Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Obama Provoking War with Iran
18 Jan 2012
🖨️ Print Article

 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

The Obama administration is, arguably, already at war with Iran by most legal and civilized standards – a war of economic strangulation and covert aggression. African Americans have historically opposed U.S. wars against the developing world, but Obama has “blurred the lines between war and not-war,” claiming that his 7-month bombing campaign against Libya was not really a war. Meanwhile, the corporate media “is full of fake news about Iranian threats, when it is the Americans who are doing all the threatening, all the killing.”

 

Obama Provoking War with Iran

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“Obama has been as methodical in his buildup to war with Iran as George Bush was with Iraq almost nine years ago.”

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, which represents the views of the American corporate establishment, says “The probability of armed conflict between the United States and Iran is higher now than at any point since 1988.” That’s because the Obama administration has methodically steered the U.S. military juggernaut towards war with Iran since the day Obama entered the White House. Washington is busily organizing a world economic war against Iran, bullying other countries, and even pressuring the Chinese – so far, unsuccessfully – to boycott Iranian oil, which is an act of war. The U.S. and its allies are hell bent on regime change in Syria, Iran’s neighbor and ally, covertly supporting armed insurgents that have killed more than 1,500 Syrian soldiers and police, while western corporate media blow the bugles of armed intervention. U.S. warships commit daily provocations in the Persian Gulf, hoping to create a pretext for a shooting war. And, just this month, another Iranian scientist was assassinated, either by the Israelis or the CIA, the fifth such murder in the last two years. Such targeted aggressions would be considered acts of war if the Iranians committed them against the US. or Israel.

Iranians know what can happen when the U.S. Navy maneuvers in the Gulf. In 1988, an American missile cruiser shot down an Iranian civilian passenger airliner over the Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. It was a crime against humanity – and the Iranians remember it well, even if the self-contained American public, does not. The American media, addicted to lying in the service of the U.S. State Department, is full of fake news about Iranian threats, when it is the Americans who are doing all the threatening, all the killing, and subjecting Iran to economic strangulation. Cuba’s Fidel Castro is correct in his assessment that world peace is hanging by a thread.

“Wars, once set in motion, have momentums of their own.”

President Obama has blurred the lines between war and not-war. No sane person could deny that the United States and its NATO allies were at war with Libya during seven months of non-stop bombing, until they finally achieved regime change. But President Obama defied U.S. law and the U.S. Congress, denying that a state of war ever existed. He will doubtless make the same claim when and if he attacks Iran with bombs and missiles. This is a lawless government.

Obama has been as methodical in his buildup to war with Iran as George Bush was with Iraq almost nine years ago, moving step by step to the brink. He might want to avoid pushing gasoline prices to six or eight dollars in an election year, but wars, once set in motion, have momentums of their own.

In February of 2003, only weeks before George Bush invaded Iraq, the Zogby polling agency asked the question: “Would you support or oppose a war against Iraq if it mean thousands of Iraqi civilian casualties?” A large majority of white males and more than a third of white females said, “Yes,” go ahead with the invasion. Only 7 percent of Blacks favored an invasion that would kill thousands of Iraqi civilians. Today, with a Black commander-in-chief, I would hope that African Americans would be just as solidly against a full-blown war against Iran. Very soon, that question may rendered moot by the relentless warmongering of our First Black President.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20120118_gf_WarIran.mp3

More Stories


  • What is Anti-racism
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    “What Is Anti-Racism? And Why It Means Anti-Capitalism,” A Book Review
    06 Mar 2024
    Arun Kundnani details the histories of liberal and radical anti-racism and argues that anti-racism ultimately means anti-capitalism.
  • Collage of Black politicians
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    War criminal Bassackwards Tribe
    06 Mar 2024
    "War criminal Bassackwards Tribe" is the latest from our Poet-in-Residence.
  • CARICOM officials arrive in Haiti
    Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
    Why is CARICOM Betraying Haiti on Behalf of the U.S.?
    06 Mar 2024
    The impending occupation of Haiti by Kenya is supported by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) with direct assistance in the mission coming from CARICOM states. The question is, why?
  • Hands off Uhuru logo
    Solyana Bekele
    FBI Storms African Liberation Movement with Fabricated Charges: U.S. Government Escalates Brutal Assault
    06 Mar 2024
    The Uhuru 3 were recently indicted by the federal government, continuing a historical pattern of connecting revolutionary Black organizations and movements to an outside malign state actor to destroy…
  • The Turkana people protesting at the Africa Climate Summit
    Aby L. Sène
    Western Climate Agenda Goes Against African Development
    06 Mar 2024
    Carbon and biodiversity offsets are the latest imperialist weapons used against African people and their nations. Self-determination is the key to ecological health for the continent.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us