Simon Tisdall - The heedless drift towards war with Iran shames Britain

By Dilip -
Britain’s recent history with Iran is, for the most part, shaming. Nineteenth-century imperialists and traders exploited and bullied, redrawing its borders with the Raj. British armies invaded and occupied and, in the 1920s, helped to elevate Reza Shah to the peacock throne. The ensuing era of autocratic rule sowed the seeds of the anti-western 1979 Islamic revolution. At Persepolis, graffiti left by Victorian army officers still defaces its pillars.

The US has since supplanted Britain as tormentor-in-chief, but Iranians have long memories. Many would agree with Mohammad Mosaddegh who, before the 1953 Anglo-American coup that ousted him as prime minister, told the US envoy Averell Harriman: “You do not know how crafty they [the British] are. You do not know how evil they are. You do not know how they sully everything they touch.” Given this bitter legacy, and its other regional blunderings, it might be assumed Britain would fight shy of further intervention. 

Not a bit of it. This week the US slapped unprecedented sanctions on Iran’s senior leaders, suggesting diplomacy is at an end. Yet as Washington’s war drums beat ever louder, a familiar sucking noise can be heard above the din. It is the sound of Britain being inexorably drawn – again – into an avoidable, calamitous Middle East war. What is truly astonishing is not that Trump and headbanger hawks such as John Bolton and Mike Pompeo are gunning for Tehran – they have been spoiling for a fight ever since they wrecked the 2015 international nuclear agreement. 

Nor should we be shocked at the daily escalations, provocations, insults and punishments inflicted on Iran. That’s par for the course when Washington turns bellicose. What should really chill the blood of British citizens is the way their own government – and the two men who want to be the next prime minister – are creating a situation, largely undiscussed and undebated, in which Britain will have no choice but to support a Trump attack on Iran, and worse, will have little hope of avoiding direct military involvement... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/28/war-iran-britain-jeremy-hunt-us

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