Gulf states, Iran, Persian-American Gulf, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran, Weapons deals

Irony of Smug Western Arrogance: Iranian Navy a Danger to the “Persian” Gulf………………….

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“While much of the world’s attention focuses on Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran has made considerable progress on another security front in recent years — steadily increasing the reach and lethality of its naval forces. The goal by 2025, if all goes as the country has planned, is to have a navy that can deploy anywhere within a strategic triangle from the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea to the Strait of Malacca. Should such plans materialize — and Iran is making steady progress — Tehran would redraw the strategic calculus of an already volatile region. The Persian Gulf is home to some of the world’s most valuable supply lines, routes that are vital to the global energy supply. In the last few years, Iran has invested heavily in a domestic defense industry that now has the ability to produce large-scale warships, submarines, and missiles. Since the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, Iran has largely pursued a strategy of deterrence……………”

The title of this piece in Foreign Affairs is an example of true Western smug arrogance: “Iran’s Navy Threatens the Security of the Persian Gulf”. Something is not kosher about this analysis. The Iranian navy in the “Persian” Gulf, in its own backyard, is considered a danger to peace. Foreign Western navies cluttering my Gulf, thousands of miles (or kilometers) from their home territory, are considered normal, elements to stability. Yet all the major wars of our region in the past four decades were either started or instigated by the West and its regional allies. The Iran-Iraq War (1980-88) was started by Saddam’s invasion of his neighbor, and encouraged by the West and some Arab potentates on the Persian-American Gulf. The Persian Gulf War (1990-91) was started by Saddam of Iraq, armed to the teeth by the West and his Arab allies (his former Arab allies and suppliers whom he turned against). The invasion of Iraq (2003) was engineered by Saddam’s former Western allies and supported by his former Arab allies.
If the Iranian navy is a danger to the Persian Gulf, is the U.S. navy a danger to the Gulf of Mexico? Is the French navy a danger to the Mediterranean?

I hate to repeat the mantra of the Iranian theocrats, but this type of “analysis” reeks of Western arrogance, of  a smug sense of entitlement to enter others’ backyards and own them
Cheers
mhg


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