Reply To: Syria again
I think to untangle the middle east and the Iranian/Saudi thing you have to shed some dogma’s , think the unthinkable, do a bit of history repeating itself with the same characters reappearing in similar costumes, think like an autocratic monarch and the big capitalists and go back to the Iranian revolution of 1979.
And let cynicism look after itself sort of thing.
The Iranian revolution of 1979 was like the Bolshevik revolution of 1917/8 with a similar underlying ideological rhetoric.
Overthrow the Tsar or Shah on behalf of and with the support of the poor masses, nationalisation of industries with a dose of NEP for the petty bourgeoisie.
The fact that it was rooted in anti oppression aspects of the Shia religion rather than Karl’s communist manifesto is neither here nor there.
Thus for example?
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, depicted Iranian society as formed by two antagonistic classes: ‘kookh’neshinan’ (those who live in very poor accommodations) against ‘kakh’neshinan’ (those who live in palaces). He also used Quranic terms: ‘mostazafin’, or the oppressed who had been fighting against ‘mostakbarin’, the oppressors, throughout history.
Khomeini mobilised the masses by defending the barefooted (pa berahne ha) against the rich, the exploiters, the capitalists, the palace dwellers, the corrupt, the high and mighty, and morafahin bi’dard (the wealthy who never care about the pain of the poor).
Khomeini argued that the palace-dwellers always favoured unjust and satanic governments.
As an example, he asserted that they opposed Prophet Mohammad [PBUH] and subverted his message, while the poor rallied behind the Prophet [PBUH] and were ready to give up their lives for the Islamic Revolution.
He also contended that Islam had always found its true strength among the dispossessed masses and the lower class. During the Revolution, Khomeini not only portrayed society as a fight between two antagonistic camps, but also promised to redistribute among the deprived masses the ill-gotten wealth of the rich accumulated during the Shah’s tenure.
[That kind of ideological rhetoric didn’t completely die out 20 years later anymore than it did in Russia eg
Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s address to th UN in 2010?]
The stuff about ‘palace dwellers’ was obviously taken a lot more seriously by the palace dwellers in the gulf states and their friends.
As the general ideology threatened to take on an international or at least Arabian perspective.
The first response was to bring on the fascists.
Not that the fascists were the ideal friends of autocratic monarchs or big capitalism.
Just as in Germany in the 1930’s?
There was a convenient one to hand next door in Iraq with a traditional Persian-phobe ideology to spice things up a bit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba%27athism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism
As that had its own problems they began to cultivate Wahhabism.
And address the ‘political’ problem with a religious solution by following the idea that the Shia were non believers who needed to be killed or whatever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takfiri
|As a spokesperson for the US deep state described it.
Al-Qaeda and Isis etc grew, bacillus like, on the ‘petri dish’ of Wahhabism.
And wasn’t something that was easy to control.
Anyway?
Erosion” of Wahhabism
Islamic Revolution in Iran
The February 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran challenged Saudi Wahhabism in a number of ways on a number of fronts. It was a revolution of Shia, not Sunni, Islam and Wahhabism held that Shia were not truly Muslims. Nonetheless, its massive popularity in Iran and its overthrow of a pro-American secular monarchy generated enormous enthusiasm among pious Sunni, not just Shia Muslims around the world.[171] Its leader (Ruhollah Khomeini) preached that monarchy was against Islam and America was Islam’s enemy, and called for the overthrow of al-Saud family. (In 1987 public address Khomeini declared that “these vile and ungodly Wahhabis are like daggers which have always pierced the heart of the Muslims from the back”, and announced that Mecca was in the hands of “a band of heretics“.[172] )[173] All this spurred Saudi Arabia – a kingdom allied with America – to “redouble their efforts to counter Iran and spread Wahhabism around the world”, and reversed any moves by Saudi leaders to distance itself from Wahhabism or “soften” its ideology.[174]
Grand Mosque seizure
Main article: Grand Mosque Seizure
In 1979, 400–500 Islamist insurgents, using smuggled weapons and supplies, took over the Grand mosque in Mecca, called for an overthrow of the monarchy, denounced the Wahhabi ulama as royal puppets, and announced the arrival of the Mahdi of “end time“. The insurgents deviated from Wahhabi doctrine in significant details,[175] but were also associated with leading Wahhabi ulama (Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz knew the insurgent’s leader, Juhayman al-Otaybi).[176]
Their seizure of Islam‘s holiest site, the taking hostage of hundreds of hajj pilgrims, and the deaths of hundreds of militants, security forces and hostages caught in crossfire during the two-week-long retaking of the mosque, all shocked the Islamic world[177] and did not enhance the prestige of Al Saud as “custodians” of the mosque.
The incident also damaged the prestige of the Wahhabi establishment. Saudi leadership sought and received Wahhabi fatawa to approve the military removal of the insurgents and after that to execute them,[178] but Wahhabi clerics also fell under suspicion for involvement with the insurgents.[179] In part as a consequence, Sahwa clerics influenced by Brethren’s ideas were given freer rein.
Their ideology was also thought more likely to compete with the recent Islamic revolutionism/third-worldism of the Iranian Revolution.[179]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism#Islamic_Revolution_in_Iran
The situation for the US and the petrodollar military industrial complex is now perilous and now hangs on the political stability of Saudi Arabia.
If the Saudi regime collapses into chaos the US will be in big trouble.
As rather than cutting their loses and Obama style [one fraction of the US ruling class] bringing Iran into the club, they have gone all in against Iran and for the Saudi regime.