Wiesbaden, 27.03.26
In the recent US Foreign Affairs magazine (March /April), a realistic assessment was given about the ongoing US- Israeli war against Iran, which broke out almost 4 weeks ago. The article, written by Mideast expert Ilan Goldberg, is in line with assessments that are given every day by the “alternative press” (Youtube), including people such as British Mideast expert – former Mi6 official and diplomat – Alastair Crooke, US political scientist Prof. John Mearsheimer, the well-known US economist Prof. Jeffrey Sachs and the German Arabist and Mideast expert Michael Lüders, who wrote many excellent books, among others about the totally failed Afghanistan War. At the end of 2025 he published a new book “Dirty Work? Israel, America and he imperial megalomania.” (Goldmann 2025)
The article in “Foreign Affairs” states that the US and Israel with their reckless war against Iran, based on the doctrine “might makes right”, and a clear violation of International Law, have steered the world close to the abyss, with catastrophic consequences for the world economy, especially in the field of energy and consumer costs. “Three weeks into the joint US-Israeli war on Iran, the outlines of a familiar and dangerous pattern are emerging. The current conflict may for now be significantly different than American wars in Afghanistan, Iraq or Vietnam, it has not yet drawn US ground forces in great numbers”, Ilan Goldberg writes. “America has no good options in Iran – Trump needs an off-ramp.” He argues that “the Iran war shares a deeper strategic reality with the predecessors. Washington is once again fighting a weaker regional power without having clear objective, a defined theory of victory, and a viable exit strategy.”
“Reckless” war
Goldberg further stated: “The United States might now feel the urge to escalate, potentially using ground forces around the country. But the risks of these forms of escalation far outweigh their possible gains. At this point, with the global economic jittering and the Middle East in convulsions, Washington’s best bet is not to further commit to a war it entered ‘recklessly’, but to find a way out,” Goldberg writes. According to him “Iran’s war efforts are still coherent and demonstrate the clear structure of command and control. The regime has developed a web of institutions that have continued to function in the face of an assault on its leaders. It has decentralized authority to launch attacks, allowing the Iranian military to continue the war effort even as commanders and leaders get picked off.” (Meaning: assassinated by Israel and the US!)
By going through various options for future US-Israeli future strikes, including the seizure of Iranian enriched uranium located in tunnels in Isfahan, aside a military land operation on the Kharg island from which 90% of Iran’s oil exports flow, or by attacking other nuclear sites, such as nuclear reactors, Goldberg concludes that “this all could lead to enormous casualties without reaching the strategic aim.” He further states that “Events in recent weeks offer a preview of this dynamic. After Israeli strikes on Iran’s South Pars Gas field, Iran retaliated by targeting Qatar’s liquefied natural gas infrastructure, knocking out 17% (!) of its productive capacity for three to five years. An attack on Kharg Island might trigger an even more aggressive Iranian response of this kind. (…) Israel might be happy to see a fractured and convulsed Iran. But for the United States, such an outcome would be a nightmare. Iran sits at the center of a region that includes Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. A major internal collapse could create e space for terrorist groups, disrupt regional trade and generate instability that spills across borders. (…) Three weeks into the war, the United States faces a stark choice: continue escalating in pursuit of ill-defined objectives or recalibrate and seek a way out.”
One should note here, that on March 30th after a contingent of the 82nd Airborne division and US marines had arrived in the Mideast for potential ground operations, US President Trump, shortly before the opening of the NY Stock markets, issued a statement on “Truth Social” that reflects the enormous “despair” which the President has maneuvered himself into, with no real options to get out of this self -inflicted mess. It reveals Trump’s “delusional” state of mind, his megalomania, as well as his close attachment to a small group of Israeli experts (including Mossad director David Barnea about whom the NYT on March 22 reported, that he told Trump, that if we go in and decapitate Iran, the entire house of cards would collapse.) There is as well Trump’s incompetent Minister of Defense, Pete Hegseth, former Fox News moderator, who looks at the war as “ Armaggedon”, where the Good will have to triumph over Evil. A totally incoherent and desperate Trump wrote in “Truth Social”: “The United States of America is in serious discussions with a new and more reasonable regime (a blatant lie according to well informed Mideast experts – E.H.) to end our military operations in Iran. Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately open for business, we will conclude our lovely “stay” in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of which we have purposefully not yet “touched.” This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old regime’s 47 years “Reign of Terror”. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President Donald J. Trump.”
One of the strongest criticisms against Trump these days came from Prof. Jeffrey Sachs and John Mearsheimer who both keep repeating that Trump “will not win this war in Iran.” Sachs pointed out that Trump does not only “brazenly lie” but that some say that he is “confabulating,” in a delusionary world, being a malignant narcissist and psychopath. The only hope, Sachs expressed, is that China, Russia and India will try to talk to Trump and convince him to stop the whole thing. Sachs correctly noted that in the U.S there is a crisis of “institutional incompetence”, i.e. the U.S. has no plan at al. “When Trump talks, it’s like a TV show, all is half- hearted and primitive.” Unfortunately, Europe is totally subservient with a few exceptions like Spain, that clearly opposed the war and has by now closed its air space for aircraft to be deployed to the Mideast war.
Doing the “dirty work” in the Mideast
The German author Michael Lüders in his latest book “Dirty Work”? Israel, America and the imperial megalomania in the Middle East”, highlights several factors that should be understood, in order to get a better understanding of the ongoing geopolitical war that at present the US and Israel are waging against Iran, launching their blatant attacks without any pretext. One factor to understand Iran’s mindset is the Country’s suffering from British colonialism in the 19th century, which tried to put the energy under control in Iran and Iraq. As Lüders documents at the beginning of his book, during the 19th century the British and Russians controlled the import and export of Iran. Both were staunch “geopolitical rivals”- with the British controlling the region of Isfahan – cultivation of Opium- which they sold to China (!). During the major anti- tobacco revolt (1891-92), Shiite religious leaders became leaders of the anti- colonial movement. The colonial powers and the US studied the Iran resources (oil, copper, gold) and the cultural/ religious mentality of the people and concluded that the only barrier were Islam and the religious leaders.
After the first World War, the British and French colonial powers engaged in a rivaling competition in the Mideast. According to the secret “Sykes Picot” agreement (1916) – and assented then by Russia and Italy- both powers had divided the region. The French received Lebanon and Syria, the Brits Palestine, Trans- Jordania (todays Jordania) and Iraq. The Arabs were stolen their independence. The British had three strategic aims: access to the oil reserves in Iraq and Iran, control of Palestine as buffer zone of the Suez Canal and securing all sea and land connections to India. The geostrategic significance of Palestine led to the 1917 Balfour declaration, in which GB promised the Jews a national home in Palestine- this became the first step in the founding of Israel 1948. Latest since the 1956 Suez Canal war (British and French and Israel had attacked, after Nasser had nationalized the Canal E.H.) the US replaced Great Britain as regional hegemonic power. After 1945 Great Britain became the most reliable partner of the US in global conflicts and military deployment.
The coup against Mossadegh 1953 in Iran
Lüders explains in his book that the British had the monopoly over Iranian oil exploration since 1909. From the Anglo- Persian Oil Company APOC derived in 1935 the Anglo- Iranian Oil Company AIOC, and finally the British Petroleum BP. Until the second World War 800 Mio pounds went to GB, Iran only got 105 Mio. “Iran was de facto a British colony, an apartheid regime with the worst labor conditions.” By the end of the 1940ies there emerged political protest when a group of parliamentarians demanded a review of the exploration treaties with Great Britain and its leader was the lawyer, Mohammed Mossadegh. He founded the “National Front” demanding “Freedom of press, free elections and a new constitutional monarchy.” In March 1951 Mohammed Mossadegh became prime minister and leader of a new government, which nationalized the Iranian oil industry. The British government became upset, 90 % of oil to Western Europe came from the refinery Abadan. As Lüders documents, Churchill and his Foreign Minister Anthony Eden had prepared the plan to get rid of Mossadegh, similar to today’s Israeli- US governments in their preemptive war against Iran. When Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican) became US president, the biggest anti- communist campaign began. During Mc Carthyism the US republicans qualified Mossadegh as a “communist” and “asset” of the Soviet Union. The Americans took the initiative. The “dirty work” -as Chancellor Merz had said some time ago, in reference to the Israel- US Iran bombings 2025-, was done by the CIA and MI6 secret foreign services. (!) The “coup” against Mossadegh was well planned and prepared over months (CIA Codeword Operation TRAJAX TP- and Mi6 “Operation Boot” / Kick out), Lüders documents. 60 years after this coup the “US National Security Archive” of the George Washington University under the “Freedom of Information Act”, put the documents dating back to this period, on Internet that had been so far kept “top secret.”
According to Lüders, the “coup from 1953 demonstrates a basic pattern of the US and their allies that engage in ‘regime change’ operations: This involves 1. the demonization of the adversary in the prelude for an operation. The British Foreign Minister Eden compared Mossadegh repeatedly with Hitler. This is, as Lüders emphasizes, “still up to this day a preferred notion and was given to the Egyptian President Nasser who in 1956 nationalized the Suez Canal, as well as to Russian President Putin or the Iranian religious leader Khamenei.” One of the published CIA documents describes Mossadegh in a language that was used almost literally against dictators like Sadam Hussein, Muammar al Ghaddafi or Bashar al- Assad, Lüders comments, by using words such as “incalculable”, “insane”, “provocatory” or “cunning” . Mossadegh was portrayed as the one who betrayed British interest. “He and millions of his compatriots believed that Great Britain had abused the country for British interests.” As Lüders emphasizes, the key person that was bringing about the coup was Kim Roosevelt, a grand -son of President Delano Roosevelt, an Arabist who copied the first CIA coup from 1949 in Damaskus. (At that time, Lüders explains, a new elite of military had emerged there, including a new officer corps, generality etc).
The US by that time increasingly interfered in the Mideast because of oil, the security of Israel and the Cold War. In Syria ARAMCO (the big Saudi oil company) began in 1947 with the construction of a Trans- Arab oil pipeline from Saudi Arabia to the Lebanese port city of Sidon. In 1949 the CIA sent two agents Stephan Meade and Miles Copeland (author of the book: “Death of a Nation. The amorality of power Politics,” NY 1970). He met the Kurdish General chief of staff Husni Zaim in 1948, who was anti- soviet and accepted the pipeline. On the 30th of March 1949, army units imprisoned the then Syrian president. Some overtook Radio Damascus, others the Police headquarters, Gendarmerie, and others the Telephone centers. According to Lüders, this then became the model for the “American regime changes” in the third world, as well as part of the CIA education program for CIA agents (like coup in Guatemala).
The modus operandi of US agent Kim Roosevelt was, as Lüders shows, that he bought the loyalty of thousands of soldiers, as well as journalists to blame Mossadegh as “agent of the Soviet Union.” Mossadegh, according to Lüders, was a tragic figure: an admirer of Mahatma Ghandi, Abraham Lincoln and American democracy. After the coup Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi returned from his Italian exile. He became the sole ruler and turned against the Iranian opposition that then later ,during the 1979 Iran revolution, brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power. As Lüders concludes, without the coup in 1953, there would not have been Khomeini, i.e. the US “created” the basis for the Islamic Republic. Since Khomeini the US and Europeans and Israel and Arab Gulf states openly or in a hidden way, have supported the aim to contain Iran as a regional actor, to weaken it and bring about a “regime change.”
Iranian identity: 1000’s years of history
Iranian identity, Lüders documents, looks back to thousands of years of history. They perceive themselves as humiliated by colonialism and then by western powers such as the U.S. and Israel. The political perception of Iran in the West is mostly negative and prejudiced. It is however remaining the only regional power in the Middle and Near East, that is openly against western and Israeli hegemonic demands. One tends to forget, that in 1970 Sadam Hussein (Iraq) came to power by a coup with the help of the CIA, Lüders reminds. This very close American ally in 1980 had declared war against Iran, which lasted for 8 years (!) (1980-1988). He wanted to conquer the oil reach region Khuzestan ( South-Western Iran). The U.S. and Saudi Arabia began massive weapon deliveries to Saddam Hussein. Washington delivered also weapons to Iran (!) and tried to prolong the war till 1988 for the benefit of the U.S. arms industry. According to Lüders, nobody in Israel today wants to be reminded this period. Israel was the main “hub” for the weapon deliveries to the Islamic republic. After the war Tel Aviv was on the side of the Islamic republic. 80% of the Iranian weapons came from Israel. Teheran bought for 500 Mio dollars weapons in Israel. The Americans were informed and so they massively expanded weapons to Iran in 1982/83 until the infamous Iran /Contra Affair 1986/87 erupted. During the Iraq / Iran war, there were 100 Israeli military advisors and technicians in Teheran(!), Lüders documents. The fight between Israel and US and Iran is, as Lüders put it, “a fight for regional hegemony.” Iran is the only country between Marocco and India, the strongest military power that can contain the freedom of movement of Israel in the region. “
Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” 1957 and Iran’s nuclear power program
Lüders documents many inconsistencies in how the U.S. and Israel dealt with Iran. For example: US President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” plan in 1957 laid the basis for Iran’s nuclear power program. The aim was to bind Israel, Iran and Pakistan in the nuclear energy development in the fields of science, medicine and energy. (!) At the same time it was a competitive arms race with the Soviet Union, to win new allies, with the aim to potentially make possible for them the construction of the atomic bombs, which Israel had since the 1960ies. In 1967 in the north of Teheran, a nuclear reactor that was given by the US, began to work. It is still functioning up to this day, not having being bombed in June 2025. As Lüders documents, at that time “leading Iranian nuclear scientist were welcomed at the MIT in the US. In 1975 the Shah widened nuclear cooperation with Germany and with the French 1970 the construction of the “Bushehr” nuclear reactor began at the Persian Gulf. Siemens and AEG were involved in this. With the Iranian revolution 1979 the construction and cooperation with western enterprises ended in Bushehr. It got only completed with Russian help.
In 2015 a breakthrough occurred when the 5+1 Group (GB, France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran) and Iran agreed on a “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” (JCPOA): This involves the agreement that Iran limits its Uranium enrichment on a low level for research and civilian use of nuclear energy. All other enriched uranium will de facto be taken. Iran’s Plutonium reactor and the main part of the centrifugue cascades will be made useless or brought abroad. At the same time Iran’s atomic sites for 25 years will be put under rigorous surveillance. IAEA representatives could come any time to inspections. This was indeed a true breakthrough. Slowly some of the draconian sanctions were lifted and the economy of Iran grew by 17%. President Trump then during his first term, in 2018, cancelled (!) the JCPOA. Europe did not object to this break of International Law. They also accepted the US secondary sanctions imposed against third states that trade with Iran. This in particular hit German business firms in Iran. The Trump administration went further and further with sanctions, in order to ruin Iran economically and force upon them a dictate by the US and Israel.
A Eurasian axis emerging: Beijing and Russia’s strategic partnership with Iran
However, in 2021 Beijing and Teheran agreed on a strategic military and economic partnership. As Lüders writes, China was supposed in the next 25 years to invest 400 bn Dollars in all sectors of Iran. On the 13th of June 2025 Israel for the first time bombed Iran. The day before, Lüders documents in his book, “the first cargo train of a new rail connection Beijing-Teheran had arrived in the capital Teheran.” (!) China in turn got from Iran the agreement on 25 years of preferential oil and gas deliveries. In 2024 Iran joined the BRICS alliance of the Global South, which tries to give counterweight to the sanction regime of Washington and to the US dollar dominance.
Similar developments happened with Russia. In July 2022 Gazprom and the Iranian Oil Company NIOC signed a “memo of understanding”, worth 40 bn Dollars. With this deal the two countries with the largest gas reserves of the world, wanted to found a “Gas OPEC” so as to be able to influence the pricing. Russia has 48 billion cubic meters in gas reserves, Iran 38 billion, Qatar, the world-wide biggest LNG producer, has the third largest gas reserves. The idea was to commonly exploit gas fields in the Persian Gulf. (!) At the same time Russia and Iran agreed on the construction of a new pipeline and on “guaranteed, sanction free trade corridors” (Putin). An almost completed railroad and road connection (North South Transport Corridor) goes from Russia via Azerbaidschan to Iran and further in direction Persian Gulf; another goes to the Caspian Sea and further per ship into Iran. On the Land route it then goes further direction Indian ocean to the port city Chabahar, close to the Pakistani border and further via sea to India. “Iran hence becomes a ‘logistical bridge’ not only for Russia but in the frame of the new Silk- road also for China,” Lüders comments and underlines that “here a huge ‘traffic juncture’ and transit space within the Global South comes into being.” Moscow and Teheran in January 2025 signed the “Treaty on a comprehensive strategic partnership” including also military cooperation”. Russian licenced the production of Iranian made drones, to be deployed in Ukraine.
One should keep in mind that while Trump kept intensifying economic sanctions on Iran, at the same time a series of brutal assassinations occurred, including in 2020 the murder of Major General Qasem Suleimani, highest ranking Iranian miliary and confidant of Khamenei, who got killed by a US drone attack at the Bagdad airport together with leading Iraqui military and politicians. Teheran reacted with missile attacks against US military bases in Iraq. This “modus operandi” was and is up go this day a shameless disregard of International Law.
