The America of the Old Testament

Our corrupt ruling class and their tools in the media continue to beat the drums for war against Iran.   The same media that the people don't believe makes the case for starting a war against Iran, and somehow, we believe them on that one.    

Even if we recognize global Islamofascism as a legitimate threat, the move makes no sense.   Iran is the heart of Shia Islam.   Most Moslems are Sunni.   If Iran is taken out, the Sunni faction of Islam, which includes all those who harmed us on 9/11, can unite Islam.   We NEED a strong Shia Iran to serve as a counter-weight to rising Sunni Islamic fundamentalism.   

Do the 'tards in the state department really believe that once Shia Islam is toppled they can control Sunni Islam just because the Saudi Royal family is in their hip pockets?     Our policy of trying to rebuild Islamic societies in our image is bloody, expensive, and a failure.  How do you deal with crazy people in your life? Do you make it a policy to avoid them where possible or do you go out of your way to interject yourself into their affairs?  Exactly.

If we were not between them, the Shia and Sunni Muslims would go back to killing one another, just as they have done for centuries.   Only our military occupation of Muslim lands directs their rage our way.  Switzerland is rich and free, but Muslims never bomb them- because they mind their own business.  In the name of protecting us, our freedoms are being stripped away by the government.   If they hated us for being free, they should hate us a lot less now.

But if any Islamic nation had a legitimate reason to hate the United States, it would be Iran.     We backed the plot to topple their democratically elected government in 1953 and impose a brutal dictator on them (the Shah).    They threw him off in the late 70's, but within a few years were attacked by our then-ally Iraq.   We funded and armed Saddam Hussein during his long, bloody, unprovoked war against Iran.    Despite this, for some reason, the Iranian people did not seem to hate us to the degree on might expect.    The 911 attackers were from our Sunni "allies" Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Yet here we are, with our ruling class trying to stir us up into a frenzy against them.   It's sad.   The old name for Iran is Persia, because the Persians were the leading Aryan tribe.  Iran means "land of the Aryans."   Persia was like the United States of the Old Testament in so many ways.   For one thing, it was not one of the earlier nations.   It rose up after Egypt and Babylon.   Like us, it rose to be the superpower of the world in its day.   Like us, the defining trait of its people was a willingness to adopt things from other cultures.   It was a very open, melting pot type society given the time.   And like us, it was beneficent in conquest compared to those which came before it.  

One of the nations it conquered was Israel.    The Old Testament contains the account of these events.  And the picture which it paints is one of a Persia that is very favorable to Israel.    Indeed, the command to rebuild the temple came from the Persian King Cyrus, and he funded the project.   The biggest opposition was not the Iranian people, but the locals!    Persia wound up being a blessing to Israel.

All of that is why I call Iran (or Persia as it was known then) "the America of the Old Testament."     I believe starting a war with them would be a mistake.   It is not our way to start wars, just finish them.  But we are like Persia in another way as well.   Over time, their ruling class became drunk with power and detached from reality.    They began wars of conquest against the Greeks, and they over-reached.   Our ruling class appears to be in a similar condition.