/22, Putin announced a “special military operation” to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine.
NATO studiously avoided joining the war. But the west waged a relentless public relations campaign to defame and demonize Putin while imposing the harshest sanctions ever. This propaganda war has dominated the media ever since.
After Pres Biden said at a press conference ““For God’s sake, this man [Putin] cannot remain in power.”, Scott Ritter made the case that Regime change has been the US goal in Russia for years,
What the west doesn’t like to talk about is that most of the world is not joining the sanctions and supports Putin. Most notable China, India, Turkey, Brazil and all Muslim nations are standing by him. While Putin is finding ways around the sanctions the west is significantly affected by them. Both Europe and the US continue to buy oil from Russia at a cost of over $100 a barrel thereby financing Russia’s war.
To add insult to injury, the US has put Russia in charge of negotiations for the new Iran Deal. Two weeks ago, Russia demanded that its trade with Tehran be exempt from the Western sanctions and that sanctions imposed on it will not apply to the benefits which accrue to Russia as a result of the new Iran Deal.
So, why the double standard? Why is the US going to such great lengths to ignore Iranian aggressions and to magnify Russian ones? Why is it in such a rush to get a new Iran Deal yet so reluctant to mediate a settlement between Ukraine and Russia?
MK Nir Barkat, former Mayor of Jerusalem, just pointed out this inconsistency to US Senators by advising them in a Zoom call,
“You can’t put sanctions on a bully like Russia with its aggressiveness and take off sanctions from Iran. They are using brute force to seek a nuclear bomb and unfortunately, they are the only country in the world that wants a bomb in order to use it. It’s not for defense purposes they want a bomb, it’s to eliminate Israel off the map. We will not allow another holocaust. You can not lift sanctions from Iran and place sanctions on Russia.”
According to Caitlyn Johnstone, The Deep State planned Russiagate as a stepping stone to regime change in Russia. The Deep State also wants to empower Iran to be a greater threat to Israel and the Sunni states so that both the latter would be more dependent on the US for protection and thus more pliable and easily dominated.
Perhaps the unifying theory is that the Deep State seeks world domination. To this end it has to neutralize Russia and Israel.
COMMENT by Linda Goudsmit
In order to make sense of the glaring contradictions between US treatment of Iran and Russia, it is necessary to look at the world through the eyes of a megalomaniac – a psychopath who does not care how many people are killed in its quest for planetary governance. Globalism is a supremacist replacement ideology that recognizes no authority outside itself.
In my opinion, the globalists want to empower Iran to do their dirty work of destroying Israel and the Sunni states in the middle east, but certainly not to make them more dependent on the US! The globalists want to collapse the US as well! Globalism’s goal is to destroy nation states worldwide. It cannot succeed in imposing one-world governance until Israel AND the US are collapsed. The anti-American, anti-Israel, globalist Biden regime is facillitating both the destruction of the United States and the destruction of Israel.
Biden is a lethally corrupt globalist puppet. The seeming contradictions, the existence of an illegitimate anti-American president, open borders, ending oil drilling and independence, the withdrawal from Afghanistan that armed our enemies, buying oil from Russia and on and on and on. The nonsensical makes sense when you understand the motive is destruction. The Biden regime is an existential threat to America and to freedom around the world.
The inconsistencies between US treatment of Iran and its treatment of Russia should also include its treatment of Ukraine. Zelensky, a devotee of the WEF just like Justin Trudeau, has been busy since taking office in 2019 turning Ukraine into WEF’s model city.
We are in a world war between globalism and the nation state. The article reference to the “deep state” narrows the conflict. For people to really understand WWIII they need to accept that this is an ideological war between globalism and the nation state. Globalism is a supremacist replacement ideology, no different in scope from Islamism’s ambition to make the world Muslim, or Marxism’s ambition to make the world communist. Planetary governance only recognizes one single world country, one currency, one language, one culture, one race, one globalist secular religion, and one singular authority – it’s own.
So, consider this alternate geopolitical globalist strategy. Iran is empowered to destroy Israel and the gulf nation states, then the globalists destroy Iran and confiscate their oil fields. I am not kidding, the New (old feudal) order has no place for Islamist agitators, theocracies, and competing ideologies. Plus, Russia has the deal to build Iran’s nuclear facility. So, it appears far more likely to me that the globalists are playing both sides of the Russia/Ukraine conflict in the same way they play both sides of every war they start. All US policy contradictions disappear when viewed through the unifying prism of globalist supremacy.
@stevenl: “Once upon a time the Intel age cues were under control of the right.” Today they are under control of the wrong.
@all the rest: too much name tagging. When we look at the results rather than the messages, WEF is written all over it. The USA has been leading NATO like the Pied Piper to agree to dismantle the world order created to avoid wars. Instead, as mentioned here and there, wars are initiated following the WEF script to bring about world dominance of the so-called elite at any cost. As long as a few slaves are left alive, the target has been reached. If you disagree, listen, read, watch Charles Schwab on the internet. He says all this quite clearly.
Once upon a time “the intel agencies” were under the control of the “Right”.
Today, they are under the control of the “Left”!
These agencies are an essential component of the “Deep State”!
“Capitalism”, a mean to an END! Also, a form of SUPREMACISM!
@Reader
I understood your purpose to employ it as a point of ridicule, but the comment as stated did call to mind that a proper definition would expose how poorly relevant it is to the subjects being discussed. As I have noted in the prior post, it is completely irrelevant.
@peloni
I wasn’t asking anybody for the definition of capitalism, I meant to say “whatever it means for people who use the word with no knowledge or background in history or political economy”.
Most Americans just toss these terms around for emotional emphasis.
@Linda
A very intriguing premise to consider.
I wondered if I was right that Trump was a worse imperialist menace than Biden. Well Biden exposed for the whole human race to understand they are seeking to remove Putin. The evil just seeps out of Biden. His background is Irish Catholic a decrepid version of Jack Kennedy but remember he was going to unleash nuclear wipeout over Cuba. How close was that – the cinders of Ted would have not left Toronto goodbye Israel. Still Biden may not do it.
But here’s the thing. You should all be on your knees giving thanks Trump lost (however it happened) because by now all would be ashes
It ends abruptly maybe he wet his pants in the end. But that should be the least of our worries
Praise to the interview person he kept focus
https://youtu.be/X-c1Me0Kezg
@Reader
Thank you for your attempt at a translation of Felix’s treatise.
@Felix
I will presume your unfocused conversation is accurately transcribed by Reader’s efforts here, but feel free to correct him as needed.
Yes, well, let us begin with a definition of Capitalism so everyone can gain an insight to what exactly that means:
The economic system that forms the basis of a free market society in no way is responsible for selecting presidents in the US. It is not responsible for the invasion of Ukraine. It is not responsible for the actions conducted by the Deep State that you claim does not exist, wish that I could join you and pretend such ignorance to claim otherwise.
So, there is in fact no Deep State?
If there is no Deep State, a power within the govt infrastructure that exists beyond the control of the election process and consent of the governed, then who is it that is selecting the presidents as is mentioned in this translation of your many comments?
If there is no Deep State, who is it that conducted a series of coup attempts leading upto and including the the Russia Hoax, the Ukraine Impeachment, the Covid Scare, and the Election Fraud, or are we to assume Trump, conflicted with his derangement due to being a capitalist, perpetrated these upon himself and the nation and threw himself out of office?
If there is no Deep State, how is it that you found so much meaning in an article by Johnstone that is specifically written on the Deep State control over the US govt that it planned the war with Russia nearly twenty years ago or more?
Your repeated chastisement of capitalism and capitalists is just meager nonsense and a poor attempt to change the conversation to a self-serving support of your anti-Capitalist views, which is completely unrelated to current or past crises in Ukraine, which I did note was not mentioned in Reader’s translation of your commentary, not once, not even by inference.
The Deep State, in fact, does exist. It is a continuity of corruption and control that has come to exist within the US govt which exercises power over the elected class and is well beyond the grasp of the electorate and has most recently eliminated the input of the electorate. It is not a hallmark of capitalism, as such power structures are likely just as viable between one dictator and his successor presiding over the Marxist uber-paradise that one may presume fills the real purpose behind your comments. It has long been a building issue that went into hyperdrive with the expansion of the Senior Executive Service as a tool to control an incoming presidency, not already a member of the uniparty supported and manipulated by the Deep State.
The confusion referenced in Reader’s translation lies in the fact that the proxy war that has existed in Ukraine waged by NATO against Russia has nothing to do with the economic format of the American state, nothing.
Hence, if we are to pursue the unrelated conversation of the merits of the “beast” of Capitalism over the “swear word” of Marxism, let us carry such esoteric challenges to the Chat and not clutter this thread with further off-topic distractions, as it is unrelated to this article, both in part and in whole.
In order to make sense of the glaring contradictions between US treatment of Iran and Russia, it is necessary to look at the world through the eyes of a megalomaniac – a psychopath who does not care how many people are killed in its quest for planetary governance. Globalism is a supremacist replacement ideology that recognizes no authority outside itself.
In my opinion, the globalists want to empower Iran to do their dirty work of destroying Israel and the Sunni states in the middle east, but certainly not to make them more dependent on the US! The globalists want to collapse the US as well! Globalism’s goal is to destroy nation states worldwide. It cannot succeed in imposing one-world governance until Israel AND the US are collapsed. The anti-American, anti-Israel, globalist Biden regime is facillitating both the destruction of the United States and the destruction of Israel.
Biden is a lethally corrupt globalist puppet. The seeming contradictions, the existence of an illegitimate anti-American president, open borders, ending oil drilling and independence, the withdrawal from Afghanistan that armed our enemies, buying oil from Russia and on and on and on. The nonsensical makes sense when you understand the motive is destruction. The Biden regime is an existential threat to America and to freedom around the world.
The inconsistencies between US treatment of Iran and its treatment of Russia should also include its treatment of Ukraine. Zelensky, a devotee of the WEF just like Justin Trudeau, has been busy since taking office in 2019 turning Ukraine into WEF’s model city.
We are in a world war between globalism and the nation state. The article reference to the “deep state” narrows the conflict. For people to really understand WWIII they need to accept that this is an ideological war between globalism and the nation state. Globalism is a supremacist replacement ideology, no different in scope from Islamism’s ambition to make the world Muslim, or Marxism’s ambition to make the world communist. Planetary governance only recognizes one single world country, one currency, one language, one culture, one race, one globalist secular religion, and one singular authority – it’s own.
So, consider this alternate geopolitical globalist strategy. Iran is empowered to destroy Israel and the gulf nation states, then the globalists destroy Iran and confiscate their oil fields. I am not kidding, the New (old feudal) order has no place for Islamist agitators, theocracies, and competing ideologies. Plus, Russia has the deal to build Iran’s nuclear facility. So, it appears far more likely to me that the globalists are playing both sides of the Russia/Ukraine conflict in the same way they play both sides of every war they start. All US policy contradictions disappear when viewed through the unifying prism of globalist supremacy.
@Ted Belman
Thank you for your excellent and thought-provoking article.
I think what Felix wants to say here is that when Americans in particular who are convinced that their country is a beacon of freedom and democracy and can do no wrong see things which they cannot abide done by their country, they are too quick to explain these “impossible” actions by a conspiracy involving a Deep State, a socialist/communist/ Marxian takeover (never a fascist one), election fraud by the evil Democrats, a conspiracy by you-know-who, even reptiloids, etc.
By using the term “capitalist state” he is trying to explain that there is no incredible conspiracy to force the US government to do what it does because what it does is just “the nature of the beast”, the “beast” being the capitalist state.
The confusion stems from the fact that for those who have absorbed with their mother’s milk that “capitalism” (whatever that means) is the best and the optimal way a society can function (”the end of history”), and socialism/communism/Marxism is merely a swear word there is no way to comprehend an argument like Felix’s.
About the elections – FDR said that “Presidents are selected – not elected” – that was nearly a century ago, so there is nothing new here, except that this time someone chose to use this fact for political reasons, probably to distract the constituency from something it was not supposed to notice.
I read a lot of nonsense above. In the meantime I am logged in as someone named Harris. And whoever Harris is, Harris I am NOT.
But Harris was one of the “Three Men in Boat.” But that was 135 years ago so it might not be he. And I have a nephew whose family name is Harris, definitely not this poor of rubble (he married my niece, and
thought he could relax on her money…he was mistaken.).. You may guess that I don’t like him. You’d be correct.,
@Felix
With respect, I have no idea of what the heck you are going on about here. So there is no Deep State – is this really your belief? What do you think John McCain intervened in – you list this after stating “Biden built on Trump” and McCain was dead a month before Trump’s budget passed and more than a year before weapons were actually sent there? And like Ted noted, what in the world is Trumps Conspiracy Circle? Your argument is somewhat scattered, impossible to decipher and rather argumentative to the point of pursuing your continued interest in anti-Capitalist rants. Everyone has a political philosophy and you are welcome to your own, but you are so focused upon your philosophy and hatred of the Capitalist society that you have quite forgotten to explain yourself clearly, or at least not clear enough for me to follow beyond your hatred for Trump and Capitalists and Ukraine, which doesn’t make for much of a coherent conversation. The problem with your personal perspective on Capitalism here, is that it has as little to do with the Ukraine conflict as the melting snow of the Colorado mountains.
@Felix
Two things.
1. What has America being a “capitalist state” have to do with anything. Besides many would argue that it is now a socialist state.
2. I never heard of “Trump’s conspiracy circle” till now. Therefore I am not motivated to cover for them. There is no such thing.
You are way off base with your criticism of Trump so don’t waste our time with your biased accusations.
This is a long article but while there is operations within the capitalist state it’s still the capitalist state.
This therefore takes the spotlight away from capitalist state and how the capitalist state actually operates.
In every single country no matter where. For example Ireland.
But we must not use this term because it’s already been debased by Alex Jones and the conspiracy circles around Trump.
Here is an example
Peloni
“
This is probably to most readers confusing.
We know exactly what happened re Ukraine and we know why – so why use terms such as the Deep State or its derivatives like the man behind the curtain!!!
Unless you seek to muddy the water and obscure the truth.
In the recent past it was Trump and Biden who both made Ukraine America’s puppet.
Trump poured those hi tech arms in during his term in office.
And Biden built on Trump.
In that very order. If you DISAGREE please make your case.
And the very public John McCain intervened
And the American capitalist state took the power in Ukraine after the coup from the Maidan in 2014.
All in clear sight. No deep state. I saw it and knew.
Ted and Peloni expose that to your readers not hide it by conspiracy jargon.
But that’s now a very big problem because you seem to play down what ACTUALLY happened and the only explanation I can find is that you seek to cover for Trump and Trump’s conspiracy circle!
An interesting comparison that lays bare the disparity of international policy towards Iran and Russia, a policy that seems to be applied with an inverse intent of suppressing and isolating Russia while emboldening and empowering Iran.
It is interesting that during roughly the same time period as these events were evolving, the voting machines were rolled out across America and the world, and, as we have see, the machines changed everything. Under the guise of democratic reforms and election integrity, these tools of veiled despotism have corrupted the very institution they were marketed to protect.
Perhaps, the phrase that America exports democracy can now be seen with a more knowing understanding of why regime change has become so important to the Deep State, which has so successfully honed its tactics that they now practice them within the borders of America herself. They can come to capture and control any govt in the world, simply by fooling their people into believing their choice or consent has any relevance to those who rule over them, and by doing so, the Deep State succeeds in unifying the dominion of all such democracies under their corrupting control. With the corruption of the people’s consent, these self-appointed authoritarians can do as they please without any concern of consequence, so long as no heed is paid to the man behind the curtain.