The Root Causes of the Wars in Iran and Ukraine

If we are ever to get our country back on the right track, it is imperative that we never forget that the U.S. national-security state and its foreign policy of interventionism are responsible for the wars in Ukraine and Iran.

Let’s start with Iran. It’s obviously tempting to simply blame President Trump for launching his undeclared war of aggression against Iran. But the root cause of what has become a tar baby for Trump goes back a lot further — to the CIA’s coup in Iran in 1953 — a coup that destroyed Iran’s experiment with democracy. LifeStraw Personal Wat... Buy New $75.95 (as of 06:32 UTC - Details)

Under the democratically elected Iranian prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, Iran had nationalized Iran’s oil industry (something that many other nations, including Venezuela and Mexico, did years later).

The British Empire, through the British-controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, dominated Iran’s oil industry and was livid. But having become a second-rate power because of World War II, the empire was unable to do anything about it. Therefore, it got the CIA to do the dirty work. The CIA incited a coup that succeeded in ousting Mossadegh from power and restoring the all-powerful, brutal, and tyrannical Shah of Iran to full control of the Iranian government.

The result was that the British got their oil back but the Iranian people got a brutal CIA-supported and CIA-trained tyranny. After some 25 years of suffering, the Iranian people finally revolted and removed their U.S.-installed and U.S.-supported tyrant from power. That’s what the 1979 Iranian revolution was all about.

Unfortunately, however, the Iranian people were not able to get back the democratic system that the U.S. national-security establishment had succeeded in destroying in its effort to assist the British Empire in the recovery of its oil interest. The Iranians ended up with a theocratic dictatorship that was arguably worse than the tyranny of the Shah.

That new Iranian regime set off the decades-long conflict between the Pentagon and the CIA and Iran, one that has culminated in Trump’s undeclared war of aggression that now has him trapped inside a tar baby.

As we watch the Iran spectacle continue to unfold, it is critically important to recognize two important things: (1) it is the U.S. government’s foreign policy that is one of the twin roots of this conflict and (2) it is the U.S. government’s conversion to a national-security state that is the other twin root of this conflict.

In other words, if the United States had adhered to its founding foreign policy of non-interventionism and if the United States had retained its founding governmental system of a limited-government republic, the United States would not have been mired in a forever war of aggression against Iran involving sanctions, embargoes, blockades, bombings, death, injuries, and destruction.

With respect to the war in Ukraine, it’s easy to simply focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and exclaim about how Russia wants to conquer Europe and the rest of the world. It’s not so easy to recognize that the war is rooted in (1) America’s policy of foreign interventionism and (2) the conversion of the federal government to a national-security state. Earth Pak 10L Waterpro... Buy New $20.98 (as of 06:32 UTC - Details)

The Cold War, which came into existence after World War II, was used to justify the conversion to a national-security state, a type of governmental structure that comes with omnipotent, totalitarian-like powers, including the powers of assassination, torture, and indefinite detention. Americans were told that the change was necessary because America was supposedly in danger of being taken over by the Reds.

The Cold War was actually one of the biggest rackets in U.S. history, one that was intended to make the conversion to a national-security state permanent and extremely lucrative, not only for the vast military-intelligence establishment but also for the ever-growing army of “defense” fat-cats who were engorging themselves at the public trough.

When the Cold War suddenly and unexpectedly came to an end around 1990, it seemed that the racket was about to come to a screeching halt. Not so. It was soon replaced by the “war on terrorism” racket, which was, in many ways, more permanent and lucrative than the Cold War racket.

But the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA were not about to let go of their Cold War racket. It had proven to be too lucrative. They had to figure out a way to revive it. So, they used NATO to begin moving eastward, absorbing former members of the Warsaw Pact and moving inexorably toward Russia’s border.

Never mind that U.S. officials had promised Russia that the old Cold War dinosaur NATO would never do that. Those promises were made by U.S. civilian officials. They didn’t bind the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA — i.e., the all-powerful national-security branch of the federal government.

U.S. officials, from President Biden on down, knew that Russia would invade Ukraine whenever NATO decided to pull the trigger by inviting Ukraine to become a member of NATO. How did they know that? No, not because of brilliant intelligence gathering, as President Biden suggested. They knew it because that is precisely what Russia said it would do if Ukraine ever threatened to become a member of NATO. The last thing that Russia wanted was U.S. nuclear missiles and German and other NATO troops on its border.

American Red Cross Off... Buy New $44.99 (as of 06:32 UTC - Details) Soon after the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan, NATO invited Ukraine to join the old Cold War dinosaur, and, predictably, Russia invaded Ukraine. The U.S. national-security establishment now had its old Cold War racket back, which, combined with its “war on terrorism” racket, made things doubly bad for the American people, the Ukrainian people, the Russian people, the Iranian people, and most of the rest of the world.

But it’s important to keep in mind that (1) America’s policy of foreign interventionism and (2) America’s governmental structure as a national-security state are the root causes of the Ukraine-Russia war.

Why is this so important? Because to get America back on the right track — the track toward liberty, peace, prosperity, and harmony — it is not sufficient to simply play an endless game of whack-a-mole with respect to each U.S. intervention. Instead, it is necessary to (1) restore America’s foreign policy of non-interventionism and (2) restore America’s founding governmental system of a limited-government republic.

Reprinted with permission from The Future of Freedom Foundation.

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