SPEAKING
FREELY Sweet waters of Persian Gulf turn
bloody By Dallas Darling
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About 6,000 years
ago, the Mesopotamian civilization transformed the
rich agricultural and mineral resources of the
Persian Gulf into a thriving copper-grain trade.
The Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, more
specifically Dilmun (modern-day Bahrain) which
Sumerians called the land of "milk and honey" in
their creation myths, mainly prospered because of
its strategic position as a trading post. Even
though the site covered only about fifty acres, it
contained a population of about 5,000. Not only
was this island city in the Persian Gulf supplied
with hundreds of tons of grain
and large amounts of
copper, so as to be traded and transported abroad,
but its people were supplied with a generous
spring issuing what the ancients called "sweet,"
or fresh, water.
This came to mind when
the US Navy killed an Indian fisherman and wounded
three others in the Persian Gulf. While officials
of the US Navy's 5th Fleet claimed the fishing
boat was approaching one of its warships and
ignored warnings to turn away, other eyewitness
accounts reported it was a clear case of an
unprovoked military engagement. Either way, the
USS Rappahannock fired numerous rounds from
a .50-caliber machine gun that strafed the Indian
fishing vessel, killing and wounding several
fishermen. Meanwhile, it is another deadly
incident that raises fears of the US militarizing
the Persian Gulf. Also, the US initially imagined
it had shot an Iranian vessel, which will only
increase tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and
surrounding regions. While the US
continues to significantly increase its land
armies and naval presence in the Persian Gulf and
Strait of Hormuz, it has also greatly expanded its
air power with stealthy F-22 and F-15C warplanes.
Immediately after the small fishing vessel was
destroyed and loss of life reported, the US and
Pentagon selectively propagated this deadly
military incident by only reiterating the October
2000 al-Qaeda attack against the USS Cole.
(Recall that a rubber boat packed with explosives
exploded alongside the warship while refueling in
the Yemen port of Aden.) Missing from US news
reports is when the USS Vincennes, in 1988,
transgressed Iranian waters and shot down an
Iranian passenger bus in civilian airspace,
killing 296 innocent people, 66 were children.
This immoral action, the downing of the
Iranian airbus, and a depraved response has never
been addressed. Deeply repressed in America's
subconscious are Pentagon officials that claimed
the Iranians "brought it on themselves". While the
US media focused on the US commander's and crews
anguish, president Ronald Reagan called it an
"understandable accident". Other officials even
proclaimed there would never be an apology offered
to Iran no matter what the facts were. The Persian
Gulf and Strait of Hormuz have also witnessed the
US igniting a war between Iraq and Iran and a
punitive economic blockade which killed over
600,000 Iraqis. In supplying nations with
chemical, military, and nuclear weapons, the US
has made Persian Gulf waters bitter and bloody.
No longer is the Strait of Hormuz known as
the land of milk and honey. Neither is its spring
of fresh water sweet. In truth, US advanced
weapons technologies, its military hubris, and its
addiction to petroleum have made war and any
resemblance of military action obsolete. It has
monopolized death from above the Persian Gulf
waters, death from below the Persian Gulf Waters,
and death from across the Strait of Hormuz. The
military Haves, with their "shock and awe
campaigns" and their massive fire power, will
always outmatch the Have Nots. They will overly
consume valuable energy resources, like oil and
natural gas, at the expense of innocent civilians
and less-militarized societies. US weapons systems
no longer contributes to humanity's higher
morality nor its nobility.
Such
hyper-militarization and consumerist and addictive
qualities, if taken to their logical conclusion
and embraced by the majority of nations, would
eventually eliminate and make humankind obsolete
too. From a proportionate and per capita view, for
example, China and India would have to each build
and maintain 3,000 overseas military and naval
bases and 18,000 domestic ones, instead of a few
dozen. To match US militarism, Russia would have
to utilize 1,000 overseas armed bases and 6,000
domestic ones. From a geopolitical/proximity
perspective, and in order to compete with the US
and its military insanity, Iran would have built
dozens of military and naval bases in and around
the Gulf of Mexico, Florida Keys, the Mississippi
River, and St Lawrence Seaway.
Still yet,
and from a historical view that would have matched
US militarism in the Persian Gulf, Iran would have
encouraged Mexico to invade the US and then
supplied it with military aid, develop and
maintain numerous industries and military bases in
Canada and Cuba and other regional nations, and
then fight three major wars in the region while
implementing several punitive economic blockades
and maintaining lengthy military occupations.
Aggressive and violent perpetrators that always
assume the role of the victim, though, seldom
think historically or clearly or empathetically.
Whether it be the destruction of a passenger
plane, killing hundreds of innocent civilians, or
the murder of an Indian fisherman, they try and
justify their behaviors and rationalize their
actions.
It appears that not only will the
Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz waters continue
to experience a reign (and rain) of terror and
death and bitterness, but so too will the entire
Earth. Hyper-militarization and addictions that
are either justified or dismissed causes enormous
environmental degradation. Such military and
technologically permissiveness was unknown to
ancient societies and civilizations. They never
imagined copper would be distorted into nuclear,
biological, and chemical weaponry. Neither could
they foresee how modern globalization, which
mainly stresses militancy and unjust markets and
rapaciously ravages the Earth while exploiting the
poor and oppressed, would someday inflict enormous
suffering and harm and death.
In the
history of maritime trading, straits and vital
trading posts, like Dilmun, were known as "choke
points" because of their strategic and vital
locations. By militarizing the Persian Gulf and
Strait of Hormuz and exploiting its resources, the
US is literally strangling the region and world to
death. Once sweet and fresh waters have tragically
turned bitter and bloody.
Note: 1. Bernstein, William
J A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped The World.
New York, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008,
p 26.
Dallas Darling is the
author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on
Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some
Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On
Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And
Consumerism in the Context of John's Apocalyptic
Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity:
Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality,
History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for
www.worldnews.com. You can read more of Dallas'
writings at www.beverlydarling.com and
wn.com//dallasdarling.
Speaking
Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows
guest writers to have their say.Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing. Articles submitted for this section
allow our readers to express their opinions and do
not necessarily meet the same editorial standards
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