Impeachment,
Iran, and Aftermaths
Billions of us, led by concerned youth groups, continue to scream that time is running out to join the climate change and other actions vital to the survival of our life style, our species, and our unique and only world. Many of those who created the problems resist, are ignorant of, continue to worship the God of Greed, or kick remedies into the future that could easily fail us all. Too many have given up, ignore politics, and live only to enhance their few remaining days.
A seemingly impossible hurdle is to uncover, understand, and eliminate the forces that are thought to control us that include: New Masons, Illuminati, Rothchilds, the banking system, highly profitable businesses, the Military-Industrial complex, and self-serving politicians.
One of the politicians failing us commands a large impact. We do need to control Donald Trump and the millions who tolerate what others consider his selfishness. Recently his actions have run afoul of the US Constitution so opponents have succeeded in voting for impeachment using violations that can be effective even if not as serious as others he owns.
By a vote of 230 to 197 the government of the USA impeached its president, 20 December 2019. Support for impeachment breaks sharply among party lines. Among Democrats, 85% approve of the House of Representative’s action, and only 12% disapprove. Approval among Republicans is only 16%, compared with 81% who disapprove. Among independents, 48% approve of the House passing articles of impeachment and 41% disapprove.
After the House vote the impeachment fight will move — eventually — to the GOP-controlled Senate, where Republicans are confident they can stop the charges in their tracks. Public opinion on whether to actually remove Trump from office is 52% for and 42% against.
The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, conducted Dec. 19-20, is the first national survey to measure public opinion on the impeachment vote. Prior to the vote, POLITICO/Morning Consult polls showed slightly greater support for impeaching Trump than other public polls.
In December 2019 Trump paid $2 million divided among 8 charities to settle a New York State fine for misusing funds donated to his Donald J. Trump Foundation. He is accused of using Foundation funds to:
Buy a 6-foot portrait of himself for $20,000, to funnel millions into his 2016 election campaign, to pay $250,000 to settle lawsuits against his for-profit businesses, and even to pay $7 for Donald junior’s Boy Scout dues.
Trump followers shrugged all this off.
Now we have a truly great Trump diversion! But is it not also a great setback for the USA and the world? Ignoring Congress and saner heads, Trump, on 03 January 2020, became a terrorist by ordering a drone strike on a motorcade near Bagdad airport that killed ten people including Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, 62, head of the elite Quds Force and the spearhead of Iran's spreading military influence in the Middle East. Also killed were Abu Mahdi al-Muhhandis, Iraq’s deputy commander of it’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or PMU), a lifelong friend of Iran and critic of the USA, four senior Iranian officers, and four Iraqi officers.
The U.S. strike followed a sharp increase in U.S.-Iranian hostilities in Iraq when pro-Iranian militia attacked the U.S. embassy after a deadly U.S. air raid on the Kataib Hezbollah militia, founded by Muhandis. that killed 25. They were demanding that US troops and diplomats leave Iraq.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Soleimani’s death would intensify Tehran’s resistance to the USA and Israel. Abuhamzeh, the Revolutionary Guards commander in Kerman province, mentioned a series of possible targets for reprisals including the Gulf waterway through which about a third of the world’s shipborne oil is exported to global markets. The Strait of Hormuz is a vital point for the West and a large number of American destroyers and warships cross there.
Bill Bonner, chairman of Bonner & Partners, commented: “At the beginning of the 21st century America looked divine. Then, when George W. Bush launched his War on Terror in 2001, three thousand generations of dead humans must have all laughed at once.
There was America – so rich, so sophisticated… making a damned fool of herself. The gods must have laughed too… and no one louder than Ares himself, the god of war.
This was the kind of endless, expensive, and unwinnable wars that Ares knew well. It was the kind of war that was easy to get into… and hard to get out of. It was the kind of war that corrupted the military… and the government that supported it. It was the kind of war that could only be lost.
And there she was, the USA stooping for the bait like every empire before it.”
Selecting Ares is a good choice for today’s world. He is one of 12 Olympians, son of Zeus and Hera, well known as the lover of Aphrodite, goddess of love who was married to Hephaestus, god of craftsmanship.
Diego Garcia, the largest of 60 small islands in the Chagos Archipelago, just south of the equator in the Indian Ocean, is yet another example of man’s disregard of the rights of weaker associations. Discovered and named “Thank God” by the Portuguese, then settled by the French in the 1790s it was taken by the British on winning the Napoleonic wars in 1815. From 1968 to 1973 the settlers were forcibly evacuated to lease land to the USA to build a joint US-UK military base. Ignoring a 2019 UN demand to remove colonial status and return the area to Mauritius, the US and UK announced intentions to retain the current agreement until at least 2036. On 6 Jan 2020 Trump ordered B-52 bombers to be stationed there, out of reach of Iranian missiles.
Our world desperately needs this insanity to cease. We have done far more harm to Iran than it has done to us. I outlined this in Blog 132 of 04 August 2015 that also refers back to 3 earlier blogs (033,068, 073, June 2010, Feb 2012, April 2012). In 1935 Persia had the world change its name to Iran, the old Persian name for a country that can, for the most part, be proud of its history. It borders 15 countries and has no strategic depth so living in peace is vital.
In September 1980 Iraq under Saddam Hussein bombed 10 Iranian airfields then invaded with 6 divisions on a 400-mile (644 km) front, capturing 15,000 square km by December. This led to 8 years of war and 500,000 casualties. Saddam’s goal was to thwart Iran’s Ruhollah Khomeini from exporting his islamic Shi’ite revolution to Iraq. Annexing oil-rich Khuzestan would overthrow Khomeini and enhance Saddam’s standing among Arabs. However, the majority of Iranian Arabs chose to fight alongside Iranian forces.
The People’s Mujahedin of Iran sided with Iraq while the Iraqi KDP and PUK Kurdish militias sided with Iran. The USA, UK, USSR, France, and most Arab countries helped Iraq. Iraq used chemical weapons of mass destruction which Iran refused to do.
The war had WWI features: trench warfare, barbed wire, and mass bayonet attacks. Iran enhanced the cult of the martyr. The war cost 500,000 casualties. It ended with a UN brokered cease fire in 1988. There were no reparations or border changes.
Iran has endured the world’s most crippling sanctions, Harm to Iran goes back to WW1 and Churchill’s conversion of the Royal Navy from coal to oil followed by the development of Persian oil fields by UK and US companies who allowed Persia only a pittance of the profits thus creating a long series of political and economic upheavals.
Iran has good reason to feel resentful and united in a desire to retaliate. It has now fired 22 missiles at two Iraqi bases housing US personnel thus violating Iraqi sovereignty as did the US strike. All missiles reached their targets in spite of US shields thus warning us of Iran’s ability to do great harm.
Iran
did warn of the attack so only concussion casualties needed medical
help. This
implies that Iran carefully
and
humanely chose
targets
so
deserves high praise not sanctions.
Yet
it did make a terrible error, mistaking a Ukrainian
Boeing
passenger jet that had just taken off for a hostile drone, firing
two missiles at it
killing all 176 aboard including 57 Canadians, 11
Ukrainians, 7 Afghans, 10
Swedes,
and
3
Britons.
The
Canadian-Iranian dead were all Iranians graduates or students of
Canadian universities who had spent Christmas break in Iran.
Trump
has quickly increased the crippling sanctions, another huge mistake
that will only divert Iranian groups that have been agitating for
human rights denied by the current regime into neglecting their
movements in order to embrace national pride.
It
has been puzzling to see large Iranian
protesting
groups exhibiting
solid and passionate anti-USA
fervour on the murder of Major-General
Qassem Soleimani, then
changing to criticizing their own government,
calling for resignations, over shooting
down the
commercial
jet.
In
a very troubled and dangerous world, we are fortunate in having
millions, if not billions, of humans dedicated to salvation tactics
but we still need strong leaders capable of unifying them and
enforcing essential actions. It is essential that the United States,
Israel, NATO, and EU realize they have the power to alleviate many of
the woes that beset us. Many groups have already embarked on this
unselfish crusade. Let us join, support, and unite them.
We
could benefit from a few victories for common sense and human
empathy.
Ye Olde Scribe
Ye
Olde Scribe
georgesweanor@comcast.net
Regretfully, the US acts as the bully on the block when it dictates with whom Iran may trade. Threatening sanctions on any country that dares to trade with Iran is an unacceptable and humiliating insult.
Now, Iraq’s Shia leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, joins the chorus urging the US to depart and leave the Middle East to solve its own problems.
In a very troubled and dangerous world, it is essential that the United States, Israel, NATO, and EU realize they have the power to alleviate many of the woes that beset us. Many groups have already embarked on this unselfish crusade. Let us join and support them.
We now endure the terrible tragedy of an Iranian missile accidentally shooting down an Ukrainian Boeing killing all 176 aboard including 57 Canadians. Trump has quickly increased the crippling sanctions, another huge mistake that will only divert Iranian groups that have been agitating for human rights denied by the current regime into neglecting their movements in order to embrace national pride.
We could benefit from a few victories for common sense and human empathy.
What an amazing and pleasant surprise to see thousands of Iranians agitatiCustomizeng against their political leaders and calling for resignations over the shootdown of the Ukrainian jet.
Ye Olde Scribe
georgesweanor@comcast.net
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