The United States’ much ballyhooed conference in Warsaw, the purpose of which was to gather support for more pressure on Iran, is now over. This exercise in futility did not gain the so-called ‘benefits’ that President Donald Trump and his racist, jingoistic cohorts had hoped. Rather, it exposed disagreements between the U.S. and many of its allies, and worsened some of them.
Some U.S. allies sent low-level representatives, a direct slap in the face to the U.S; some went even further and skipped the event. Many of those invited, whether or not they attended, have criticized the U.S. for its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and are still seeking ways to circumvent U.S.-threatened sanctions if they continue to comply with the agreement. Iran, whose nuclear development program is regulated by the agreement, continues to be in compliance, as certified by international inspectors, although it is clearly under no legal obligation to do so. When one party to an agreement violates it, that agreement is null and void.
Prior to the Warsaw conference, Twitter saw considerable activity in support of it. This could have been due to U.S. propaganda success in portraying Iran as the monster of the world (note: this writer visited Iran in the summer of 2017, and he can assure the reader that Iran is not what the U.S. wants everyone to believe). One wonders how U.S. government officials can possible accuse Iran of being the ‘foremost sponsor of terror in the world’, when the U.S. is currently bombing at least six (6) countries, is working to overthrow the democratically-elected governments of Syria and Venezuela, has invaded, bombed or otherwise destabilized at least 30 countries in the last 50 years, and has caused the deaths of at least 20,000,000 people. Iran, on the other hand, hasn’t invaded another country since 1798: yes, that is 221 years.
But perhaps the U.S. hasn’t been all that successful, and the increase in ‘Tweets’ was due to some other cause. Trita Paris, an award-winning activist, reports on his Twitter page that a huge number of those anti-Iran ‘Tweets’ were placed by ‘bots.’ For the uninitiated, a ‘bot’ is short for ‘robot,’ defined as “a program that operates as an agent for a user or another program or simulates a human activity.” It is an electronic method for doing all kinds of things on computers, including recognizing words on ‘Tweets’ and resending them. Any individual with a rudimentary knowledge of programming can create a ‘bot,’ get it to identify key words such as ‘Iran,’ ‘Warsaw’ and ‘Increasing Sanctions,’ to name just a few possibilities, and then have it ‘re-Tweet’ those entries to thousands, or potentially millions, of other Twitter accounts.
Why might someone do this? For people who seek Iran’s destruction, but recognize that this is not what the people of Iran want, it is one way of skewing the perception.
And who would want this? The ugly alliance of the United States and Israel constitute the greatest threat to Iran. The apartheid Zionist entity wants complete hegemony in the Middle East, which would allow it to kill all the Palestinians and take their land. They use pro-Israel lobbies in the U.S. to purchase members of Congress, which then grant Israel unprecedented amounts of foreign aid, and impunity from its crimes in the United Nations.
It is a very poorly-kept secret that the government of Israel spends millions upon millions of dollars to combat the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement. Additionally, the Zionist entity pays university students to write positive things about it on social media. It forbids any investigation of its accusations of war crimes, proclaiming that its own investigations are sufficient; those ‘investigations’ exonerate it every time.
Does Israel commit war crimes, and crimes against humanity? In the 2014 slaughter of the Gaza Strip, Israel bombed residences, mosques, press buildings, hospitals, schools and United Nations refugee centers. That’s six war crimes right there. IDF terrorists shoot unarmed, incapacitated Palestinians. War crime number seven. Those same terrorists guard illegal settler-terrorists as they commit crimes against innocent Palestinians.
And what about general violations of international law? The blockade of the Gaza Strip, the occupation of the West Bank, the housing of over half-a-million illegal settlers on Palestinian land are just three examples.
The United States supports the MEK, once designated as a terrorist organization, but now welcomed into the U.S. family of violence. The MEK has as its goal the overthrow of the Iranian government and has killed thousands of innocent people.
How would U.S. spokespeople respond, one wonders, if Iran, Russia and other nations actively supported an organization whose goal was the overthrow of the U.S. government? No doubt any such nation would be quickly introduced to U.S. bombs.
The United States and Israel are determined to isolate Iran and overthrow its government, and replace it with one more to their liking, as was done in the 1953, when the U.S., through its own terrorist cell known as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) overthrew the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, and installed the brutal Shah of Iran as monarch. For the next twenty-six years he oppressed the people of Iran, until he was overthrown in 1979, against the wishes of the United States. That revolution established the Islamic Republic of Iran, which the U.S. has opposed since its inception.
The Shah did as his U.S. masters directed; they cared not at all about his oppressive brutality. And when the Iranian people finally were able to rid themselves of the U.S. puppet, and installed a government of their own choosing, their new leaders were not quite so amenable to acceding to U.S. demands. Thus, the U.S. has chosen to sanction Iran for decades, support its enemies, and spread lies about the nation.
The Warsaw Conference didn’t quite accomplish U.S. goals, since most of the world is highly suspicious of the erratic and bellicose U.S. president, not wanting to anger him (U.S. violence has already been mentioned), but not particularly interested in following him over the cliff, either. And the other signatories to the JCPOA continue to seek ways to trade with Iran, thus providing Iran with the benefits that that agreement promised.
What the U.S. will do next is anyone’s guess. Bombing Iran, or supporting Israel in doing so, would not bode well for the Middle East, or the rest of the world. Iran is a large and powerful country, allied with Russia, which would not look favorably upon any such attack. It is hoped that Europe will continue to trade with Iran, enabling its people to live in peace and prosperity. U.S. efforts to the contrary will not turn out well, least of all for the U.S.
Robert Fantina, Mondoweiss,
About Robert Fantina
Robert Fantina is an author and activist for peace and international human rights. A U.S. citizen, he moved to Canada following the 2004 presidential election. His writing appears regularly on Counterpunch.org, Warisacrime.org, and other sites. Mr. Fantina resides near Toronto, Ontario.