Brain Injuries from Interventionism by Jacob G. Hornberger!
(2020-02-11 at 15:18:35 )

Brain Injuries from Interventionism by Jacob G. Hornberger!

The number of United States soldiers who have suffered traumatic brain injuries from the Iranian missile attack last month in Iraq has now risen to more than 100. The injuries demonstrate the sheer inanity of foreign interventionism.

The Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises pointed out that when a government intervenes in economic affairs, the intervention inevitably produces a bad result, which then requires another intervention to fix the problem. But then that intervention causes even more problems, which then necessitates more interventions. By the time the process is over, the interventions have led to a government takeover of that part of the economy, along with the destruction of liberty in the process.

While Mises was referring to economic policies, the principle he enunciated applies equally well in foreign policy. The federal governments history with Iran is a classic example of this phenomenon. And those United States soldiers who suffered those brain injuries are only the latest group of soldiers who are paying the price for United States interventionism against Iran.

The interventionist process with Iran began in 1953, when the Central Intelligence Agency initiated a coup in Iran that succeeded in ousting the democratically elected prime minister of the country, a man named Mohammad Mossadegh, from his position and restoring the omnipotent, unelected dictatorship of the Shah of Iran.

The purpose of the CIAs intervention?

Mr. Mossadegh had nationalized British oil interests in the country and had thrown British officials out of the country. The British Empire did not take kindly to that type of treatment. It sought the help of the CIA, which tied Mr. Mossadegh to the supposed worldwide communist conspiracy to take over the world during the Cold War.

That intervention led to another intervention. To ensure that the Iranian people could not succeed in restoring their experiment with democracy, the CIA helped the Shah to establish a domestic police force called the SAVAK, which was a combination Pentagon, CIA, NSA, and FBI.

The CIA then proceeded to train SAVAK agents in the arts of torture, indefinite detention, secret surveillance, and other dark-side practices to ensure that no one could resist the oppressive tyranny of the Shah.

In 1979, the Iranian people revolted against the CIAs dictatorship by forcibly ousting the Shah from power. Fearful that the CIA would restore the Shah to power, the revolutionaries took United States diplomats hostage to make sure that that would not happen.

Unfortunately, the Iranian revolution was unsuccessful in restoring its experiment with democracy that the CIA had destroyed some 26 years before. They ended up with a theocracy that turned out to be every bit as tyrannical as the regime of the Shah.

The Iranian revolution led to more United States interventions. One big one was when Iraqs dictator Saddam Hussein initiated a war against Iran. The United States national-security establishment came to his assistance and helped him kill, injure, and maim tens of thousands of Iranian soldiers.

After Iran defeated Iraq in their 8-year war, the United States government turned on its old partner and ally Saddam Hussein by intervening in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. That intervention, however, failed to oust Saddam from power. That led to more interventions, such as 11 years of economic sanctions that contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children. Other interventions included so-called no-fly zones, stationing of United States troops on Islamic holy lands, and unconditional support of the Israeli government.

Those interventions produced deep anger and hatred for the United States in the Middle East, which led to anti-American terrorism, including the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, the attack on the USS Cole, the attacks on the United States embassies in East Africa, the 9-11-01 attacks, the Fort Hood attacks, and more.

The 9-11-01 attacks, which United States officials blamed on hatred for Americas "freedom and values," led, not surprisingly, to even more United States interventionism, including the United States invasion and long-term occupation of Iraq, which ended up, ironically enough, with a regime that is more closely aligned with Iran than with the United States.

That intervention led to the rise of ISIS, which United States officials maintained was a grave threat to United States "national security," even though ISIS was not threatening to invade and occupy the United States.

In the meantime, United States relations with Iran led to more United States interventions, including economic sanctions that target the Iranian populace with death and impoverishment as well as the recent assassination of an Iranian major general who was visiting Iraq with the consent of the Iraqi regime. Ironically, and less noticed but no less important, United States official assassinated an Iraqi official at the same time.

The assassination of that Iranian official is what motivated Iran to fire missiles at the military base in Iraq where those United States soldiers were stationed.

One thing is for certain: If those United States troops were not in Iraq and were instead here at home, where they belong, they would not be suffering from those brain injuries.

They suffered those brain injuries because they were over there occupying a foreign country, where they do not belong.

They are only the latest example of the destructive consequences of foreign interventionism.

Reprinted here with permission from Mr. Jacob G. Hornberger of The Future of Freedom Foundation!! Their Great Website!!