Let's reduce these issues to their basic components.
Iran; A nation that is susceptible to the influences of a dramatically different ethos stemming from religious belief. One could suggest that the (U.S.) Republican "right" and for that matter the Democrats (among whom a few good reverends sit as politicians..) has expressed a similar enthusiasm for using "beliefs" as justification for terrorism and invasion.... The overarching influence throughout the United States is however, the political structure is built on making money, securing power and wealth for the elite and both religion and commerce afford extremely powerful vehicles for achieving that end.
Whether you declare "war" because you "think" some other nation is a "threat" to your way of life isn't the exclusive purview of those nations rallied to a cause fueled by religious doctrine...
Iraq: A nation that was split between the Sunni and Shia religious factions, maintained in relative docility by an iron-fisted leader prepared to quell internecine conflict with his personal methodology that included chemical weapons and a preparedness to send in his military to strong-arm compliance...
Israel: A nation of near-fanatically self-absorbed people who've used the atrocities of the second world war to manipulate and through strong ties to the wealthiest thug on the block...dictate foreign policies of many of the world's nations.
Palestininans; One can't really say "Palestine" since the palestinian situation of millions living under occupation isn't really a "nation-state" but rather a response albeit a very often aggressive and in many instances a self-defeating response to a situation regarded as intolerable.
The ME (as a blanket or overarching concept): Anthropologically a tribal social structure that has involved itself in bloody warfare and conflict with each other for thousands of years.
United States: A nation of proudly self-absorbed consumers unwilling to acknowledge that their prosperity (romance with the automobile), the pursuit of happiness..(defined as the objects one can accumulate and exhibit to prove your "worth" to your society and the world)...never having resolved a similar dichotomy of racism and ethnic divisiveness that erupted into their only ever civil war (and although often acclaimed as a triumph of liberal ethics (freedom from slavery and the relegation of the human being as chattel) deciding the social dynamic make-up of a "republic" abhoring racism and slavery, was actually rather a contest of wealth under a thin veneer motivated by greed. In the United States, freedom of the individual is the highest "value", particularly when as the individual you have the opportunity to manipulate corrupt government and industry and realize vast fortunes on the backs of slaves semi-slaves (sweatshops financed in other nations by the appetites of American consumers)...
America has never cared who paid what price for anything...including turning a blind eye to the successively corrupt and juvenile governments that have cost both the domestic population their freedom and protection under the Constitution...and millions of others around the world suffering the imposition of oppressive regimes to keep American "interests" at the forefront of these puppet governments as significantly greater priority than the best interests of the people living in those nations and states....
Russia and China: I lump these two together simply because they have the populations and the financial potential to oppose the machinations of the United States...with of course their personal interests in petroleum supply, balance of international "power".."influence" geared to serve the interests of those ideological factions as well as the rampant corruption flourishing in those nations that regard the "West"...(the United States) as both the promise and the curse that comes with "prosperity".
Canada: A "hanger-on" reduced to impotence as a nation due to a fawning wannabe sychophantic relationship to the United States... In all fairness however, the richest nation on the planet (resource wealth) is occupied by a mere smattering of living human beings... There are many nations in the world that could take the population of their major cities (two or three of them) and demonstrate that while Canadians living this potentially fabulous life amid gargantuan potential is by and large underpopulated. This means that the tax system of Canada alone could never build a national defense comparable to other nations. So we've become (necessarily) reliant on the boobs next door to stand up for us in a fight....
Before anyone blows a gasket..I'm fully aware of the tremendous sacrifices made by Canadians in two world wars and mean no slight or insult to our brave citizens in uniform.
Canada is in Afghanistan...because we are a poorly led nation led by a gaggle of goons without any personal integrity of any kind...interested more in assuageing the wealthy and powerful of those goons next door.... Some might argue that we have committments under various international agreements and it's the "Canadian-way" to honor those agreements...even when the goons next door upon whom we rely significantly for the well being of our own nation...throw those agreements away when they no longer serve some particular "purpose".... see the Geneva Conventions the North American Free Trade Agreement...etc. etc. etc......
We see the United States driven by the Carlyle group and "defense-industry" interests dictating policy around the world. From which state can or can't have nuclear power to which nations "need" regime change to maintain the American fist of greed on natural resources these folk waste in ways and quantities that boggle the mind....
It's a mess for sure.
Iran isn't a threat to world security any more than was Iraq. If you want to imagine that the threat of funding "terrorism" is the motivation behind the political "will" of the United States...you'd be wrong.
The United States armed the muhujadeen to fight the Soviets...It supplied weapons and made nice with Iraq when Iraq was its "ally"...despite the fact that a few decades later she turned around and painted Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi nation as a "threat" to world peace...
The United States through the CIA was critically involved in taking faction of disenchanted students in Pakistan and building them into the modern day Taliban...all the while supporting the government in Islamabad that has been playing both sides of the line for years...
The United States has funded different factions and supplied weapons and intelligence to whomever the fat cats at the boardroom table of the military idustrial complex decided...including oppressive regimes and a willingness to ignore their own law when it comes to missiles and arms involving Iran and Nicaragua....attmpting to assassinate world leaders..Fidel Castro...Chavez..etc. and setting up Pinochet and Suharto to do the bidding of American industry knee deep in blood and conflict...
The answer to the majority of the situations that percolate across this rapidly browning little planet aren't particularly satisfactory to the United States..and as the most powerful (most heavily armed and wealthiest) boob on the block, until their is leadership in the Whitehouse that can find its own ass with both hands and a roadmap...which the current leadership is unable to do...we will continue to see these situations spiral out of control.
Then of course there's global warming...
Have a nice day...
