And this in particular in the case of the US with Trump as President.
And it is exceedingly difficult to figure out which of numerous extant or budding crises around the world warrants the most attention on the presumption that if just one or two of them is somehow resolved positively and with an outcome that generally satisfies the basic interests of disputants, the rest of the various crises may find an adequate solution in turn and in time.
At the top of the list must be, ultimately, the environmental crisis in a world where, just in recent lifetimes, world population has burgeoned from some 2 billion people to almost 8 billion, and largely because of what may have become the biggest bane ever in the past 100 years, which sparked the population explosion and even relative prosperity – the discovery of abundant and cheap oil and gas (energy) in countries like the US, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Russia and a few others scattered across the Middle East and in other locations. As much as say Iran, for example is a relatively rich country with its natural resources, and basic prosperity has expanded, it has expanded in the face of ever more demands by a growing population on those natural resources both for internal use and as a means of earning “money” to feed and house multitudes of citizens.
This is the case across every country that, like Iran, is rich in petroleum and gas resources, and this includes the US It is a scenario that is largely insoluble in the longer run, and dangerous. Dangerous because resources eventually run out or can be depleted to such an extent that they can no longer support societies to the extent they have come to rely on them, not to mention the environmental havoc. And worse, in Iran’s case, the existence of resources has often created political nightmares where Westerners, in particular, have tried to get their hands on or a controlling interest in another country’s natural abundance for their own selfish ends. Just look at what the US has tried to do to Iran since Mossadegh’s deposition decades ago, and what the US has been trying to do of late: destroy Iran’s sovereignty and current political system. (One has to wonder that curtailing Iran’s petroleum output at least for now will in some ways push Iran to figure additional ways to grow or just maintain its economy even while any depletion of its resources may be delayed somewhat.) And just look at what the US has been trying to do to Venezuela or Syria, and what it has done to Iraq and Afghanistan and even Yemen this century.
Perhaps there is no grand solution to the looming crises involving energy extraction and the environment unless across the world countries are literally forced to adopt solar energy solutions and unless, by some scientific breakthrough, nuclear fusion energy can be developed to replace fossil fuels. But this will require a degree of political and social and scientific cooperation and sharing across the planet that seems a complete chimera for now.
And the greatest obstacle (this seems undeniable) is and has been the United States insofar as dominance and hegemony remain the primary aims, and this thrust has gone berserk with Trump and the current leadership in Washington. It may be said that if things literally fall apart worldwide, and there is yet another “world war”, the primary culprit will be the US And if there is another vast war, humanity may not survive. Such considerations, as self-evident as they seem, are no secret and many leading thinkers have expressed the same, and as simplistically as they are expressed here they are still worth expressing, again and again, to alert all to the current and expanding dangers ahead.
Trump (and his administration), in any case, seems to be the worst possible leader of an alleged “superpower” who could ever have been elected. He (and his gang including people like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton) have a mania for the destruction of extant accords and any possible constructive accord with many other countries. Just this past week, for example, on what may appear to be a minor issue (it’s not minor) Trump trashed protections for endangered species in the US in the same way that Bolsonaro in Brazil seems to be aiming to destroy Amazonia, the “lungs” of the planet. It’s a kind of willful immorality that has gripped not just Trump and minions, but whoever supports him – his ignorant political “base” in the US The sole candidates for the 2020 election with any serious merit to displace Trump seem to be Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard and perhaps Elizabeth Warren, whom the corporate, mainstream media in the U.S. despise.
It was Sanders, a Jew, who came out strongly against Trump’s demand that compliant Netanyahu disallow Congressional Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar to visit Israel and also take a studied look at the horrors long inflicted on the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Trump and Netanyahu are both, quite simply, racists, and little more. If anything of late could alert US voters to the crimes of US and Zionist actions in the Middle East, Trump’s and Netanyahu’s strike against these two Muslim ladies of clear mind and courage is it. Justice for Palestinians and for those who have long been concerned about their plight is the sine qua non action that indisputably can lead to other changes of all kinds that will guarantee a better future. Nothing else has such potential for good.
And Iran’s Islamic Republic, whatever its shortcomings and to its everlasting credit, has known this for decades.
MNA/TT