Betrayal Writ Large

 Belle of the Ranch is fond of communicating any of several truisms.  One of my favorites I hear from her is “Nations don’t have friends, they have interests.”

She does not mention another observable truism.  That being that leaders of nations can be susceptible to influence from specific leaders of other nations or otherwise powerful people.  We observe that in our own “leadership” and which other national leaders appear to have outsized influence.  I could also point out that current leadership in particular appears to be especially vulnerable to flattery and useless gifts of frippery.

A reasonable assessment of the motivation(s) for our current military involvement in Iran woul suggest that Bibi Netanyahu was very instrumental in convincing Felon47 to commit huge amounts of national treasure and no few lives of USA citizens for gains we will not need to brag about.

I could of course, go on about any of several current and former national leaders with autocratic tendencies who dubiously earned the admiration of the guy trying to destroy our nation for profit.

But for as betrayed as I might personally feel, there are those who have been betrayed far worse.  I’m thinking specifically of Iran and their leaders.  I would have to include the religious leadership, the Republican Guard, and the military leadership.  As much as Felon47 appears to be under the direct control and influence of Vladimir Putin, it is difficult for me to conceptualize the situation wherein he commits us to violence in Iran and the Strait without the express permission of Putin.  The same Putin who has been counting on Iran for drones and electronics and other goods to help them in their doomed-to-failure “special military action” in Ukraine.

I’m serious.  While run of the mill Russians may be starting to doubt Putin’s competence, they have been conditioned to believe whatever he tells them.  Iranians may have been conditioned but NOT to believe or revere Putin.  Were I in charge of the military in Iran, I would be developing the plan to grab and relocate Putin immediately upon his political fall or even shortly before.  They are well within reason to believe that he could have ordered Trump to stand down or at least to continue with the status quo wherein we commit the occasional act of terrorism after punishing them for adhering to the internationally agreed upon JCPOA.

International relations are complicated.  I don’t know what was in Putin’s mind.  (Although to be fair, I seriously doubt he values Iranian lives and comforts as much or more than he values the lives of the Russian soldiers he has been using for years now to soak up Ukrainian ammo.)  What I know is that as soon as he perceived his interests as diverging from Iranian interests, he was willing to betray them regardless of what they had done for Russia.

I don’t know where Vlad will go to attempt to escape accountability but, I will be the least surprised person in the world if I wake up to a headline informing me that Persian elements have assisted him in a definitive test of localized gravitic effects.