Is It Over?

So, the latest is that the Iran War may be off the table. That seems to be the proper inference from the latest NIE. Of course the hard right won't give it up and claims that even knowledge of nuclear weapons for Iran is intolerable. Such a claim is ridiculous as history teaches us that information spreads like wildfire. The key to the nuclear war dilemma is cooperation and control: treaties and inspections, including the United States. Not Iran but the 500 lb. gorilla of the west needs taming. The real peculiarity of the current situation is "What happened?". In the words of the immortal Nero Wolfe: In a world of cause and effect, coincidence is always suspect. The situation is reminiscent of the VietNam war. Widespread protests certainly played a role in ending that war but only after the general citizenry's dissatisfaction filtered up to the heavy hitters in business and politics. When the majority of our ruling class finally figures out that continuing a war is more costly than ending it then the denouement begins. In other words, the string pullers behind the throne, seeing the abyss into which the US and world economy is sinking, have decided that a pullback and realignment is in order. They haven't lost their greed for controlling the world; they just are swerving to avoid the cliff. All of which means that we have a coming respite, not a conclusion. After the VietNam war with all the dissension, even among the troops, the Military drew the obvious lesson that a professional, not a citizen army was needed, and the draft was ended. That was precisely the wrong conclusion. More properly, the proper understanding would have been that if the citizens won't support a war, including with their (children's) lives then that war should not be fought. This would mean that only the most extreme cases of self-defense would move people to taking up arms. And that is how the world should be. For more than half a century the US has been involved in imperialistic wars to control the world and many, many millions of people have died. Pollution, resource constraints, global warming, growing impoverishment, widespread deployment of very deadly weapons -- all these are telling us that the era of capitalistic greed needs to end before those insidious and invidious wackos kill us all. But even putting Iran's destruction on the shelf won't work long term. Capitalist hegemony will never surrender. They only intend to consolidate their position and bulk up their mideast and central Asian presence. And one day the violence will spread again. The people, not the "leaders" need to learn the proper lesson to take control over the country, the resources, the economy, and start to build a nation and world of peace and prosperity for all. The people need to reject the national, racial and religious chauvinism that produces death and destruction planet-wide. For the "seeming" deferral of the Iran War is only a short time to get our breath back and prepare for the bigger battles ahead, and we need to remember that with the "Decider" in office, and compliant, fully imperialistic Democrats waiting in the wings anything might happen.