Paranoia strikes deep… into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid. Step out of line the men come and take you away. (Stephen Stills, “For What It’s Worth”)
I am a limited observer of current events and recent history. I suspect that what is going on now has always been going on. Americans have since our country’s founding made evil demons out of ordinary people. They do this to inflame our population. Demons are a convenient cover for our often mendacious and business-oriented foreign and domestic policies.
The lyrics above were written in the 1960’s, when police were breathing down the necks of protesters, who, of course, wanted to overthrow our government and bring in the North Vietnamese. In the 1950’s through 1989, Russia was on everyone’s mind. They were an evil empire. No matter who we attacked, it was because of the Russians.
Before we could attack Iraq in 1991 and again in 2003, we had to paint an archtypical demon, Saddam Hussein, in our collective subconscious. Likewise, in 1999 when we attacked Serbia, Slobodan Milosevik was set up to take a fall. That dude was really evil. Really, really evil.
I read of panic over France getting ready to invade in the early Republic, and of riots over fear of Germans in the early 20th century. In the 19th century ordinary plains Indians became bloodthirsty savages as we set out to steal their land.
And then there was Ronald Reagan’s 1986 warning that Nicaragua was only a two day march from Brownsville, Texas – this as we prepared to invade Central America and crush indigenous independence movements. In the early 1990’s, after the Soviet Union had gone away, conservatives were warning us of Libyans patrolling the high seas. And former communists became drug runners. They were grasping. As John Stockwell said, we are a country constantly in search of enemies.
In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, on the op-ed page, there’s a piece by Amir Taheri called “The Problem with Talking to Iran“. The premise is that there are two Iran’s – the nation state, and the place run by revolutionary fanatics. Taheri is critical of Barack Obama for saying we can talk to enemies, this one in particular. He says there’s quite a difference between Iran and other countries:
Iran is gripped by a typical crisis of identity that afflicts most nations that pass through a revolutionary experience. The Islamic Republic does not know how to behave: as a nation-state, or as the embodiment of a revolution with universal messianic pretensions. Is it a country or a cause?
A revolution, he says, “doesn’t want anything in particular because it wants everything.”
Fine – there’s some value to this piece, though it is steeped in typical conservative historical amnesia. Taheri likely thinks that Iranian history began in 1979. He probably regards pre-revolutionary Iran, living under a fascistic ruler, Shah Reza Pahlavi and his bloody secret police (SAVAK), as part of the good old days. You could talk to the Shah. Taheri probably doesn’t know anything about 1953, when the U.S. overthrew the democratic government of Iran, or of the 26 years of oppression that followed.
That’s rote for the right wing. They suffer from tunnel vision – it’s proscribed by their ideology, which is so often at odds with reality. But here’s the kicker from Taheri’s piece:
The problem that the world, including the U.S., has today is not with Iran as a nation-state but with the Islamic Republic as a revolutionary cause bent on world conquest under the guidance of the “Hidden Imam.”
How far is it from Tehran to Brownsville?
Iran is a nation-state, but unfortunately, one caught in a reactionary cycle. 26 years of oppression (1953-1979) created a vacuum, and when the Shah abdicated, it was filled by clerics. That’s not a good thing, but not something we can change without destroying the place. It will have to undo itself. And it will if we just leave it alone.
But no – conservatives are not content to allow events to follow a natural course. They have to stoke the fires and threaten war. They have raised Iran to the dimensions of the old Soviet Union. It’s only making matters worse, cementing the rule of the clerics (Ahmadinejad is only a figurehead, much like the queen). We’re not helping, the 7th Fleet is not the answer.
Iran is a country in transition. They react as normal humans react when threatened with military attack – they are buying weapons, digging trenches. If they are not developing nuclear weapons, they ought to start. For our sake, for theirs, we ought to ease up on the ratchet. The best way to do that is to talk.
Honest, guys, Brownsville is safe.
Piece of Mindful 