That’s a quote attributed to William Faulkner, a novelist of the last century, for whom I have great affection. We’ve never met, but I have learned much from his wisdom and continue to do so all these years since his death in 1962.
Iran, Ukraine and Gaza continue the steady beat of Faulkner’s words.
No war has ever equaled the costs of its physical repair, while the damage to the human bodies and human souls remain beyond repair for generations to come.
Our president, who hungers for a Nobel Prize, has just informed the United Nations, in a speech at a world meeting, that he may “erase Iran from the map of the world,” proving Faulkner’s ‘illusions of philosophers and fools.’ Certainly no philosopher, our president has unmasked himself before the world as a fool.
And, we may pause for a moment to look more closely at Iran, and how the West distorted it from democratic cloth.
Immediately after the end of WWII, when the powers of victory divvied up the lands of the defeated (as inevitably happens when borders change and history is rewritten), Iran held an election.
(Wikipedia) Mohammad Mosaddegh became the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran in April of 1951.
Strictly speaking, Iran’s post-WWII system was a constitutional monarchy where the public voted for the parliament (the Majlis), who then elected the Prime Minister. After leading his political coalition, The National Front, to major legislative victories, Mosaddegh was confirmed as Prime Minister by an overwhelming parliamentary vote of 79–12.
Well, there you are. A democratic monarchy, much like Great Britain.
Not so fast, though.
Winston Churchill was still prime minister in Britain, and Sir Winston continued to have his finger in many pies. One of those savory bakings was control of Iranian oil through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, precursor to British Petroleum.
Keep in mind that, immediately after the war, Iran was the fourth-largest producer of crude oil globally, and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company operated the largest oil-producing enterprise and refinery in the world at Abadan.
Keep further in mind that Great Britain was totally broke after the war, and owed enormous war debts from Lend Lease.
During World War II, allied powers Great Britain and the Soviet Union occupied Iran to secure oil supply lines, forcing the pro-German Reza Shah to abdicate in favor of his young son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
After the war (and this is the largely forgotten part), a massive wave of Iranian nationalism surged, as its citizens demanded an end to foreign interference and the reclamation of their sovereignty.
Aha, wanted their nation back, did they?
Sir Winston, whom I have long admired, would have none of that, and here is where Sir Winston and I have gone different ways, although I understand his motivation.
The AIOC extracted billions in wealth, while keeping its books entirely secret from the Iranian government, and paying a paltry 16% royalties on what they did admit. Much of what was on Sir Winston’s mind, was that Iranian oil was very nearly his only source of Britain’s post war national income.
Need all too often overides moral judgement in realpolitik, but this particular brand of that bloodsport has shadowed Iranian history for seven decades. Those who judge the Iranian character through too narrow a lens, are (in my opinion) more harsh than necessary in that shortened view.
Stay with me on this, because it’s vitally important to fairness, when attempting to understand modern-day Iran.
Mosaddegh was a democratically elected, enormously popular, and highly educated patrician. A staunch constitutionalist, he became the face of the oil nationalization movement.
In March of 1951, after the unpopular pro-British Iranian Prime Minister (Ali Razmara) was assassinated, Mosaddegh’s political momentum became unstoppable.
He agreed to accept the premiership on the condition that the Majlis vote to nationalize Iran’s oil industry, which they did unanimously.
No small deal, it was one-for-all and all-for-one.
And then the dirty work of Western alliances began.
Mosaddegh’s democratic tenure was short-lived and defined by intense international blowback:
The British Blockade: Infuriated by the seizure of the AIOC, Great Britain imposed a crushing economic embargo and naval blockade on Iranian oil exports, devastating Iran’s economy.
Sound like Trump’s current intervention?Operation Ajax: Sounds like a dishwashing soap. As economic instability grew, the British convinced U.S. President Eisenhower that Iran was at risk of falling to Soviet communist influence.
Ah, the old double cross, double switch, when all else fails blame-it-on-communism game that became so popular at the time, known as the forty-year Cold War.
• The Demise of Iranian Democracy: In August of 1953, the U.S. CIA and British MI6 (a criminal group if there ever was one) orchestrated a covert coup d’état known as Operation Ajax. Using the tools readily at hand, such as political bribery, manufactured propaganda, and paid mercenary mobs, they successfully overthrew Mosaddegh.
God bless the Western Alliances that have given us so much peace and prosperity across the world (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Iran).
Mosaddegh was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life, a fitting reward for a man of peace, constitutional authority, and national honor.
The Shah was restored as an absolute autocrat—a pivotal event that, some would say, directly set the stage for the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Which brought us the Mullahs, who quite properly (as is their habit) killed off what was left of Iranian democracy.
And brought us war again, not to free the freedom-loving Iranians, or halt their nuclear ambitions, but to support an Israeli genocide, and control Iran’s sovereign oil reserves.
Control of oil is what Trump’s trumped-up attacks on Venezuela and Iran are all about. Not democracy (Venezuela), not nuclear bombs (Iran), but control of two of the world’s largest oil reserves.
What goes around, comes around, and comes around, and comes around…
And so, Bill Faulkner’s words keep re-arising across the world stage in capital letters: “NO BATTLE IS EVER WON”
The rich and powerful simply keep sending the powerless off to kill on their behalf, destroy the innocent, ruin their futures, maim their babies, and disrupt tens of millions of peaceful family dinners, ice-cream cones, and picnics in the park.
That evil habit has gone on for countless centuries.
For what, you may ask?
For the chance to do it all again, is the only plausible reply…