The New Kid on the Block

China in the Persian Gulf

In the third decade of the twentieth century, Europe stepped into a change that ended in a worldwide disaster. Still under the effect of defeat in WWI, Germany was trying to leave the treaty’s results imposed on her by the Allies. Nationalism flourished in that country, and the new party under Adolf Hitler’s direction was getting recognition and support from the masses. Hitler was the leader (Führer) of the National socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the Nazis). 

He used the national disgust toward the victorious governments of WWI to get what he wanted. The President of Germany, Paul Von Hindenburg, appointed Hitler as the Chancellor on January 30, 1933. Hitler was on his way. In a few years, Germany changed to a first rank nation and a threat. World powers ignored him.

On March 12, 1938, Hitler’s army marched into Austria and incorporated that nation into Germany. The Führer forced his will over Austria’s chancellor, Kurt Von Schuschnigg, after two unsuccessful attempts to take over the country. 

Hitler’s excuse was that Austrian and Germans were the same. The world remained dumb and mute, accepting those empty words without challenge! Finally, Hitler announced a union between Germany and Austria, the Anschluss, which lasted until the end of WWII.

The next order of German aggression was incorporating a part of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland (northwestern of Bohemia and northern of Moravia, in Sudeten Mountain) into its territories. Again the world looked upon this aggression as a “fait-accompli” and chose to remain silent.  

Meanwhile, in 1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met Hitler in Munich, hoping to achieve peace with the German leader. Instead, the Nazi leader sold him a bill of goods. Chamberlain, on his return to London, enthusiastically announced that peace would prevail in Europe. However, he soon had to declare war on Germany after Hitler attacked Poland in 1939. 

The Nazis could not win over the Germans if it were not for the Allied’s harsh punishment after WWI. However, President Wilson disagreed with his European counterparts and did not accept their treaty version and made a separate one with Germany on August 21, 1921. 

Now, over 75 years after WWII, the world is facing another type of aggression. A socio-politico-economic one perpetrated by China. The British, the French, and in recent decades the Americans have tried and defrauded small nations of the world for centuries, stealing their wealth and keeping them poor and needy. 

Communist China created a new approach of domination, creating a new system of “Communistic Capitalism”. They have thus far successfully implemented their objectives on the nations who suffered from crimes committed by the western powers. 

China began to act as Hitler did in the early part of the 1930s. She has taken over many of the South China Seas’ archipelago islands, turning them into a part of their defense system. As in Hitler’s time, the Chinese did not get any severe reaction from the rest of the world. Many of those Islands belongs to the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Taiwan. What is going to be the next?   

The newest western superpower, the United States of America, a novice in international politics, tried to replace the old colonial states. It failed. The American policies did not take into consideration three significant factors: 1- The time in the last half of the twentieth and the first quarter of the new century was not suitable for old fashioned colonialism; 2- Europeans in the previous century (specifically the British) did not want Americans to hold ground, where they felt was historically theirs; 3- The Americans had no idea how to maintain this inherited post-WWII leadership.

In the Middle East, they committed two great mistakes in about a quarter of a century. The first was Eisenhower’s blunder in sponsoring the 1953 coup d’état in Iran. By all available criteria, this action became a major problem that has haunted the Americans ever since. And the second, far worse problem, was caused by Carter’s lack of understanding of world affairs, specifically those of the Middle East. His misconception and his administration’s total lack of cognizance of European treacheries. Carter’s actions caused significant damage to the United States that continues to the present.

Eisenhower acted on behalf of British interests.  The three big western European powers: Great Britain, France, and Germany, tricked Carter into removing the Shah of Iran.  With a minuscule awareness of world affairs, Carter believed that by bringing in Khomeini, he could achieve two goals.  One:  the ignorant mass of Iranians who, with the instigation of British agents, were fighting the Shah would be made very happy. And two, he would help curb the growth of communism by making a shield of Muslim countries around Russia. He and his administration did not realize that Communist Russia at that time was on life support. I do not doubt that the British and most probably the western Europeans were aware of such a phenomenon. 

It did not take long for Carter to recognize his mistake. But by that time, it was already too late. He had to deal with monsters that he so naively created. Carter spent the rest of his presidential term trying to curb the damage he inflicted on our nation. Washington was unaware of how to deal with the mullahs and was utterly ignorant of their behavior. On this premise, they were on the opposite side of the British who understood the political landscape very well.

The situation deteriorated drastically during Trump’s administration. Trump had nothing worthy to offer the country or the world. He was a disaster that hurt the nation and the world alike. During his presidency, Israeli hardliners completely replaced the power that the British held over the United States. This group of Israelis is pursuing nothing less than the destruction of any Middle East country that may ever present them with a threat: assassinating their scientists, cyber attacking their nuclear facilities, etc. Iranians and the world see these actions as a consequence of the US-Israeli front and blame the Americans.

The pressure exerted upon Iran by American administrations, mostly in cahoots with Europeans and Israelis, forced the ruthless and criminal government of the mullahs to get closer to Russia and China. It is clear that what happens in today’s Iran is the direct consequence of the U.S failure and its lack of understanding of those beasts’ nature. The wrong policy of the west lead mullahs into the Sino-Russian group.  

The Persian Gulf is now developing into a center for Chinese IMPERIALISM, much as the Portuguese used the Gulf in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  The Great Wall of China is extending to the Middle East. Are the Chinese replacing Western Europeans and the United States in the region? Only the time will tell.   

Are Western nations committing the same mistake that the British and French did before WWII when they ignored Hitler’s advances? Are they repeating the history. It should be emphasized that the totalitarian manner of the Chinese fits well with the compromised mentality of the rulers of Persian Gulf’s countries and Sheikhdoms.

I would like to end this discussion a saying of the Iranian great philosopher and poet, Saadi (1210-1291):

One can easily divert the current of a stream with a shovel

But once the creek is turned into a roaring river, one can’t cross it with an elephant.