A Letter to President Trump

“First, I would advise you against using the words ‘win’ and ‘winning’ to describe war, especially from a U.S. perspective,” begins Habib Ahmadzadeh.

Ruins of the ancient city of Persepolis in current-day Iran. (Masoud Khalife, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)

By Habib Ahmadzadeh
Mint Press News

Dear President Trump,

In a recent Tweet, you claimed that “Iranians never won a war, but never lost a negotiation.” As a world citizen and a veteran of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, I have firsthand experience with the bitterness of war, and I have a few suggestions and responses for you. 

First, I would advise you against using the words “win” and “winning” to describe war, especially from a U.S. perspective. American history is filled with bitter experiences of losing wars. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and even the engagement in Yemen — none of these horrifying interventions has ever reached its goals. 

You should recognize that the first step in any combat is understanding your adversary. As an experienced Iranian war veteran, I strongly suggest you study the culture and history of an old civilization such as Iran. Iranians, those you label as living in a “terrorist nation,” are proud that in the past 250 years we have never initiated a war. We are proud that we have never invaded, intruded and oppressed other nations, neither in our neighborhood nor even in response to our foes. 

Nonetheless, there is a delicacy in the sophisticated culture of Iran that separates us from you and your hawkish #Bteam — Bolton, Bin Salman and Bibi Netanyahu. The major difference is the view we each have toward war. For us, war is not an option; we never choose to go to war; we only respond to war. 

In 1915, during World War I, Rais Ali Delvary, a young man from a tiny village near the Persian Gulf, gathered a group together to defend the country from British invaders. They stopped the intruders who violated Iran’s neutrality during the war. Rais Ali’s slogan at the time is still applicable today. “We are in this war not to win over the invaders’ capital and assets; we are in this war to save our capital and assets from loss.” That is how we define losing and winning in a war. Rais Ali and his people won that war, as his disciples did almost a century later, and will do it again if they have to.

Mr. President, Iran has never initiated a war. Iran has never seized other nations’ resources to gain wealth and benefit for itself but Iran, of course, has and will vigorously defend its belongings, resources, life, and identity. Iran has done that throughout its four thousand years of history and will do it again if necessary. Rais Ali and his team did it in 1915. People in my generation did it in 1980-88 when the whole world stood behind Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain and helped him throughout those terrible eight years of war. We Iranians sacrificed everything to defend our nation. 

Under the world’s watch, Saddam Hussain dropped bombs and used chemical weapons on civilians. In the end, he was not able to seize even an inch of our homeland. Iranians became one body in defense of our homes and families. 

We lost hundreds of thousands of precious lives. To this day, Iranians, despite our differences, are all proud of the eight years we spent defending our country. Losing so many lives was a terrible tragedy and the nation still mourns the lives lost during those eight years. However, we stood firm and saved our homeland. Iran is still Iran; we did not lose an inch of terrain. 

Iran’s Foreign Minister  Javad Zarif.

Mr. President, in our lexicon, the one who starts a war is the only loser. The one who plans to steal the happiness, life, and wellbeing of others is the real loser.  

War is not our business, but negotiations and diplomacy are. War is not our purpose. Peace is our mission. Peace is our philosophy in life, and you are right, diplomacy is our art. 

Iran has proven its mastery in the art of diplomacy. Diplomacy, forbearance and patience are inclinations that cannot be achieved by billions of dollars of weapons. The United States’ allies in the region, including the Saudis’ Bin-Salman and Israel’s Bibi Netanhayu, can testify to that. They have spent many billions of dollars in arms sales but have not been able to dominate Iran.

Just be aware, Mr. President, that your friends on the #Bteam are pushing you into the same quagmire they created with Iraq. In desperation, they have now tied the hands of our master of diplomacy, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, by imposing sanctions on him. They should have learned their lesson by now — they might be able to ties the hands of our master chess players, but we will find other ways to move the pawns and horses. And a final word of advice: Don’t play checkers with the grandmasters of chess.

Sincerely,

Habib Ahmadzadeh

Habib Ahmadzadeh is an Iranian author, filmmaker and veteran who often uses his experience in the 1980-1988 Iran/Iraq war in his work.

This article appeared in Mint Press News.

Before commenting please read Robert Parry’s Comment PolicyAllegations unsupported by facts, gross or misleading factual errors and ad hominem attacks, and abusive language toward other commenters or our writers will be removed.

44 comments for “A Letter to President Trump

  1. August 11, 2019 at 19:41

    Dear Habib Ahmadzadeh
    Thank you for your inspiring article about Iran and its truly defensive attitude to war, only to defend its people and country from attack. I have great admiration for Iran, its courageous leaders and people in very difficult circumstances, because of the appallingly inhuman behaviour of the US-led west, including terrible sanctions. America truly is an out-of-control, uncivilised monster, killing millions of people in wars this 21st century in the Middle East and North Africa in wars that are against international law and the UN Charter. Iran is the latest country being lined up and threatened by America. This makes Iran’s efforts for peace even more amazing. Mr Zarif is a brilliant Minister of Foreign Affairs, able to show up the aggressive rhetoric and actions of America.

    It’s bizarre that the US and UK are endangering peace and security in the world, based on unfounded suspicions that Iran is trying to get nuclear weapons, simply because if has a nuclear-energy programme. Iran historically has never had an interest in developing nuclear weapons. In 1974, Iran led an effort to establish a Middle-East Nuclear-Free Zone which was widely endorsed in the Middle East. In 1990 this zone was extended by Egypt to include chemical and biological weapons, making the proposal for a Middle-East Zone Free of All Weapons of Mass Destruction, MEWMDFZ. This was endorsed by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 687. However, a key meeting in 2012 to establish the Middle- East Zone Free of all Weapons of Mass Destruction was postponed indefinitely by Israeli and American interests. This was largely because Israel is the only country in the Middle-East with undeclared nuclear weapons and it refuses to allow inspection of its nuclear facilities and chemical and biological weapons facilities. It’s bizarre also that that the US is challenging Iran about nuclear weapons, when it’s the US which is investing heavily in modernising nuclear weapons, breeching the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has recently permitted Saudi Arabia
    to be given the ability to produce nuclear weapons.
    Solidarity with Iran!

  2. kooshy
    August 10, 2019 at 12:52

    Mr. Ahmadzadeh

    Thank you for this well written letter, to someone(s) who is totally ignorant and has no clue, on how deeply he is resented not only in Iran but throughout the world. very well said

  3. Dave Hormsan
    August 9, 2019 at 19:46

    Thank you for your inspirational and fascinating words. Words backed by deeds.

    In gauging the enemy let us not forget something.

    For a sadistic psychopath creating a wasteland for resisters is winning. Look around.

  4. Hide Behind
    August 9, 2019 at 18:44

    There is an old saying, “East is East and West is West, and nare the twain shall meet and that seperation, eastern versus western philosophy is blatantly obvious by just a comparison of how destructive to mankind and the planet those of western , European derived philosophy has become.
    No other nations or cultures outside of European philosophy threatens those outside and thousands of miles from its borders except in defence of itself, it’s resources and its peoples.
    Some say ethics was derived from Western cultures but forget that the ancient Romans and Greek philosophers studies in Egypt the confluence of historical records from long before Europeans could even read or write, all from where moral codifications were first set in place.
    Two of planets religious ordering that sprang from Middle East, Judaism and its bastard child, Christianity cobbled together the idea that they and only they owned and had only rights to all of earths resources, dominionism.
    Both became Greek/Romanized politicly because they saw the means to claim dominion of plant, airs, waters, fish animals and the heavens itself, materialism, the new proof of their righteousness.
    They colonized and stratified societies into borders that are more or less intact today, and once accomplished they set about their dominionist cultures of pillaging the earths peoples and resources for themselves.
    US is but a product resulting from Europes morally corrupt and vile aspects of colonization and their constant warfare on European soils that politicly, financially and moral bankrupted them into what President Trump would classify them as being s,,t.ole nations of todays non eurocentrics.
    As vassel nation status no European nation and peoples of today has not profited by participating in US colonization of earths nations, none.
    As the author of this letter pointed out about its invasion by Iraq, it was a worldwide attack led by the US and their nations domestic aid by military, educational, political, and financial.
    It is a war of cultural philosophys,where the most destructive one is the most militarily strongestwithout culture, and on the other side one that wants to keep its centuries older culture (s) more or less intact.
    Since 1950s there are multiple cases of nations carved from older cultural rooted single nations into places that were never before seen that are no more than centers of influence for Euro/US-Israel control.
    There is in making and soon to be completed one world culture, that Europe of today, Asia, ME Africa, South American and Iran As well as sovereign cultures may well not survive.
    Russia, will fall, as they have always tried to be European and as for China, the dwindling of earths resources they need to become the dominant nation,will sink be destroyed by US empire and its worldwide tassel states.
    The earth is not large enough to materially advance and support all but a few millions of populations, leaving little or nothing for masses to survive upon.
    A position of stasis where only those of strong minds and wills will enjoy life.

  5. August 9, 2019 at 15:25

    Bolton with his walrus mustache is a symbol of defense and ability to dive under deep waters!

  6. hetro
    August 9, 2019 at 15:03

    Thank you, Habib. As I see it a problem we might have is the thick encrusting some in your audience seem to have not only in terms of respecting your words as honest and sincere, but respecting you as an Iranian, and no doubt wondering if you are perhaps also a terrorist in disguise, or with your letter casting honeyed words to hide the nuclear weapon in your turban.

    This sort of response seems ignorant of history since 1953, with US regime change in your country, followed by the 1979 resistance, the American hostages, and all the subsequent demonizing. All this is preceded by the brilliant breakthrough in understanding we had in government circles right after WW2 that “permanent war” needed to be instituted since WW 2 had so benefited the coffers of the munitions makers and bringing the economy out of The Great Depression.

    From that time forward America began its trajectory toward global supremacy, hastening it with the collapse of the Soviet Union. As you know, the program requires “regime change” and labeling resisting countries as “terrorists.” Hefty brainwashing of the populace follow as with the “axis of evil” sloganeering, and we move on to today’s wonderland and the BBB panacea.

    Very well then, Ahmad, best wishes, and my full support on avoiding more war!

  7. August 9, 2019 at 13:50

    Wonderful observation by HabibAhmadzadeh which would appeal to any civilized community but not to a BARBARIAN society like USA!

  8. Vera Gottlieb
    August 9, 2019 at 11:55

    And just as water trickles off Teflon, so do these words trickle off the American conscience.

  9. Guy
    August 9, 2019 at 10:55

    So very true.No matter what one might think of the Iranian mullahs etc . Iran is a peaceful nation and not the aggressor nation in the demonization of it’s character by the Western world and Israel . Ever since my since evolving awakening ,I have been saying this ,only to be pooh poohed by my friends and acquaintances . The West really has no axe to grind with Iran .It is only projected due to arrogance.

  10. elmerfudzie
    August 8, 2019 at 18:56

    I still believe that it was a great political and economic mistake for Iran to go nuclear. Poker faced, the Iranian leadership explained to the world that it needed to invest in commercial nuclear energy, even tho it’s gas reserves were second only to Russia and further it has the world’s third largest resource in recoverable oil. In terms of both initial investment and long range support issues, the Uranium based reactor is prohibitively expensive. For example even the industrial giant, Germany is resolved to put solar panels on buildings, windows and to increase wind power as well. At the same time, Germany is closing it’s nuclear power facilities, phasing them all out over the next decade. Yet, with all this fore knowledge ready at hand, a country knee deep in various energy sources, not to mention the perpetually sunny Isfahan (for solar) decides it needs the dirty and dangerous MOX cycle for electrical power? Why didn’t the leadership choose Thorium based reactor cores? they require less shielding, much less expense for burial, cannot be made weapons grade and cannot melt down, no matter what the emergency (just simply remove the neutron source)

    During the Eisenhower administration, the scientific community at large, announced their general consensus and sputtered a good deal of propaganda such as; electricity will be too cheap to meter, it’s an environmentally cleaner source of electrical power, burial of radioactive materials poses no special problem(s) and so on. Gradually the curtain was pulled back, sometime after IKE’s Atoms for Peace Program started and the world began to realize the dilemmas behind commercial nuclear power; to name just a few, expensive security to protect against domestic terror, atomic facilities are a target for enemy missiles or bombs and followed by environmental disaster, costs associated with safe? long term storage of nuclear wastes, escalating political frictions with “have not” neighbors, potential military applications towards the creation of dirty or Atomic bombs, power disruptions from quakes (common to the ME region) sabotage, tsunami, possible meltdown and the list goes on and on….Suspicions in the middle east countries concerning the Bushehr plant and other facilities like it (heavy water reactor at Arak) were confirmed when, in 2003, Iran’s “Amad Plan” and shockwave generator research was uncovered. Yet, with all this needless baggage, from inside Iran and mounting global concerns, the Mullahs decided to continue the nuclear power programs, waving a piece of paper like Neville Chamberlains’ signing of the Munich Agreement “peace in our time” nonsense. Wellll, the Europeans Fell For It Again, so to speak but not the vigilant American. You see “folks”, I relish using Obama’s slang, especially here, the vigilant readers have a recollection of Pakistan’s General Ziaul Haq’s (RIP) assurances to Ronald Reagan that they would not build an atomic bomb and this was repeated to our ambassador at the time, Vernon Walters. “I can assure you that we neither possess nor have transmitted any designs or specifications of nuclear weapons components to anyone,” Of course, what stands out in this statement as a corollary to the present moment and that, JCPOA “document” (not treaty) is the fact that Iran was happy to TAKE nuclear weapons design and rocket delivery systems from A.Q. Khan’s criminal networks, indeed!

    I think we call all more or less decipher what cards the mullahs are holding and what hand they intend to lay onto the gaming tables when the moment is just right for them, behold, we have, The Bomb!

    • Jeff Harrison
      August 8, 2019 at 21:53

      It would be really good if you had a clue about what you’re talking about.

      • elmerfudzie
        August 9, 2019 at 00:05

        Jeff Harrison, is there something specific, please be specific, made in these arguements that seems vague or erroneous? A blanket statement such a yours, is more of an emotional outburst rather than good old fashioned, constructive criticism.

      • Abe
        August 9, 2019 at 23:23

        Vigilant CN readers note that comrade “elmerfudzie” sputtered Hasbara (pro-Israel) propaganda in the comments at
        https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/25/pepe-escobar-us-and-iran-stuck-on-negotiation-ground-zero/

        Benjamin Netanyahu’s “atomic archive”, which “elmerfudzie” cites profusely, was a lame, easily debunked propaganda scam foisted by Israel.

        During the Eisenhower administration, the U.S. government first learned of Israel’s secret nuclear program at Dimona from an American corporate official talking to U.S. diplomats in Tel Aviv during mid-summer 1960.

        Declassified documents published by the National Security Archive detail the discovery of the secret Israeli project that U.S. government officials believed from the very start aimed at a weapons capability.

        The discovery of the Israel’s clandestine nuclear program came as the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower was drawing to a close, and caused apprehension in Washington by raising concern about regional stability and nuclear proliferation. Israeli officials at all levels repeatedly provided less than credible answers to U.S. questions about Dimona.

        Fast forward to 2019 and we can all readily decipher what “cards” the Israelis are now holding: Trump, Bolton, Pompeo, Pence, and a compliant Congress ready to comply with pro-Israel Lobby diktats.

        Israel laid a hand of jokers onto the gaming tables in 2016 and intends to launch a war on Iran “when the moment is just right” for them… after the re-election of “1000 percent” pro-Israel lackey Trump.

      • farhang
        August 14, 2019 at 03:14

        1 – Regardless of confirming Iran right for moving towards nuclear weapon or not ,I should strongly emphesie on the fact that neither the US nor Israel or other current WMD owners have no right to even advise others about that .
        2- Unfortunately the lack of ethics and powerful preventing international laws to stop the aggressors and war-criminals have always been sensible specially in the current centuries . What a wonderful world.

    • dfnslblty
      August 9, 2019 at 10:54

      Elmer,
      Please reread this excellent essay, then rethink your own words.
      Work for peace.

      • elmerfudzie
        August 9, 2019 at 20:16

        dfnslblty, after reading the Habib Ahmadzadeh article again and reviewing my commentary in reaction to it, I now see the need for me to “reverse engineer” the entire issue of US-Iran frictions and review the potential for a military confrontation between these nations.

        At the moment, the leaders on both sides, their philosophical belief systems, credibility, reputation, all have nothing what so ever to do with what transpires in the immediate future (before 2020) The current POTUS could have been Clinton, Sanders or someone else and the mullahs could have been replaced by secular leadership. Yet, had any or all of of these changes occurred, the world would still be standing in the same place and in the same identical predicament. Why? the issues of war and peace are decided not by governments or international bodies such as the UN, NATO, ruling bureaucracies similar to the Russian Nomenklatura but by a network of bankers who, in 1913 took control to print money away from Western Occident governments and into the hands of financial speculators. This consolidation of power was greatly enhanced by the Bretton Woods Agreement, that made the USD the reserve currency of the world.

        Any decision by governments or international corporations that serve to weaken or substitute this fiat currency for another, for example the BRICS alliance to subvert the SWIFT system of currency exchange for commodities, or the appearance of the gold Dinar (meant for all of Africa) during the Qaddafi regime, draws a fiery response from the “hidden hands” within the Federal Reserve Banks of this world. Over the last one hundred years, these same banking networks conspired, contrived, produced, various schemes that brought about WW I, II, Vietnam, Gulf Wars, Libya and now they threaten to usher in a major regional war involving the GCC, Israel, Iran and possibly Pakistan. This regional war, if initiated may very well drag China and Russia into direct armed conflict with the USA and UK.

        The question is, can the world wait patiently for the inevitable and internal financial collapse of this fiat system of currencies in lieu of a new major war? This was indeed the case when the USSR fell, after all, the West could have been blackmailed by Soviet threats to use ICBM’s. But that craziness did not happen, thank God. Following such a collapse, a global, financial reset button would be pressed with a Jubilee year of total debt forgiveness. This new policy announced and agreed to amongst all nations)

        If Iran bares itself to the skin, permits UN representative visitations to all it’s military R & D facilities without restrictions, re installs the USD trade policy and avoids “swap lines”, then a return to SWIFT will be met with eagerness by the western bankers and a major nuclear war will be averted.

        The average prole just can’t hope to comprehend the depth of greed and control freakishness these banksters really have. The last and third way out might be to close all the Federal Reserve Systems-Banks of the world in one fell swoop however this is about as likely as the Soviet Block returning (something I’m sure Putin has dream’t about….at one time or another)

      • Abe
        August 11, 2019 at 18:55

        Hasbara propaganda is designed to distract, dilute, divert, and disrupt discussion of Israeli government actions or pro-Israel Lobby influence on American elections and foreign policy.

        Two weeks ago, comrade “elmerfudzie” got busy ‘splainin’ that an “extremely intrusive inspection regimen” was necessary for Iran.

        The immediate failure of the initial Hasbara effort by “elmerfudzie” is chronicled in the CN comments at
        https://consortiumnews.com/2019/07/25/pepe-escobar-us-and-iran-stuck-on-negotiation-ground-zero/

        Now comrade “elmerfudzie” is busy ‘splainin’ that “the entire issue of US-Iran frictions” is about “banking networks”.

        Hasbara hilarity ensues.

        To be sure, the nuclear war threats issuing from Israel and the current US administration’s collection of pro-Israel Lobby dimwits (Trump, Bolton, Pompeo, Pence, et al) will not avert the “inevitable and internal financial collapse of this fiat system of currencies”.

    • vinnieoh
      August 9, 2019 at 11:09

      Well, I can be specific. I read your comment last night and had to admit that it was persuasively composed. I also noticed and noted to myself that you were not overtly advocating anything in particular. But I also noticed that much of the latter part of your main paragraph didn’t quite ring true. American vigilance? It was Netanyahu’s rather comical display of “stolen” documents that your assertions rest on. Some of that material at least is known to have been altered or forged. Numerous and repeated US intelligence assessments concluded that Iran’s active pursuit of a nuclear explosive ended in 2003, and mostly archival activities occurred there through 2008.

      Much of the breathless accusations by Netanyahu, Bolton, Pompeo, and Trump revolve around “the last unresolved issue,” specifically information purportedly contained on a laptop purportedly smuggled out of Iran in 2004. The information was shared with IAEA which was barred from showing it to and confronting the Iranians with. As the Iranians have rightly said, how can they respond to information that has been kept from them, and more importantly, how can any of us know the truth or reliability of that information if we can’t see it, dissect it, and analyze it? We are supposed to automatically trust Netanyahu – a master propagandist and admitted liar – and Bolton and Pompeo (ditto)?

      You refer to the mullahs as holding the cards, and I believe I heard the dog whistle of “crazed fanatical extremists” in that. I believe this fails to appreciate the rather more complex fabric of Iran. The various military leaders have much influence and persuasion there, and though some may be devout Shiites, are probably more motivated by security concerns than fomenting a Shiite Islamic regional revolution.

      It is the height of hypocrisy that Netanyahu is the main rabble-rouser making accusations of Iranian nuclear ambitions. Let the IAEA and the rest of the world have access to Israeli strategic weapons and installations, and specifically nuclear programs and facilities, to the same degree that Iran has been subject. This isn’t just classic “whataboutism” but goes to the heart of the tension. Israel not only holds the ME region hostage, but all of humanity now, as the attack they constantly wish to provoke could spark the final conflict of the human race.

      I have read or heard all of the many Iranian denials and declarations of peace not confrontation over the years. I have no way of judging the truth or honesty of those other than the context of everything else that has concurrently transpired. The lies against Iraq, Libya, and Syria, and the methodical destruction in an ever-widening circle, of all of Israel’s neighbors.

      You did not specifically advocate a course of action, but I’ll finish the thought you left dangling there. If Iran is indeed hiding something and they have come much closer to perfecting certain technologies than previously thought, and say next year they pull a nuclear tipped missile out of their turbans, it would indeed be a step backward for humanity, as any further proliferation of nuclear weapons, by anyone, anywhere, certainly is. It would also be very difficult to fault them for that, given the very real threats arrayed against them.

    • Dave Horsman
      August 9, 2019 at 19:54

      And as recent experience has taught us. Don’t back them into a corner. Don’t take a political threat and turn it into an existential threat.

      Rinse. Repeat.

    • farhang
      August 14, 2019 at 02:57

      Friend
      Hope that you are doing well. I always try to judge without any bias because ; I have no interest in gaining any illegal benefit through any party , also feel extremely bad to cheat myself. Despite all the facts mentioned in this article besides many other evidences, it is disappointing to see such comments as yours so careless about all those bright facts. The worst enemy to us may sometimes be our own thoughts.

  11. hetro
    August 8, 2019 at 17:09

    I would like to bring back up a comment I made responding to Patrick’s article the other day, as I think it ties in:

    If Trump coopts the Russia narrative as to appear to possibly side with it (“I never said Russia did not meddle in the election”), thus allowing his DOJ people to side-step a decent investigation “to protect their own,” he is more formidably entrenched than ever with Establishment Politics. Bill Binney, for example, on CN Live stated that his interview with Pompeo, after presenting the considerable evidence on the leak, went nowhere.

    I say this because (at risk of being labeled TDS) Trump appears to play the game strictly as an opportunist in terms of what will work best for him and his businesses coming up. This indicates he is without principles, or without significantly implemented principles (i.e. principles that waver in the wind), according to what gains (in his view) in the moment.

    So he calls off the previous attack on Iran a month ago. But since then he talks “obliteration” tough guy theory. And, related, yesterday we have a tanker with food into Venezuela seized to further pressure on Maduro and Venezuelan people. His henchmen BB&B appear to be his go-to people on what to do, with backing off at the last moment as a probably sweat-filled fall-back position.

    If this is chess it’s from a man who’s keeping an extra queen in his back pocket to slip onto the board if he can when things get tough, and he seems to be going downhill for 2020.

    I fear this ultimate wizard at whirling dervish is what we’ve got, and one who would reply to this letter with, “That’s interesting, and of course nothing I wasn’t already fully aware of.”

  12. Kaffir
    August 8, 2019 at 16:40

    Never invaded a country? Explain your criminal partnership with Assad, the butcher of Syria!

    • vinnieoh
      August 8, 2019 at 18:15

      First, you explain how Iran and Syria, friends and allies for decades (even during the Iran-Iraq war) caused an invasion by Syria inviting and welcoming Iran’s help. As for Hezbollah in adjacent Lebanon, it’s my understanding that in addition to providing a defensive militia there, Hezbollah enjoys democratic elective support. Nothing criminal about it, unless helping a long-time friend against a foreign directed regime change war funded and supplied by illegitimate Wahhabist grasping monarchies is somehow wrong. And please don’t mention the “gas attacks”; you’ll get laughed off this site.

    • hetro
      August 8, 2019 at 18:51

      Problem here is lack of context from way back, which generally we seem to be forgetting. The neocon’s playbook from the 90’s laid out x number of countries to be dismantled and run by “our guys” (regime change) over the upcoming period, initiated with Iraq in 03. Syria was attacked in this spirit, to which Iran assisted in defense. As to the “butcher” Assad this is more standard claptrap from mainstream brainwashing. Put some substance to it for further consideration as to anything other than sound bites. The regional context includes control of resources and competition from, yes, Iran.

    • Nathan Mulcahy
      August 8, 2019 at 19:59

      You may not like Assad. but he is the rightful president of Syria. As for Iran, helping an ally, especially when invited to do so, is not an invasion. In contrast, what the outlaw US empire and its middle eastern minions habe been doing in Syria can rightfully call invasion. W

    • Bob Guertling
      August 8, 2019 at 23:01

      You spew lies about Assad and Syria. Israel and the U.S. created ISIS and Israel set up clinics in Syria for a time to take care of ISIS fighters. Israel is a terrorist State which bombs and threatens its neighbors daily. How much do you get paid to spew pro Israeli propaganda?

    • Hamidreza
      August 13, 2019 at 06:54

      Who was the butcher of Syria? ISIS or Assad? Who is the Founder of ISIS?

    • Jalal
      August 13, 2019 at 08:41

      If Assad is the butcher of Syria in your opinion, then ISIS is a freedom fighter resistant group!

    • viyana
      August 13, 2019 at 11:13

      I explain. Kaffir is speaker of Bin Salman, His name derived from arab words in KSA.

  13. Brent Anderson
    August 8, 2019 at 16:09

    Very good article that points out the bad policies that have been set forth by the rabid dogs like Bolton in the administration. I voted for Trump and it now shames me, not for his harsh words on internal policies such as immigration but rather for his destruction of Syria and Yemen. As a Christian I can assure people hat the vast majority of U.S. Christians are not Christians at all. I pray and plead for the people that have been affected by our endless wars and the vast majority of people I talk to about it could not care less about those who have suffered and died. The media is controlled by the most vicious people in the entire world and they make sure that the arguments on CNN, FOX and other toilet news stations are about racism and other Dem vs Rep topics when the real racism and genocide takes place everyday at the hands of the U.S., Israel, Great Britain and the evil money powers of the west. Americans say they stand for those who fight for freedom but only sit and watch while the Palestinians are slowly strangled and killed. It pains me to say that I have nobody to vote for in 2020 but it is the truth. I personally cannot stand Rep Omar but her words on Israel were 100 percent correct.

  14. Eric32
    August 8, 2019 at 14:53

    >American history is filled with bitter experiences of losing wars. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and even the engagement in Yemen<

    Whose goals and of what type?

    Iraq, Syria and you could have added Libya, were perceived as real or potential threats to Israel.

    Now, they're wrecked and not even capable of governing there own interiors, much less mounting external threats.

    Do you really think the Israelis wanted to see a reconstructed Iraq, with a healthy democratic government and an economy that made them a major player in the region again?

    Whose goals and of what type?

  15. vinnieoh
    August 8, 2019 at 14:22

    Mr. Pres’dint:

    You said: “Just remember, the Iranians never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!”

    Even more crazy Mr. Pres’dint, was, by taking a coupla’ hundred hostages and kicking out the rest, the Iranians effectively accomplished a regime change, something that usually takes the US – the hands-down world leader in that category – billions of dollars, square miles of demolished territory, and thousands of destroyed lives to maybe pull off. Don’t that beat all! Oh, and by the by, they aint never comin’ back into the warm bosom of colonialism, and won’t be groveling before your awesome witty genius any time soon.

    Go ahead, Mr. Pres’dint, make America grate (sic) again. Please, daddy. “Oh how we yearn, to see the bodies burn.” – FZ&MoI

    – postcard from shithole America to strategamagific bomber HQ, Wash DC

    • Dave McGlinnen
      August 8, 2019 at 18:06

      “Ronnie’s in the Army now & Kenny’s taking pills
      Oh! How they yearn to see a bomber burn!
      Color flashing, thunder crashing, dynamite machine!
      (Wait till the fire turns green … wait till the fire turns green)
      WAIT TILL THE FIRE TURNS GREEN!”

      Last verse to

      Let’s Make The Water Turn Black
      from the album ‘We’re Only In It For The Money’
      by the Mothers Of Invention 1968

      Zappa is someone I study.
      Please don’t misquote his stupid lyrics!

      • vinnieoh
        August 8, 2019 at 19:14

        Sorry Dave, you’re absolutely correct. And I pulled out my copy of “We’re Only In It For the Money” after I posted that and realized my mistake. I knew someone would call me out on it. btw: my youngest son, a musician, while at YSU he and his fellow students put together a FZ&MoI tribute band for a winter concert and they were great! Played Peaches and Regalia, Yellow Snow and several others -full orchestration, nothing missing.

        What I found truly amazing was this bunch of young musicians who probably weren’t even speaking in complete sentences when Frank died, so passionately committed to the full structure of his work. Then I realized that all their parents were just like me, filling their kid’s heads with Zappa before they could walk!

        I pulled out and played that chart because I knew it wasn’t necessarily about war, but that was always lurking in FZ’s music at that time. I know, I lived through it.

        • Dave McGlinnen
          August 8, 2019 at 19:56

          Indeed! Always good to hear FZ’s music continues to inspire!

  16. jo6pac
    August 8, 2019 at 14:12

    Amerikas govt. doesn’t want to win a war but to continue on as long as possible to the create death, refuges, and profits for Amerikas merchants of death. I truly would like it to change but not happening any time in the near future. Sad

    Thanks for the great article.

  17. Skip Edwards
    August 8, 2019 at 13:49

    Very well spoken, Mr. Ahmadzadeh. I can only hope they will be well taken by my government. Climate change is our mutual foe; and, has the ability to bring us together as friends and allies. I wish you well.

    • August 8, 2019 at 14:17

      Why would anyone write a letter to Donald Trump talking about grandmasters of chess? Donald doesn’t read – duh!

      https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/americas-first-post-text-president/549794/

    • Habib Ahmadzadeh
      August 9, 2019 at 04:55

      thank you
      Habib Ahmadzadeh

      • David Otness
        August 9, 2019 at 14:33

        I thank you as well, Habib Ahmadzadeh, and can only bear the shame of enduring such U.S. “leaders” who consort with the rogue Zionists who have likely blackmailed them all, or given them so much bribe money they will never let go of after giving it to the Zionists in the first place! They feed the Israeli teats, filled with our own tax dollars—only to receive much of that same money given back to them by AIPAC, etc. And succeeding Congresses and Presidents just keep the money laundering machine called Israel spinning perpetually.

        A good example of how honorably Iran conducted its war plan against Saddam is illustrative to today’s constant aspersions against the nation called “the biggest terrorist country” in Washington, D.C.-speak, but in reality, when Ayatollah Khomeini had the opportunity to use the vast stocks of chemical weapons that the USA gave to Reza Pahlavi against Saddam Hussein, he forbade their use.
        Who has the moral high ground, hmm…?
        And that is something that escapes a very high percentage of Americans who think they know it all.
        Because they watch TV and listen to bullshit like NPR, BBC and CBC too. (The NATO Network.) And of course the MIC-owned cable “news” networks as well.
        And do I know the U.S. thought police are reading all of this and might any day use it against me?
        Oh yes I do.

  18. Jeff Harrison
    August 8, 2019 at 13:11

    Indeed. This is the Iran that I knew in the 1970’s. Thugs of the ilk of MBS, Netanyahoo, and Thump will never understand why they’ve lost.

  19. TalleyUp
    August 8, 2019 at 12:41

    Excellent.

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