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The United States, always one to stir the pot and cause or increase political instability in any part of the world that displeases it, is, in its short-sighted way, seeing unprecedented success in its current target area, the Middle East. It has long caused havoc and untold suffering there, by bombing and overthrowing stable governments, and leaving the residents of those countries homeless, fleeing to refugee camps, unemployed and near starvation if they are not among the countless millions of people who were killed.

It has been said that one can choose one’s actions, but not the consequences of those actions. The U.S. may learn this important lesson in a painful way.

For years now, the U.S. has been supporting radical groups in Syria who are seeking to overthrow that government, in the hope that a government more amenable to Israeli apartheid will be installed. In March of 2015, the Los Angeles Times reported this: “Syrian militias armed by different parts of the U.S. war machine have begun to fight each other on the plains between the besieged city of Aleppo and the Turkish border.” The U.S. doesn’t really care who it is supporting in Syria, as long as those groups oppose President Basher al-Assad. That fact they some of the groups end up using U.S.-supplied weaponry on each other is of no concern to the U.S.

It isn’t only the U.S. that is supporting terrorists in Syria; it is being assisted by Saudi Arabia, Britain, Turkey and Israel. The involvement of Israel may be surprising, since that country is generally more than willing to let the U.S. do its dirty work, except in Palestine, where Israel seems to delight in committing genocide on its own, always with U.S.-provided weapons. But is has been arming and training anti-Syrian ‘rebels’ (read: terrorists) for at least four years as it attempts to overthrow the Syrian government, so that a more ‘friendly’ regime can be installed on its eastern border. Israel’s leaders continue to show absolutely no regard for human life, human rights, or the will of the people.

Syria has the temerity to support both Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Palestine, organizations which work to help the people in their respective countries, which is more than Israel can bear. Also, it is aligned with the powerful nation of Iran, which also supports Lebanon and Palestine. So, with the full complicity of the U.S., these nations must be destroyed, one by one, as Libya and Iraq have been.

However, this may be a tad more challenging than the U.S. and its criminal cohorts believe. The Syrian army has proved more powerful than Israel and the U.S. anticipated, and the importance of having the support of the population cannot be minimized.

Add to this the fact that peaceful Iran, which has not invaded a country in over 200 years (are you listening, U.S?), recently bombed ISIS strongholds in Syria, in retaliation for the recent ISIS-sponsored terror attack in Tehran. This is the first time in thirty years that Iran has bombed anyone, which indicates that the patience of the leaders of that country is wearing thin. Israel and the U.S. would be well-advised to proceed cautiously, before widening a war that will include Iran. When one plays with fire, one is bound to be burned eventually

This, unfortunately, is a lesson that the U.S. and Israel haven’t learned, despite the many evidences to support it. For example, in 2007, Ron Paul, then seeking the U.S. Republican nomination for president of the United States, referred to the 9/11 Commission Report, which studied the attacks of September 11, 2001 on the U.S. He quoted this portion of the report: “America’s policy choices have consequences. Right or wrong, it is simply a fact that American actions in Iraq are dominant staples of popular commentary across the Arab and Muslim World.” He further noted a quotation by Osama bin Laden from 1998 that was included in the report: “If the present injustice continues it will inevitably move the battle to American Soil.” Although this statement was made prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. policy of bombing throughout the Middle East had long been established.

The statement by Mr. Paul was not well-received, but former New York City Mayor Rudi Giuliani’s indignant response brought the crowd to their feet. Said he: they “came here and killed us because of our freedom of religion, freedom for women, because they hate us.”

So the U.S. relies on such simplistic answers to complex questions, even when all evidence points to the contrary.

Israel has more of an excuse for avoiding reality, since it is protected from such unpleasantness by the U.S. As the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) movement grows worldwide, impacting the Israeli economy and that country’s reputation, U.S. financing removes any pain the hit to the economy might have caused, and loudly proclaims to an ever-decreasing audience that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and that the brutal Israeli army is the most moral in the world. Such platitudes are falling on increasing numbers of deaf ears.

So with U.S. and Israel-sponsored groups causing terror attacks in Iran, and Iran losing patience with international interference in the internal affairs of its allies, the U.S. and Israel may be biting off a bit more than they are willing to chew.

It is possible now that the U.S. will proclaim that Iran has violated the agreement reached in 2015, in which Iran said it would not use its nuclear research for weapons, but for peaceful purposes. Why Iran had to make any such agreement is beyond the understanding of the writer. Israel has made no such agreement, and is a far greater threat to world peace than Iran ever was. If the U.S. does indeed declare that, Iran can expect more sanctions. Sanctions against Iraq in the latter part of the twentieth century resulted in the deaths of over half a million children, which Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said was ‘worth it’, although it did nothing to prevent the invasion and mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children just a few years later. What sanctions against Iran will, or have ever, accomplished, is anyone’s guess. But Iran is a far larger and more powerful country than Iraq was, so the consequences of U.S. sanctions may be considerably different.

The Middle East is a tinderbox, and two madmen, U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are sitting on it, playing with matches. Both of these extremists are dealing with considerable problems on the home front, with Trump under investigation for possible obstruction of justice, and Netanyahu and his wife facing possible charges on corruption. Perhaps that will be sufficiently distracting, or perhaps they will seek a war to shore up their support at home, and draw attention away from these investigations.

When diplomacy is considered foolish, war is big business, and two egotistical leaders want to order the world to their twisted way of thinking, a peaceful solution to the problems in the Middle East is unlikely. Expanded war in the Middle East would be a disaster for the people living there, with tragic impacts potentially felt throughout the world.