US a step closer to Iran blockade
Asia Times / Kaveh Afrasiabi
12-Sep-2008 (one comment)

While the economic impact of the measures against Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) will be minimal in light of the near absence of any connection between the shipping company and US businesses, this latest US initiative against Iran sends a strong signal about the US's intention to escalate pressure on Iran, even unilaterally if need be. And, perhaps, it is a prelude for more serious and dangerous actions in the near future, above all a naval blockade of Iran to choke off its access to, among other things, imported fuel.

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Western Naval Blockade

by Kurush (not verified) on

In the most recent gambit, the Bush junta has unilaterally sanctioned Iranian shipping with the specter of naval interdiction of cargo ships entering or leaving Iranian ports. The template being used here is of course similar gambits toward Japan in the immediate months preceding the Pearl Harbor attack. The US had quarantined Japanese shipping, specifically the Japanese fuel imports. Japan was even more at the mercy of the Western powers’ naval blockade than Iran is today. Before the second world war, the West controlled virtually all of oil production around the world, except the Soviets oil production. From the
Dutch control of oil production in Indonesia, to the British control of Iraq’s and Iran’s oil fields, and America’s own still plentiful oil production, the West had a virtual stranglehold on Japanese fuel imports. In contrast, while Iran imports some refined fuel products, it has both plentiful crude itself and can switch to Russian imports along with rationing of what is available internally. The Roosevelt junta cunningly waited for the inevitable Japanese reaction. The repeated Japanese requests for negotiations (sounds familiar?) was rejected. The Japanese ambassador was shut out of contact with the US officials. In the meantime, the Americans had broken the Japanese diplomatic encryption code, the Purple code, and were privy to the messages being relayed between the Japanese emissaries around the world and their government in Tokyo.
The Japanese could have conceivably accepted a paralyzed economy and navy and continued indefinitely without much needed fuel. But with troops commitments in China and a military junta in power, the humiliation was intolerable. It is argued by well researched documents that Roosevelt was aware of the impending Pearl Harbor attack. The internal opposition to war inside the US (sounds familiar?) was such that Roosevelt had to refrain from attacking Japan and was thus using this stratagem to lure Japan into attacking the US which it of course did.
Today , the tables have turned dramatically. The West does not control the fuel production around the world as it once did. The West itself is abysmally dependent on fuel imports. The whole of Asia, including China and India, were colonies of the Western powers and provided much needed manpower and mineral resources to the Western economies. The West did not have to consult the governments of China and India as it must today. One forgets that it was millions of armed Chinese and Indians under American and British control who fought against the Japanese forces and made the West’s war against Japan so much easier. In fact, the Second world War in Asia was a war in which Asians were fighting Asians for the benefit of the Western colonial powers! Such is the parasitic nature of Western imperialism ever since the dawn of history.
The nuclear blackmail which is ever so subtle yet potent is of course the difference between then and now. The US did turn the second World War into a nuclear war even though it did not have to. The Japanese were ready to surrender basically unconditionally but Truman junta had made up their mind to use the Atomic bombs anyway. Gar Alperovitz, an expert on Hiroshima/Nagasaki nuclear bombings, has written extensively on this issue including his classic book, The Decision To Use the Atomic Bomb. Iran is facing in essence nuclear predators in both Israel and the US.
Russia is unforgiving in its rage due to humiliations it has suffered since the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. When Bush early in his first tern ejected almost one hundred Russian embassy staff as spies, Putin made a memorable statement. Putin said “you do not talk to Russia with the language of ultimatums.’ He meant every word of it. Russians are straight shooters. Any time the West gets off on wrong path, Russia sends a very practical message. It declares the deployment of TOPOL. For mortals like you and I, this signifies nothing. But for the nuclear predators in Washington and Tel Aviv, The specter of the most sophisticated ICBM in the world is sobering indeed. Russia can not tolerate, for both moral and geo-strategic reasons, the trigger-happy US and Israel nuking other nations. Simple.
So what should Iran do? Iran must not fire the first shot. That is what the US and its proxies want Iran to do. This will nicely settle the issue of casus belli for the predators. If the Western predators want to board an Iranian ship or seize It. Let them do so. But do not fire a shot. The world does not approve of this wanton unilateral behaviour on the part of the Western Powers. The Western economies are extremely vulnerable to a war in the Persian Gulf. The Western populations are overwhelmingly opposed to their trigger-happy military juntas ruling over them.
The showdown will most likely happen after the November presidential election and before the next president, (by hook or by crook McCain), is ushered into the office.
You know I am a mortal. One thing I hate most is not death but living under Western Tyranny.