NORTH CAROLINA - Anyone looking at Iran from afar could presume conditions have not been worse in the past 30 plus years, or since the end of the Iraq-Iran war, a war which never would have occurred if the U.S. had not urged Saddam Hussain on and given him chemical weapons. Little did Saddam know that in a few more years he would be hung by the Americans after the U.S. military had killed hundreds of thousands of his countrymen and destroyed much of Iraq’s infrastructure. 

Any good student of history knows that the U.S. has been the most destructive, murderous country in world history. The numbers simply bear it out, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki are examples. It’s indisputable. One might have said the same about the Mongols in the mid 13th century CE. The Mongols wrecked much of Baghdad (and other Muslim cities east and west) and ended the Abbasid Caliphate, but it was not much later that the Mongols assimilated and were spiritually seduced by Islam and the glories of Islamic culture and civilization. Americans, if truth be known, are neither sophisticated nor knowledgeable enough to realize their culture is primarily shallow and crude and without particular merit, at least in recent decades, compared to the Muslim world in its best iterations over the centuries. Rampant materialism does not a sublime culture make.

One is reminded of Mahatma Gandhi, who once was asked by an American reporter in India not long before he was assassinated: “What do you think of Western civilization?” (Gandhi as a young man had trained and worked as an attorney in both South Africa and England and knew both East and West.) Gandhi looked squarely at the reporter and answered: “I THINK IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA.”

Indeed, if the U.S. has in the past tried to don some veneer of respectability with propaganda about respect for “democracy” or “human rights” or whatever, those days are over. There was never much under the veneer anyway in recent decades, but now even the veneer is gone.

Look what has been witnessed in the past month! Mike Pompeo, probably the absolute worst U.S. Secretary of State ever, was caught bragging about how when he was chief of the CIA he helped establish training classes in theft, lying and murderous subterfuge. He thought this was amusing, too. Worse is John Bolton, who was literally telling the truth when he said forthrightly that the U.S. was not sanctioning Venezuela and hurting its people or trying to install Juan Guido because the U.S. wanted to see more “democracy” there, but because the U.S. coveted Venezuela’s oil. An active coup attempt is allegedly underway now in Caracas.

 And for all the world knows, Julian Assange, who has done nothing wrong, may never emerge from some odious prison in Britain or the U.S. Not to mention the U.S. government’s primary allies, both condemned by most of the world: A Saudi hellhole that this past month beheaded 37 people, some of them juveniles and most of them Shi’a, and an Israeli racist apartheid machine that can’t stop destroying the lives of the native Palestinians. The Trump Administration uttered not a single word about the Saudi executions and has been Zio-nized all along by money, political brobery and flattery. Yes, some of Trump minions have actually said U.S. Mideast policy is in fact directed by Netanyahu.

On the other hand, U.S. sanctions and other measures against Iran are said to be exerting maximum effectiveness right now, but Iran has not gone begging to the U.S. to desist, but Javad Zarif in the U.S. has appealed to reason.

From now on the damage of sanctions could wane. They will lose efficacy, but this will take time and patience. Iran can use its diplomacy and its excellent diplomats to continue to line up support from Russia and China, for one thing. A significant part of and reason for any U.S. attack on Iran is the aim to disrupt or block the Chinese “Belt and Road” initiative across Asia, where Iran is a key country in this grand economic scheme. The U.S. should be joining the program, but it’s jealous and will eventually be left out in the cold. Moreover, the ace up Iran’s sleeve is its last resort option to close the Straits of Hormuz and drive oil prices into the stratosphere…and set off a worldwide economic Depression. Iran’s many and growing sympathizers certainly don’t want that, and interestingly, Russia is setting up joint naval maneuvers with Iran in the Persian Gulf and Iran’s Navy has recently conducted joint naval maneuvers with Oman. Technocratic advice and exchange between Iran, Russia and China and neighbors is likely to expand powerfully in the months and years ahead. Many countries are desperately figuring out ways to carry on creatively despite the U.S.

Meanwhile, the U.S. use of the world reserve status of the dollar as a sanctions and trade weapon means that countries will fast seek alternative ways to conduct bilateral business and when they do, they will never return to the dollar. Trump has done little but accelerate the U.S. decline because he hired Pompeo and Bolton, who from the beginning may have been promoted to check Trump, do Israel’s bidding completely, scuttle the reunification of North and South Korea, and make stupid demands on Lebanon and Syria and many other countries, too.

It is a shame that Washington cannot so far accept any other role in the world except as a punishing dictatorial hegemon. A shame because the role is eroding U.S. influence just as bankruptcy does for individuals: slowly at first, then all of a sudden.