The Distortions And Moral Rot Behind The War On Iran

Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney said today he condemns Iran’s attacks on civilians and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Not a word about the 1,300 Iranian civilians murdered so far by the US and Israel, attacks which break numerous international laws. Not a word about the attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran including schools, hospitals and the international airport. Not a word about the 170 school girls burnt to a crisp by American missiles. Not a word about the 10 million people breathing poison gas after attacks against oil storage facilities in Tehran.

The same Mark Carney who, I’ll never get tired of pointing out, was being lauded for standing up to Donald Trump just a few weeks ago is now siding with the unhinged, murderous conman some naively believed he was going to help contain.

There is a deep moral rot at the heart of the western elite, a Nazi-like disregard for life, and a lust for violence and war.

The US is launching bombing missions on Iran from UK airbases. France is sending warships. Australia is sending a spy plane to help the US select bombing targets. Romania just announced it will allow its Black Sea bases to become staging posts for American attacks.

Vassal states

This should all be no surprise to anyone who understands western liberalism and imperialism. Carney, Macron and all western leaders long ago hitched their cart to the Yankee wagon. Will they ever decouple? Or will they follow Trump to the end of this illegal, unnecessary, murderous war, no matter how many innocents are slaughtered? Absent revolutions, it’s hard to see a point at which European countries, and Euro-derived states like Canada and Australia, stand in defiance of the US. That doesn’t mean that we, as citizens of the US or its vassal states, should acquiesce to the imperium when it commits war crimes and violates international law.

We should, at the least, make our objections to imperialism, and to our vassalised status, known.

Because this is what western elites hate about Iran above anything else. They hate that it is not captured, that it is not a vassal state, that it does object. Western leaders hate Iran because it stands up to Israel and western imperialists. This is, quite literally, the only reason for this war. Don’t let the bullshit about freedom and democracy fool you. Iran is an obstacle to Israeli-western hegemony, and it needs to be removed.

Think this is too simplistic?

So then tell me why Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, all repressive, absolute monarchies, are not targets for western imperialism? The answer is simple: they’re on our side. They are compliant vassal states who allow their countries to be used in whatever way the US, Israel and the west demands.

It really is as simple as that.

In September last year Qatar abolished its limited elections, vesting all future powers to elect the government in one man, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Did you see any headlines condemning Qatari for re-establishing itself as an absolute dictatorship? Of course not! Because Qatar is an ally of the west, and different rules, quite literally, apply.

No, Iran’s only crime is standing up to Israel, the west, and supporting the Palestinians. This is a critical element underpinning the war we shouldn’t miss. Most Muslim countries long ago abandoned the Palestinians to their fate. Iran never has. And for this the US and the west have punished it relentlessly. They’ve punished Iran because to stand up for the Palestinians means, logically, to stand against Israel and its desire for intra-territorial land grabs and regional hegemony.

“Regime”

And we also shouldn’t miss the linguistic tricks the western media and political class pull to manufacture anti-Iran sentiment while presenting the Gulf states neutrally. You’ll never hear any references to the Saudi ‘regime’, or the Omani ‘regime’, or the Bahraini ‘regime’, or the Qatari ‘regime’, or the Emirati ‘regime’, or the Jordanian ‘regime.’ Only Iran is referred to as a regime. Why? Because it is a pejorative descriptor intended to de-legitimise the country’s form of governance. This descriptor is also intended to dehumanise the leadership of the country, to soften us up for war and make us feel nothing when its leaders are assassinated.

Iran’s leadership actually has far more legitimacy than any of the Gulf states, all of which are hereditary monarchies where the same family has been in power for hundreds of years. Iran is a constitutional republic, and the government is a product of a popular revolution that defied monarchical rule. Iran has a supreme religious leader appointed by a special council, but Iran’s president is popularly elected.

Iran is therefore far more representative of its people than most countries in the region.

But other than geopolitics, what else can explain western leaders condemning defensive actions by Iran while staying silent on illegal war and the slaughtering of school children?

Sociologist Ajamu Baraka says it can be explained by the psychopathology of white supremacism.

This psychopathology is not reducible to individual prejudice. It is a racialized, narcissistic cognitive disorder embedded in the ideological and institutional architecture of Western power. It centers Europe and its settler extensions as the apex of human development and renders its adherents incapable of perceiving objective reality when confronted with non-European resistance. While rooted in the historical experience of Europe and its encounters with non-European people during the expansion of European power, it can affect anyone socialized within the ideological and cultural mechanisms of the Pan-European colonial project.

A narcissistic cognitive disorder sounds about right to me, and explains it well.

The belief that you, the white Euro or Euro-derived person, liberal or otherwise, are simply better than everyone else by virtue of the fact that you are white, and Euro-derived. And as a result, whatever we believe about the world, happens to be correct.

This is the underlying psychopathology that ties together the entire west, regardless of political affiliation.

We see it in the language used by Trump’s counsel Stephen Miller, who says “western civilization produced the modern world, our ancestors built the cities, produced the art and architecture, built the industry. And you have no idea how determined we are to save this civilization.”

Or in the language used by Marco Rubio, who a few weeks ago in Munich received a standing ovation from European leaders for saying that “that the west has been forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry. And we will save it.”

The barely disguised, coded white supremacy and racism is obvious.

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say Euro-derived empire hates Iran because it is the descendent of a 6,000 year-old civilisation. Because the existence of Iran and its cultural heritage challenges the western civilisation narrative so beloved of fascists. This is quite obviously what sits behind Trump’s grotesque threats to bomb 52 cultural sites important to the Iranian people.

The war on Iran is being fuelled not just by geopolitical considerations, but by Euro-supremacy and a Nazi-like devotion to destroy the other.

So when we see liberals like Mark Carney, Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron refuse to condemn the mass murder of civilians, it’s not just because they’re slavishly devoted to imperialism, but because morally rotten narcissists and white supremacists stick together.

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