Donald Trump's New War

A lot of people in Washington, they're angry at the Trump administration's behavior towards Saudi Arabia. They are angry with Donald Trump's attempts to acquit Saudi crown prince Muhamed bin Salman of the murder of journalist Jamal Kashog. The anger is also spreading toward America's participation in the Riyadh war in Yemen, where a Saudi blockade of the country's main port threatens to starve 8 million people. Given that the U.S. Army is providing weapons, intelligence and fuel for a Saudi bombing campaign, which the United Nations calls a “war crime”, the indignation is somewhat delayed.

And very limited. Supporting the Trump administration against Saudi barbarism is a symptom. “Disease” is her enthusiasm for a Cold New War in the Middle East.
When it comes to the Middle East, Trump and his foreign policy advisers have a simple analysis: Iran is the problem, and Saudi Arabia is part of the solution.
Iranians are revolutionary; Saudis are moderate. Iran promotes chaos; Saudi Arabia promotes stability. Iran sponsors terrorism; Saudi Arabia helps fight him. Iran, in the words of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is an illegal “regime”.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia says Trump, “andin” America's goal to eliminate extremism.
This is nonsense. Saudi Arabia, and Iran are both despotism. Both destabilise governments, who oppose and support those who support them. In Yemen, Tehran supports the rebels; Riyadh is doing the work in Syria. Both countries support terrorism when it fits their goals.

Iran is more deeply involved in terrorism against Israel. Saudi Arabia is more involved in terrorism against the United States. America must try to facilitate the cold warfare of Iran and Saudi Arabia, which has fuelled the ugly prokur wars that have destroyed Syria and Yemen.

Instead, Trump is starting that war. Trump's desire for a cold war with Iran means his refusal to punish Saudi Arabia for the killing of Kashog. When justifying his refusal to convict Riyadh, Trump often quotes American arms purchases by Saudis.
But it's at least a mist. The main reason is that without Saudi Arabia, America cannot treat Iran harshly. As David Sanger reported last week at the “The New York Times”, administration officials Trump and foreign experts said possible consequences on an elaborate plan to put Iranians under further pressure have dominated internal discussions, overshadowing the consequences of what happened with Mr. Kashogi.

By comparison, they said, on the issue of restricting American arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump said he would threaten US jobs. As part of the “Trump Plan for “due to Iranians”, Pompeii pledged to try to make it possible for the global “imports of Iranian crude oil to be almost zero”.

But achieving this, without increasing global oil prices, aims to ensure Saudis maintain a high production rate. So, to destroy Iran's economy, the Trump administration has to stay on the good side of Riyadh, even if that means helping the royal family wage a war, killing Yemeni's children, or lying about killing Saudi journalists.

This is a cost of enthusiasm that exists in America for the Cold War. But that's only part of the cost. The American approach to this Cold War is also terrible for the people of Iran. According to a 2016 study in “Global Health”, US sanctions that prevented Iran from importing drugs, or raw materials to produce them themselves have left 6 million Iranians “without any access to basic medical treatment”.

The architect of these sanctions was Barack Obama, who from 2010 until 2012, in co-ordination with the European allies of America, made it almost impossible for Iranian companies to import or export to the West, or transfer money through Western banks.

However, Obama saw these sanctions as a short-term step, to persuade Tehran to sign an agreement on his nuclear programme. After the agreement was signed, he began to remove them. Meanwhile, Trump is determined to re-establish sanctions next month.

And since there is a potential strategy to negotiate a new nuclear agreement,
To replace what he has abandoned, these sanctions will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

They will bring misery and death to the common Iranians. They will also weaken Iran's democratic opposition. A research by Dursun Peksen of the U.S. University of Memphis shows that regimes under sanctions become less democratic and more brutal. As resources decrease, authoritarian governments give them to their supporters, denying them to their opponents.

Professionals who are essential to replacing tyranny with liberal democracy emigrate. Sanction strikes fuel criminal networks, which, like Saddam Hussein's Iraq, can become the frightening and resistant political forces.

All of this helps to explain why Iranian dissidents -- those Trump claims support -- rejected most of the sanctions he is determined to re-establish. This is the grim symmetry of Trump's strategy for the Cold War. His behavior towards Riyadh is terrible for Saudis like the late Kashogi, who want liberal democracy.

And his economic fight against Tehran, it's terrible for their counterparts, who want liberal democracy in Iran. The new Cold War of Trump in the Middle East raises the ugliest ages of America's Cold War against the Soviet Union.

From the 1950 ' s to the 1980 ' s, the United States repeats the threat of Communist movements and regimes in the developing world, and invented the moral differences between the tyrannical opponents of America and the tyrannical allies of America, who did not really exist.
Forged by these frauds, the presidents of the Cold War helped pro-American autocrats oppress their people, destroying those living under the anti-American regimes that the United States opposed. On behalf of anti-communism, the administration of Lindon B. Johnson supported Indonesian General Suharto as he massacred a million people and dropped 7.5 million tons of bombs in Vietnam.

On the outskirts of El Mozote village, the Salvatores still exhumed the bodies of civilians killed by El Salvador's right-wing army in the early 1980s, a crime the Reagan administration tried to cover while simultaneously sabotaged the ports of left-wing Nicaragua.

Trump is resurrecting these illegal traditions today. His critics should not be satisfied with the protest against Kashog's murder. They should not be satisfied, nor with ending US co-operation in the ongoing Yemenn war.

The root of the problem is the effort of the Trump administration to escalate the confrontation into a part of the world, which desperately needs less. If the Democrats gain influence in Congress in this autumn's elections, that's the goal they should have priority.

Note: Peter Beinart, associate professor of journalism and political science at New York University.
Source: “The Atlantic”