I don’t see Iran as a nuclear threat to the world right now. And I’m not usually wrong in my political analysis.
However.
There is a great danger that Russia will push Iran in the direction of aggression and heavy militarization. This would be straight from Comrade Stalin’s bag of tricks. Use Iran to start hostilities, then pretend you need to save the world and interfere.
This is why I believe that the US’s best course of actions right now would be to lift all embargoes and restrictions from Iran and work hard to improve Iran’s economy and standard of living. It wasn’t done in Ukraine when there was still time. Now there is still time to do it in Iran.
This leaves North Korea, where Russia might employ the same strategy as I prognosticate for Iran. Here I don’t know what can be done, so I’m worried.
Clarissa's Blog 
Couldn’t agree with you more. I don’t think the US would do this because, well, it makes too much sense. My expectations are so low that I’d be happy with no military action against Iran. Lifting sanctions and helping them economically almost seems like fantasy. I don’t see any senator or member of congress daring to suggest that.
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“Lifting sanctions and helping them economically almost seems like fantasy. ”
– But it’s the most practical, clear-headed, non-hysterical way of doing something for global peace. We are facing a difficult moment right now, especially since Russia has turned towards a fascistoid way of development.
Cold War is back, let’s just accept it. So everybody who’s not with us, will be with them. I think we definitely want Iran on our side. Russia is heavily anti-Muslim, so it could be done. But we need to act fast, not dawdle around, repeating like sick parrots that there is no Cold War because we don’t want there to be one.
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I am sorry I don’t understand:
// Use Iran to start hostilities, then pretend you need to save the world and interfere.//
Do you mean “save the world” from USA? Who would believe this, except Iran in its official propaganda? Or “save the world” by being the crucially important negotiator and working to stop the aggression one helped to start?
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People seem quite content with believing that Russia has not invaded Ukraine. Those same people who downvote every post where I use the words “Russian invasion of Ukraine.” They just don’t want to see what’s happening, and there is no way of moving them in a more productive direction.
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I suspect those who down-vote your “Russian invasion of Ukraine” are just Russian patriots from certain Russian forum, not the westerners who do not want to hear about new cold war.
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Let’s hope so!
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The cold war never really left. Any time you have more than one country with nuclear weapons there is always going to be the threat of annihilation. Russia, China is there really a difference?
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“The cold war never really left.”
– Exactly. I only wish that the degree of lucidity and awareness I see on my blog was shared by everybody. But that’s not the case.
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Apparently the Israeli strategy is to pressure the US into taking no stand against Russia. See this article from Haaretz.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.585555
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OOps I read that wrong. The Israeli strategy is to take no stand against Russia and offer no support to the US position.
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I hope you don’t blame Israel here. Israel is a small country, and having not horrible relationship wth Russia is important to us. One can’t trust USA protection and help to the total exclusion of other countries. Besides, why should we? Israel is not US, and our interests may differ sometimes. If there is new Cold War (which may turn hot) between two empires, not participating in it is what Israel must do. If real war begins, should Israel offer military help to USA against Russia? Personally, I would want to jail such Israeli politicians for endangering us so much.
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The US gives 6 billion dollars a year to Israel. If they won’t support us we should cut them off immediately without a cent. No support no aid and that includes no US veto in the UN against sanctions for violating the 1973 anti-apartheid convention.
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// If they won’t support us we should cut them off immediately without a cent.
The question is support where and to what extent. Israel serves numerous US interests in the Middle East, with or w/o taking this stand against Russia.
In case of real WW3, which I hope not to see during my natural life span, I wouldn’t want Israel to get involved against Russia, if Israel could find a way not to. It’s not like America would do the same for us, hurting its own interests. How far should Israeli support go, in your eyes? And how far would America support us in return? I would rather have sanctions than being in WW3.
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Otto, I thought you lived in Germany, btw. Are you an immigrant to US or already several generations there?
Also, by cutting off Israel, USA would badly hurt its own interests. It has already shown that it can’t fulfill promises of protection, now it would show that America demands too great price for its aid and is ready to dump trusted allies over relatively minor (to USA) things.
On another topic: after reading about Russian Germans, I wondered – why has Germany invited Muslim immigrants, if it could invest in FSU Germans instead?
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I visited the Turkish quarter in Berlin and immediately fell in love with it. I have a very soft spot for the great culture of Turkey. Some immigrants make better neighbors than others (and I mean neighbors in a greater sense than people living next door, although that’s important, too). In my experience, Turks, Indians and Nepalese make the best neighbors.
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Clarification: I don’t mean that Russia is a minor thing, but that Israeli voting in this case – is. It wouldn’t have changed the situation in any way, only potentially endangered Israel.
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I am a US citizen living in Ghana. None of my ancestors were ever from Germany, a state that did not exist until 1871. One of my grandfathers was Canadian and his father a subject of the Russian Empire. The rest of my family has been in the US for quite some time, some going back to early settlements in Virginia.
The guest worker agreement with Turkey was signed in 1961 at that time there was no emigration of ethnic Germans from the USSR to the BRD. The emigration movement only started in 1973 and massive emigration was only allowed after 1987. By then the Turks had been well established in Germany.
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Read an interesting article about Turks in Germany:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/turkish-immigration-to-germany-a-sorry-history-of-self-deception-and-wasted-opportunities-a-716067.html
Quote:
Many schools introduced supplementary lessons in Turkish, not to promote bilingualism but to prepare the children for a future life in Turkey. An “unconditional integration into the German school system” was not desired. The result, says Herbert, was a generation of “bilingual illiterates” who were fluent in neither the language of their parents nor that of their German fellow students. Their employment prospects were slim.
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