NORTH CAROLINA - An outsider with just some knowledge about Iran can be easily whipsawed by the horrible dilemma the U.S. has dumped on the country over the past 14 months. Yes, Iran must do all it can to defend itself, if it is attacked military, and meanwhile must do all it can to circumvent, with assistance, the draconian U.S. economic sanctions.

The most remarkable aspect of the current impasse is the posture of Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State. Pompeo maintains that Iran’s pending decision to enrich uranium to a higher level of toxicity, and yet still far from anything constituting weapons grade, is “proof” that Iran aims to or has already broken the terms of the JCPOA. But everyone in the world knows that it was the U.S. that broke or is breaking the JCPOA (and also imposed economic sanctions).

  Pompeo’s is such a bald face lie that it boggles the mind, and yet the demonization of Iran continues unabated by the U.S. and Pompeo reminds one of the Nazi propagandists who well knew that if one tells a lie often enough, too many people sometimes believe it. Moreover, Pompeo tells other lies repeatedly: the whopper lie is that Iran is the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism, and getting one’s head around that is impossible. Let’s break it down and dispel it:

Iran objects to Israeli warmongering and apartheid. Iran may to some degree have assisted the Houthis in Yemen to try to fend off the Saudi-led attacks on that country. Iran has some troops or proxies in Iraq, a country ostensibly allied with Iran in the fight against ISIS and other terrorists. Iran, on invitation by the Syrian government, has bolstered the fight against terrorists in Syria aiming to destroy the Assad government, another Iranian ally of sorts. Iran has supported the Lebanese government, insofar as Hezbollah is a big part of that government, where the primary effort has been to force the Israelis to think twice (at least) about attacking or occupying parts of Lebanon (and Syria) as it has done on several occasions since the 1980s.

 Iran verbally has supported Hamas in Gaza which does maintain some token resistance to Israeli cruelty against the Palestinians there and elsewhere, such as the West Bank. Iran, even while attempting to suggest ways to cool mutual hostility between the Saudis (and the UAE) and Iran, has still criticized the Saudis (and the UAE) for their paranoia about Iran and their manifold political and human rights abuses, which included last year the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a writer for the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, Iran has spurned suggestions of bilateral talks with the Trump gang, and rightly so, given the facts of the sanctions and other threats, including so far at least a couple apparent false flag attacks on some shipping in the Persian Gulf. Who in their right mind would sit down with the Americans to negotiate or renegotiate ANYTHING with a veritable axe poised above their head. And particularly so when Mike Pompeo has been claiming that Iran must give up entirely its efforts to have any kind of nuclear technology or program when the U.S. may be sharing nuclear technology and know-how with the Saudis, not to mention the fact that the Israelis have scores of nuclear weapons and has long refused completely to abide by any of the conventions related to the ownership of nuclear weapons.

One must think that NO country has ever been so pressured and unfairly treated as Iran has in decades. This is precisely what it looks like, anyway, to someone who, however imperfect their information as this writer’s is, is apprised generally of what’s been going on in the Middle East of late.

But still, the big lies perpetrated by the Trump gang keep coming, and it seems obvious the U.S. and its Mideast “allies” want to bring Iran to its knees one way or another. Just as it has brought other countries to grave suffering, hurting above all the general populations of those countries.  The assumption in Iran’s case is that the pain will become so great that internal discord will bring down the Islamic Republic. But this latter has already proven to be a chimera and Iran, one would have to say, has quite heroically not buckled – and must not, under any circumstances, however increasingly vile the circumstances could still become short of actual military conflict.

Someday, when the U.S. and the Zionists and the Saudis have been chastened and disempowered by their arrogance, Iran’s heroism will be remembered by most of the world, and Iran will once again prosper. It will happen and the sole thing in dispute is the timing, because the U.S. and its allies have literally forgotten how to make friends. Even if China and Russia, for examples, can’t quite do enough for Iran as this juncture (but are trying) to alleviate the suffering, and even if Europe, including the European signatories to the JCPOA, have proven to be too cowardly so far to stand up to the destructive actions of the U.S. and its allies, Iran is going to manage to maintain its sovereignty and “win” (if not every battle) the world’s respect.

China, for one, does not appear to be giving in to U.S. demands. And other countries may well, in time, follow China’s lead and try harder to circumvent trade restrictions.

Trump, interestingly, sent John Bolton off to Mongolia and brought along newsman Tucker Carlson to Korea’s DMZ. Carlson has clearly been against war on Iran. This is a positive, and maybe Bolton will be fired eventually. As said before, Trump well knows he won’t be reelected if he starts a war with Iran.

A bold and fascinating prognostication also recently emerged with excellent journalist Sharmine Narwani, who was trained at Columbia University in New York and is now based in Beirut. Narwani believes that after the first response of Iran to any military attack, the Arabs will suddenly turn and become Iran’s allies. Can one imagine the overthrow of the Saudis in Arabia and worldwide revulsion against the Zionists, and in the U.S., too? Stranger things have happened historically and Narwani may well have made a reasonable prediction, but let’s hope no war occurs.