The Road to War

August 7, 2024

It is OK for Israel and Washington to escalate the situation, but not for Iran or Russia. Here is the way it works. Israel assassinates a Muslin leader on Iranian territory, and then the media goes into action calling on Iran not to escalate the situation. Iran doesn’t, and from Iran not “escalating the situation” another leader is assassinated. Iran is again called on not to escalate the situation. Liberalism Mises, Ludwig von Best Price: $11.95 Buy New $11.95 (as of 04:02 UTC - Details)

The reason we are headed to war is that Russia, Iran, and China are provoked time and again, and their response is to wait, and wait, and wait some more while Washington and Israel get prepared, thus reducing the effectiveness of any action taken by Russia, Iran, and China.

Iran has now waited so long before responding to Israel’s assassinations that Israel has had time to prepare an underground bunker for Netanyahu and his war party. Iran had a chance to catch them in the open and blew it. Now Iran says it wants to punish Israel but avoid all-out war. No meaningful action will be forthcoming from Iran.

Putin waited eight years from 2014 to 2022 before he accepted the obvious fact that he had to act in Donbas. If he had acted in 2014 there would have been no war.

Like Russia and Iran China issues endless “warnings.” But as the warnings never are backed by action, no one pays any attention to the warnings.

Russia, Iran, and China are right not to want war. But they have failed to understand that it is not their choice and that they are bringing on war by failing to stand up to Washington and Israel.

See here.

The Best of Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, associate editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week’s first outside columnist, columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service, contributor to the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times, and columnist for the main French and Italian newspapers, and for Creators Syndicate in Los Angeles. He served in numerous academic appointments in US universities and was  appointed to the William E. Simon Chair for Political Economy at Georgetown University’s Center for Strategic and International Studies where his colleagues were Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, James R. Schlesinger (one of his former professors), and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Thomas Moorer. His article, “How the Law Was Lost,” was published in the January 1999 Cardozo Law Review.