Iran Is Not a Threat, Trump Is
Trump’s eagerness to wage war against Iran is reckless, irrational — and murderous. Iran is simply not a threat.
Protesters gather in front of the White House to speak out against a possible war with Iran on June 23, 2019 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images
Late last week, Donald Trump reminded the world that he’s a loose cannon at heart. Calling off a strike against Iran at the eleventh hour, Trump — goaded on by a coterie of hawkish advisers — briefly put the world on edge. And despite retreating at the last moment, Trump announced harsh new sanctions against Iran this week and warned that any assault against the United States would be met with “obliteration.”
So what’s behind Trump’s drive to war? Who are the regional allies backing escalation? And why does Iran continue to be such a bogeyman in the minds of US elites?
In this interview, Jacobin contributor Daniel Falcone talks with Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and former United Nations special rapporteur, about Trump’s hard-line foreign policy, the mainstream media’s complicity in US war-making, and the causes for optimism amid lethal saber-rattling.
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