Accusations and Pretexts

Oh, here we go again. Never a dull moment in America. Now it seems that the Iranians tried to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. It was to  happen in a restaurant, right,with a hitman supplied by a Mexican drug cartel, right? But we (the Americans) foiled it, just in the nick o time.

Now commences the period of righteous indignation, the accusations, the threats, and of course the denials. Problem is, the Iranian denial sounds a lot more plausable than the American accusations, but then, what else is new?

Americans have a history of making accusations which lead to war. Maybe its a natural growth mechanism. Rome did this. So did England. All growing empires do; they find pretexts upon which to conquer and expand.

Perhaps the Iranians were indeed trying to kill the Saudi Arabian gentleman. Anything is possible, and the Iranians are obviously not angels. But the story behind it sure is a mite fishy.

The revolutionary war which began the USA was instigated against a relatively lenient government, by the standards of the times. Americans had bona fide complaints, but for the most part, the English rulers essentially let the colonies do as they please. The wars with Mexico and spain, which jump started our empire, were waged for trumped up (by the US) reasons. So were most of our recent wars, including Viet Nam, the first Persian Gulf War, and possibly even World War Two. Roosevelt may indeed have conducted his foreign policy in such a manner as to provoke the Japanese into war.

If there is a war against Iran, I might be a tad suspicious. But I sure hope America wins...