I posted about it before, but the cruelty and complete disregard for people, of their own country even, is devastating. And it also is a shame. An outrage. War is nothing to be proud of. It’s a means to an end. Always has been. When you look into history, the patterns repeat. Take any war you want.
The Thirty Years’ War in Europe is one dreadful example, of many. When either power or waning support in the population for a king or emperor or the cruel greed for more money makes people (men…?) look around for more. At any price.
Yes, indeed: Prices.
They are crucial to the whole business of war. Now more than ever. The war on Iran creates benefits for the weapons producing industry. In the USA. It makes oil recovery companies and gas station chains even richer. In the USA, and elsewhere. Oil – that is petrol/gas – prices are ‘going through the roof’.
So? “Who benefits?”
All the others, who work for all those peaceful and useful industries, having to take the car to work, every day? Or using public transport, day in and day out?
Some working themselves to the bone, literally. Some earning little to no money, in return, compared. I can consider myself lucky, for some time now, compared. But I know too what it means to live by the bare minimum of means, food and clothing.
One thing I know very well too: The people who know about real hardship – and not just about bullying, greed, lying, corruption and bribery, molestation and make-believe, such as that person called Trump, trying to ‘play’ at a nation’s leader…a criminal ruled guilty actually in front of a US court on 34 counts – I say, all those people who know about hardship, about real friendship and love, they are the ‘salt of the earth’.
All of them ‘make my day’ when I meet them. That’s real joy for you. These days I do meet them, a lot.
Ali Qapu Palace, Isfahan, Iran (Image by mostafa meraji from Pixabay)
“More of the Same” was what Paul Watzlawick called the tendency in humans to try again and again and again – although it obviously does not work… “Counseling”: That’s what you get when you hit a blind spot and are unable to find your way out of a tight place alone.
But: This president is famous for his set ways and the need for ‘winning’. He always ‘sells’ anything he did or does as a great idea and the winning streak. That’s part of the family history; and in an interesting and strange way also part of the founding myth of the United States: The greatest, most free and of course always ‘successful’ nation on the planet…
What is success, exactly? It depends, actually. On your definition. Basically and rather simply put, if you want to knit a jumper and it involuntarily turns out a scarf, you might call that unsuccessful… In this day and age, based on a money-ruled outlook, anything less than extreme wealth is, what…? Freedom…? ◕‿↼)
Getting down to brass tacks here:
In 2018 this scoundrel and criminal of a president (ruled guilty in a US court of law on 34 counts) cancelled working contracts with Iran on uranium enrichment control. Working, as confirmed at the time by the IAEA.
Iran as a nation has a wonderful culture and history of a couple of thousands years standing. The businesses are served well too by the wisdom and knowledge of it.
One of the most striking attributes of the culture is the calm, quiet pride they carry. At the same time a high amount of resilience based on hundreds of years of history fraught with earthquakes, attacks by foreign nations because of greed and a challenging climate that encompasses all you can think of: Deserts, snowy peaks and lush fields and gardens.
They won’t succumb.
What is the ‘end’ to those desparate means of this ‘limited’ president and his administration? Oil, of course. I posted about it before and I feel like repeating it as often as possible: The last shah was dependent on US support. In return he sold them oil on the cheap.
The US-American modern culture thinks of cars as almost an appendage: No car, no ‘drive’… The idea of freedom (what is that exactly… ◕‿↼) ? ) is based on being able to go anywhere, anytime; on cheap petrol, of course.
That means, cheap oil.
Iran’s oil recovery industry is the largest of the world, with natural fossil fuels such as gas and – oil in abundance. Any questions?
This shameful war and pressurizing has to stop.
More of the same? Yes, indeed, trade and business sanctions have been tried already, for decades, at this point. To think that the Iranian peoples (rich even in languages and dialects) have to suffer death and dire straits because of a couple of greedy people who can’t get enough, is a shame. Period.
Images by 경복 김, Mumtaha Tabassum and Barbara A Lane from Pixabay; my arrangement
When the USA decide on making war, they are adamant. That’s a fine quality in many respects. Yet, in war…? Or making it…? Why, really? After the attacks on the twin towers the US declared war on half the world. That attack was a tragic and cruel occurrence. But it does not provide any justification for shunning international law.
On the contrary: Laws are there for all of the community. In ancient Greece Socrates, the philosopher proved it by accepting a rule that was common then – and drinking the poison from a cup he could have avoided, as a punishment. He died.
When something goes wrong, the US are the first to claim their right, their benefit… the ‘rights’ of the NATO members, for example; that is they ask for and actually pressurize the others to spend more on their annual defense budget, 5% instead of 3%, as only happened around 1.5 years ago.
But: How often did – and do – the US to this day act cruelly against other nations? Without consulting anything but their own foreign interests? What about Japan?
The first and last time ever that nuclear weapons were used in a war. As a testing ground, more or less.
The tests of nuclear weapons in the archipelagos of Bikini they used, to spare their own country? The Bikini islands feel the consequences to this day. So nice and small and quiet and right there… easy to use.
Usage. Benefit. Profit.
That are the pillars of the US-American society and have been since their founding.
The weapons producing industry is the most important, influential and powerful there. And they benefit from NATO members ordering.
In 2003 the war on Iraq was started: “Weapons of mass destruction”, so the official message, apparently had to be recovered. Since Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein had apparently accumulated them breaking international agreements they had to be made safe.
To this day, those weapons weren’t found. That’s official. None.
Saddam Hussein originally had been instated with US support. He was their ‘vassal’ in a country that also has huge reservoirs of oil and gas. When he started to become too independent, war was declared. Eventually he was found and killed.
The oil wells burned for years after that. The country is devastated.
Any old lie will do.
Check your sources. Refer to books in libraries written by respected authors of the field. Check more than one important and traditional newspaper of (reasonably) working democracies.
Iran? It’s got oil. It’s got the largest oil recovery industry in the world. Uranium enrichment control contracts were in full working order until 2018, when Trump and his ‘cohorts’ cancelled them. But: the government in place since the revolution of 1979 did not succumb to US pressure.
Regarding their internal affairs that government was a poor example of a dictatorship ‘dressed’ as democracy, including all legal pressure, limitations and punishment as well as control into the bargain typical for such systems.
But let’s remember: The last shah had been instated by the US too. He sold oil to them at dumping prices. When the literally hungry and ‘huddled’ masses rose in the country, his power waned. Finally even his downfall and flight from the country was supported by the US.
The people of Iran are of a peaceful and also proud mindset. If attacked, they fight to the last. They always did. They do not sell out their country for cheap bargains to anyone.
Looking at history as well as present ideas you can be pretty sure of that.
This completely unnecessary war has to be stopped.
Image: Radio Deutschlandfunk (Germany), “Nach einem Luftschlag auf eine Raffinerie in Teheran ging sogenannter Schwarzer Regen auf Teheran nieder (Bild vom 8.3.2026) (AFP / ATTA KENARE)”
Prices are rising… well, what would one expect. People are being killed. Now the ‘black rain‘ over Tehran is another step towards destruction. The region going up in flames. The country scarred already and becoming another Iraq…?
It’s good to see that they are starting to act again, NATO, EU: ‘Trump’s war’ is not his doing alone, of course.
As a ‘figure head’ he ‘works’ based on the interests behind him too: The industries, most importantly the one producing weapons. The population, who as a majority depend on their ‘way of life’, namely cars for moving across country in the USA, with cheapest prices of all… they trust that any president will observe this concept, this idea, and the government will take care of petrol.
War is no heroic deed of people doing the good thing. War is not only a ‘costly affair’… it always is part of a framework of interests and needs of those in power, those with money and those with ulterior motives. Such goals are not always easy to ‘dig down to’, define.
In the news we usually get the actual event. What we need to do is more reading, to get at the facts behind the ‘images’. Reliable sources. Remember that news have statements in them, which in turn are based on interests and needs and – very often also on diplomacy.
What also helps to understand the ‘goings-on’ behind the scenes, the real motives, is this age-old concept:
“Cui bono?” – “Who benefits?”
If you ask that about anything, it will get you farther in understanding.
This is no ‘piece of cake’, especially not for those being killed and wounded every day. Being scarred for life by health risks and cruelty and greed.
We need to prove that the international community is stronger holding out against one or another country and their selfish, incompetent and greedy ‘potentates’.
Images licensed via Adobe CC, my graphics, no AI involved
The president of the USA, Donald Trump, is a criminal ruled guilty on 34 counts of bribery and corruption as well as molestation before a regular court of law of the US. At the same time ‘leader’ of one of the most powerful nations today, yet. War means death and destruction, always. No exceptions. None.
Landscapes and living areas are laid waste, people deprived of home and livelihood.
Although all the motives are clear and have been for decades, still the international community lets him and his administration act as if he was the only one around?
This is indeed a crime, because it’s killing people for no other reason but profit:
He and his administration cancelled the Uranium enrichment control contracts without reason. They were working, according to official reports of the IAEA at the time. They had been reached after ten years of negotiating.
Internally the reign of the Iranian government is nothing to write home about. But, about how many governments, especially the larger powers today, can you say that? China? Russia?
The US?
The USA where money is the sole defining attribute of a person. Where close to no protection for workers/employees exists to this day. Where weapons are sold to minors and people killed in the streets into the bargain, thousands each year. Where people from one day to another will lose house or home and live in cars, with their few belongings right there, searching for employment.
Now this country of Iran, whose conflicts in the area are heavily intertwined with the Israel-Palestine conflict and so many adjacent countries is supposed to be bombed back into the stone age? Just like Iraq?
Iran: A tradition and history that reach back thousands of years, far beyond Islam and its first advent?
Because the US need oil, cheap and fast? Because cars in the US have to be kept rolling, with cheap petrol, if as a president you want to stay in office?
Because the weapons’ producing industry is the largest and most powerful over there?
Where are EU, UNO and NATO these days? What if another member would do the same…? Any of them?
Russia and Putin are scorned for their attack on Ukraine, for other internal reasons. Have been so for years? And Trump does the same thing now… To cover up, too. As so often has happened throughout history: Make war on a ‘common enemy’ to distract attention from internal affairs and shortcomings.
Netanyahu of Israel was and is a well-known hardliner against Palestinian territories. He has driven Israeli settlers there for almost a decade now. He has lost the support of his own parliament as well as the majority of the people of Israel. Which is a fact even on platforms such as LinkedIn.
Stop this madness now! Start using reason again. Stop selfish, cruel and completely ruthless people such as the present president of the US and his administration.
Note 16th March 2026: Acting like the true ‘scary’ ‘deal maker‘ he has publicly declared himself to be: Trump, this sorry excuse for a man, of course, uses every lever he can get hold of. Beware, and just wait a little… Neither NATO, UNO nor EU will bow to your conditions:
You have all the oil you need…? Now…in dependence on Russian oil, for the time being… but it is only reasonable that in the long run this will not be sufficient or satisfying to an economy as dependent on oil and fossil fuels as the USA:
Rather make Iran succumb and get oil from the largest fossil fuel recovering industry in the world on the cheap… hey?
Who do you think you are fooling here…?
We all know by this time that messages in front of cameras are one thing; but often just as much marketing and boasting or pressurizing as anything…
Setting the whole of the Near East on fire – nice and calm sitting in front of screens thousands of miles away.
Some stunt.
Really…? – Rather embarrassing if it wasn’t so cruel – one is reminded of just so many boys playing at tin soldiers…
He seems not to know even himself what he is aiming at. Only yesterday in front of the world’s cameras he said it in so many words. Yet, it is abundantly clear that all of this is just another desperate attempt to divert attention from his problems in regard to internal affairs and his criminal record.
A person like the Secretary of Defense of the USA, Hegseth, even has the unspeakable impertinence to state: ~’no politically correct war; no UNO mission, no plans for the time after. Just plain war.’
A ripe pair.
Two of a kind.
The conflicts between Israel and Palestine and the additional forces stationed in the north and the south, the Guerilla troops of Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as the ‘support’ by the USA:
They are decades old!
Anyone with an atom of reason and smartness would have shied away from such a stupid and cruel step.
But someone like the present president in the US lacks that. What he is interested in is his own position, his power and – the future power in the US.
His affinity for Putin and his love of a dictatorship that allows him unbridled power and say-so without any limitations are legendary.
The New York Times as well as the Washington Post* (when it still was independent) reported on both these facts:
The Pulitzer Prize committee’s information on awarding the prize to both newspapers regarding the connection and election influence in 2016 here.
Trump initiated the storming of the Capitol in January 2021.
He was ruled guilty in front of a US court on 34 counts of bribery, corruption and molestation.
The current Israel president Netanyahu has suffered from lack of support of his ‘subjects’ and the parliament as such for his cruel politics towards Palestinian territories, the Gaza strip and West Bank, going on for almost a decade now.
At this point his actions that started this escalation are another desperate attempt to keep his position as long as possible.
In this respect it is no surprise too, that the talks to Trump were not public and also not disclosed in any way.
The weapons’ industry in the US is the largest and most powerful. Previous presidents were pressurized and even murdered because they tried to limit their profits. (J.F. Kennedy being the most prominent.)
This war is outrageous, it is exactly the same type of action that Putin reverted to when attacking Ukraine, according to international law.
These attacks have to stop!
It will just lay the whole region to waste and land it in a war for years to come.
When we take all these facts together, and use that age-old principle of ‘cui bono?‘, ‘who benefits?‘, some things become abundantly clear.
Shame on such a government as the present US presidential administration.
* The Washington Post since not only was acquired by Jeff Bezos, amazon founder and Trump follower, it also recently suffered a big reduction of staff.
It’s obvious: Greenland didn’t ‘work’… now it’s back to Iran, again? How in the world do you sleep at night and look into the mirror in the morning, Mr Trump?
Again the scare tactics to get people to succumb to your type of deal conditions? ‘What the he…l?’ This is not your earth, not your and your followers’ planet.
Simply and truly. It’s obvious too that in view of the internal affairs you deign to handle in your usual cruel manner; Minnesota comes to mind; promises you probably have made to the large industries in the US, especially those producing weapons. You need any distraction from those affairs, come hell or high water.
In German for people like you there is a fine term: This urge is called “Großmannssucht”: The dire need to feel tall and important. “Craving for status”. It would be ridiculous if it wasn’t so shameful.
For years you have tortured half the world (at least) with your threats, bullying and tantrums. We all know that you literally stop at nothing.
Once more Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” comes to mind: a young and sweet-faced man who starts a promising career and then just commits about every crime in the book, because he believes that such a life could make him happy. Which it doesn’t.
After a sort of magical transformation, so for many years his appearance does not change from that young, innocent face, the story ends with him one day looking into that special mirror once more; after many years he sees his face in the actual state nature intended for such people:
The horror strikes him so suddenly that he dies on the spot.
The staff and neighbours running in to help are horror stricken too and do not recognize him for quite some time.
Mr Trump, be aware the international community is strong and they are more. Get your act together and stop these charades.
Author’s Note: Politics around oil for over two centuries now are at the top of all policies that countries and their leaders observe since the need for fuels made from fossils arose ever more strongly.
One prominent centre of attention since that time was – and still is – Iran: The world’s largest industry for mining and marketing oil, it’s been part of the US’s foreign strategic policies for more than a century as well.
The last shah of Iran was put there by their support. He was made to leave when he became unable to control the starving people.
The government after that, cruel and dreadful as far as internal affairs go, has been able so far to resist the attempts at bullying them into subservience.
Iran has a culture that reaches thousands of years into the past, far beyond any more recent religious ideas.
That culture and its strongholds deserve saving. And the people of Iran to be in their own right and possession of the natural resources. Instead of under the order of a government headed by someone like the current US-president.
