Imperialists rule
Re: "Israel-Iran air war enters 2nd week", (World, June 21).
"Think tanks" are an industry invented in the USA after WW2. They serve as crucial third-party entities in policymaking by generating innovative ideas and recommendations that might be perceived as self-serving if proposed directly by government organisations or military institutions.
Arguably, the most influential military think tank in the US is the Brookings Institute founded in 1916. The Marshall Plan to revive Europe after WW2 was conceptualised by the Brookings Institute.
Caracas, the capital and largest city of Venezuela, was often compared to cities like Paris during the Venezuela oil boom.
However, its wealth was largely controlled by US oil companies, leading Venezuela to decide to nationalise its assets. By 2010, Venezuela's oil industry was virtually fully nationalised, with the government asserting complete control over oil production, refining, and exports.
This was seen as the culmination of Chávez's policies aimed at removing foreign influence and maximising state revenue from oil resources. Soon after, Western media began publishing reports of human rights abuses by the Venezuelan government.
In 2014, the Brookings Institute started recommending sanctions against the Venezuelan government for "human rights violations". The failure of Venezuela's economy that followed, largely due to US sanctions, is well documented.
To understand the reason why Israel launched a "preemptive" strike on Iran last week, claiming it acted independently of US knowledge or complicity, we should look to the insights presented in the Brookings Institute paper titled "Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy Towards Iran".
This paper is accessible online and lays out the course of action for the USA in the same manner as other institute publications.
Chapter 5, "Leave it to Bibi: allowing or encouraging an Israeli military strike" outlines several potential actions that Israel could undertake against Iran's nuclear programme, including targeted airstrikes on key nuclear facilities and military infrastructure to disrupt Iran's capabilities. And page 91 says the goal of the action "would be deflected away from the United States and onto Israel".
With the USA just days away from beginning a new round of negotiations with Iran concerning nuclear weapon de-escalation, and Iran expressing its willingness to comply, one might wonder why Israel would consider attacking Iran -- unless it aims to create additional denial plausibilities for the USA.
The conclusion regarding the parties responsible for the latest Middle East war should be clear to Post readers who take the time to read this paper.
The next question is, Why? The answer is equally apparent: it is about the control of another country's natural resources, territory, and self-determination. This, I believe, falls under the definition of imperialism.
M L Saksiri Kridakorn
