This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.
Michael Commane Kerry is a long distance from Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and Qom. These Iranian cities have been on maps on television screens and newspapers in recent days because they have been bombed by either US or Israeli planes.
I’ve been in those four cities; all four are world treasures. They are unique places of great beauty and sophistication.
The Irish Dominicans have a priory in Tehran where I was visiting Tralee man Fr Paul Lawlor, who at the time was living in our priory in the Iranian capital. Our church and priory have been vacated for a number of years. It is hoped at some stage the Dominican Order will be back in Tehran.
It’s because of having been there and the Dominican links with the country that I have been keeping a close eye on current happenings.
In April 1951 Mohammad Mossadegh was democratically elected prime minister of Iran. Both the United States and UK governments were not happy with Mossadegh. They wanted ‘regime change’ so organised a coup, which restored Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power. The reasons Mossadegh was not the flavour of the month was because he planned to nationalise the country’s oil.
British Petroleum, better known as BP, was originally called Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which was founded in 1909. In 1935 it was renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, later becoming BP in 1954.
The last time I heard of ‘regime change’ was before the Iraqi war. And all for what?
I can no longer watch Donald Trump and his Secretary for War, Pete Hegseth at press conferences.
Hegseth is no longer the US Secretary for Defence, Trump changed the name to the Secretary for War. He was obviously preparing for war.
Hegseth reminds me of a teddy boy from the 1960s. His attire, his poor grammar, his sleazy looks, his drinking habits are worrying. Indeed, the teddy boy description is an insult to the genuine teddy boys.
Last week an F-15 was shot down in Kuwait, An F-15s costs €26.71 million.
Approximately 15 million people in the US avail of soup kitchens to feed themselves and their families.
It is estimated that the US spent €669.08 million during the first 24 hours of Operation Epic Fury. Trump and Putin must learn from each other; Putin calls his bloody war in Ukraine a Special Military Operation.
Some weeks ago I attended a lecture, where the speaker argued that in times of war truth loses its meaning.
It is generally accepted that the government of Iran is a cruel despotic government. But doesn’t the western world say the same of China and Russia. Why has the US not bombed them?
This war cannot make sense. Pray God it stops.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State said last week: ‘This erosion of international law is truly worrying: justice has given way to force; the force of law has been replaced by the law of force.’
He went on to say: ‘When speaking of the causes of a war, it is complex to determine who is right and who is wrong. What is certain, however, is that war will always produce victims and destruction, as well as devastating effects on civilians.’
Powerful words.
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