The United States has no plausible reason for engaging with Iran. The only piece of American military equipment that was damaged by Iran was the drone shot down in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. claimed that it was in international waters, Iran claimed that it was in Iranian territory. The Russians eventually confirmed the Iranian claim, and the United States went quiet.
I mention this, because people like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo desperately want some pretext for attacking Iran. So they form this "coalition" in order to find some way to defend "American interests" even if the ships or other equipment that might be involved with the Iranian navy or other military are NOT American, the United States can claim that "the United States is being attacked." It is a phony pretext, but this is one more way for war-mongering politicians to create a pretext for military action against Iran.
Because the United Kingdom is not interested in war with Iran, and they know that the United States is itching to attack Iran. They don't want UK ships or other military equipment to be used as a pretext for American war-mongering.
Of course the Russians would like this. FINALLY they would get access to the Persian Gulf (something they have been trying to do since the time of Peter the Great).. Iran may agree to this, but my personal opinion is that they should not. This would be a sacrifice of Iranian sovereignty to Russia, and it is a sneaky back-door ploy to increase Russian influence in the region. Don't let the Russians establish military outposts in the Gulf. It would be a big mistake.
It doesn;t look very possible right now, but my feeling is that the states of the Persian Gulf should form a defense organization to police and protect the Gulf. I am in favor of local control, and absolutely against allowing the big international powers control over the Gulf. This would be a big mistake. Clearly they all want to do this.
You may be too young to remember, but Saudi Arabia refused to have American troops on its soil for religious reasons since the founding of the Kingdom in the 1930s. The idea that "infidel troops" would be on the sacred soil of the nation that protected Mecca and Medina was unacceptable to the Wahhabis and Salafis. However, the United States desperately wanted to have U.S. troops based in Saudi Arabia. For a long time they did this by claiming to be "advisers" and not active troops. This occurred during the first Gulf War when Iraq tried to invade Kuwait. George H.W. Bush told the Saudis that Saddam Hussein would attack Saudi Arabia after he conquered Kuwait, and the United States needed to be in Saudi Arabia to "protect them."
Now the United States wants to attack Iran. Saudi Arabia has enormous stockpiles of equipment, but virtually no fighting troops. So if there is to be a military action in the Gulf, the United States wants to direct it and take the main initiative under the cover of "aiding" Saudi Arabia. This is, of course, enormously hypocritical. The United States criticizes Iran for its activity in Syria, and here is the United States gearing up for a phantom conflict with Iran hiding behind the Saudis.
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In all of this activity, what your readers need to know is that many in the United States criticize Trump, Bolton, and Pompeo for advocating for U.S. activity in the Persian Gulf because they don't see that there are really any American interests to be defended, so the Trump administration is trying to create a set of artificial American interests through these phony alliances.
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Saturday, August 03, 2019
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