Today, I’d like to assess the way the majority of world citizens currently view the American government and the policies our elected leaders pursue. In this essay, I will also highlight a few reassessments - my effort to show how these views have changed over a period of 2 1/2 decades.
IMO this thought exercise will show that many previous assessments were false or dubious, but these “authorized narratives” were exploited to pursue agendas that ended up making the world a more dangerous place and lowered the standard of living or quality of life for the majority of world inhabitants.
I do know that honest “reassessments” can be bracing to acknowledge or ponder … but so be it. From time to time, writers or thinkers probably do need to take the time to point out this is the way things used to be - or this is the way most people thought at one time - and here’s the way many or most people think today.
In my view, most components of the “New-Normal” Status Quo are far more disturbing than the former Old Status-Quo conventional wisdom.
For convenience, I will use the date 9-11-2001 as a line of demarcation to contrast views that might have been common on this date with views that prevail today.
Prior to 9-11-2001, most world inhabitants almost certainly viewed America as the world’s “Good Guy” - “a shining beacon on the hill,” symbolizing freedom, free market capitalism and a bulwark fighting the more sinister regimes on the planet.
This morning I watched a podcast with retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. In his appearance on Glenn Diesen’s You Tube show, Wilkerson said that recent global opinion polls show that two-thirds of the world population now view America as a threat or impediment to a brighter world future.
I actually earned my college degree in political science, but even if I hadn’t, I would know that such a sea-change in global sentiment … ain’t good for the home team.
Furthermore, according to these polls, two-thirds of the world population views China in a positive manner or think China is the nation that is doing more things to make the world a better place to live.
For almost my entire life - until just the last couple of months - most Americans viewed the nation of Israel as the one beacon of democracy in the Mideast, a nation that must constantly fight for its survival and a nation and government that all Americans and freedom-lovers should always support.
I don’t need to check opinion polls to know this “assessment” has - in a remarkably fast period of time - experienced a stunning reassessment.
In the CliffsNotes’ version, Israel has also always been the “Good Guy.” Indeed, anyone who questions this assessment should be viewed as threat who must be silenced, censored, punished or vilified.
One, millions of American and global citizens have taken a keen interest in the Epstein Files and Epstein’s various operations (significantly many people believe Epstein was working for Israel and Mossad),
Two, hundreds of millions of global citizens have, belatedly, come to believe (or at least entertain the possibility) that Israel’s non-stop bombing of Gaza does approach or meet the definition of “genocide.” (Also, Israel’s non-stop bombing of towns in southern Lebanon has no doubt factored into this reassessment).
Three, Israel desired and pushed America into a war with Iran, a war that, per a common and fair assessment, could be labeled as a “sneak attack.”
In one day, the first volleys of this “sneak attack” resulted in the assassination of the Supreme Leader of a sovereign nation, as well as scores of other Iranian leaders and their women and children family members … as well as the murder of 168 Iranian school girls and their teachers.
Four, as a footnote that might be worth noting, millions of Americans were clearly agitated that Rep. Thomas Massie, Congress’s highest-profile critic of Israel, was soundly defeated by an obscure candidate whose campaign benefited from $20 to $30 million in donations from the Israel lobby (and, of course, the endorsement of President Trump, who - as more citizens now better grasp - is also supported by the same lobby).
In the aggregate, the above events (and other events not mentioned) caused untold millions of citizens to reassess everything they’d previously believed about Israel.
During the same time frame, a similar number of people began to reassess everything we’d been conditioned to think about the “evil” “terrorist” nation of Iran, which leaders of Israel had spent decades framing as Israel’s greatest enemy.
Following the terrorists attacks of 9-11, the key take-away (assessment) of almost everyone was that America would have to fight terrorists “over there” before the terrorists, again, struck a shocking blow against America over here.
If America could just spread democracy - and change several “evil” regimes - the people in these nations wouldn’t “hate us for our freedoms” and, per the nearly universal assessment - would never attack us again.
This was the assessment of a group of geo-political strategists known as Neo-cons and, for decades, this argument (excluding Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns) prevailed in the battle for hearts and minds in America. (Israel and its long-time prime minister Bibi Netanyahu was the main and most-influential advocate for this policy course.)
America used what, at the time, was a much more formidable military to implement neocon-endorsed policies by first invading Afghanistan and then, in a much larger invasion, Iraq.
(Question: Today, would most people assess that the American military is stronger and more capable in 2026 compared to 2001? My answer: I think not, meaning this would be another noteworthy reassessment.)
The assessment at the time (a correct one) must have been that the regime of Iraq would be much easier to topple than the regime of Iran, which could be dealt with later (which turned out to be 25 years later).
As I’ve documented ad nauseam, official and settled assessments of the professional assessors almost always turn out to be bogus as was the claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, which this nation, for some suicidal reason, was going to, somehow, soon deploy against American cities.
Also, while intelligence agencies found that almost all the 9-11 terrorists were citizens of Saudi Arabia, a close American ally, this assessment … didn’t matter. (Take-away: Certain “assessments” carry more rhetorical and policy weight than others.)
Clearly, more people have begun to reassess whether Israel really was or is the Godly, pristine, noble nation we were all taught to believe it is. Also, more people have begun to re-evaluate “truths” or “facts” regarding Israel’s arch enemy, Iran.
As I’ve written in many essays, the power of a proverbial “thermo-nuclear truth bomb” detonating is not just that one “authorized narrative” could be obliterated as bunk in one blast … the real threat to the Powers that Be is that if one false-narrative whopper is exposed as such … it’s very possible the same people will/could also quickly start to identify many other lies their “trusted leaders” have fed them.
That is, the fear of the world’s real rulers is that massive numbers of citizens begin to perform other critical-thinking “reassessments” dealing with other previously “settled” areas of political science.
Which, per my geo-political analysis, is exactly what’s happening right now.
***
For the first time in my life, millions of people are questioning whether the nation of Iran really was/is the villain we’ve always thought this nation was.
It’s been said you can judge a person (or a nation) by noting who their friends are. The converse might also be true - one can can also judge a nation by who they are fighting or who they think is a villain.
For decades, Iran and its people viewed Israel as an evil villain that was, literally, getting away with not just murder, but mass murder.
While certainly not the case with all people, today a rapidly-growing number of people is beginning to say:
“Damn. Iran might have been right all along. Israel might not be the wonderful nation we thought it was. Iran might have been ahead of the curve; they had Israel pegged before I did.”
It should be noted Iran was itself facing a major PR obstacle. For at least 47 years, the official narrative was that Iran was an evil, terrorist nation, a view that was largely grounded in the fact that Iranian students over-ran the U.S. embassy and held American citizens hostage for more than a year.
Furthermore, every American who keeps up with current events or is familiar with historical events has seen numerous clips where throngs of Iranian citizens gather in the streets and chant “Death to America!”
The obvious conclusion was that Iranians want to kill us all. If so many people are chanting these words, we should take them at their word and do anything we can to punish or contain such a mortal threat to our people.
One reassessment that might be occurring - at least to some extent - is that more people are beginning to look back over the last five decades and decided that Iranians, actually, had killed hardly any Americans.
For example, Iranians didn’t kill the 52 hostages, who they ultimately released unharmed.
Per conventional wisdom, just about every American believes “Iran” killed hundreds of Marines in a suicide attack in Beirut in 1983.
Iran tried to counter this narrative by saying, “we didn’t do that” - another group did that and only did it because President Regan inserted troops into a combat zone. (To proffer a politically incorrect but correct military truism .. When troops are inserted into a combat zone they will, very possibly, be targeted by enemy forces who don’t want said troops to be there).
Also, all neo-con politicians have said (assessed) that Iraqi resistance forces didn’t use roadside bombs to kill and injure American troops occupying Iraq. It was really “Iran” that killed and injured many of our troops.
Whether Iran helped “resistance” forces in Iraq with these IUD counter-attacks or not, the fact remains American troops were targeted only because Iraqis or some Muslims didn’t want American troops to be occupying this nation.
(FWIW, the members of the French Underground resistance organized and executed the same type of attack against Nazis who occupied their nation. Also, per deductive reasoning, if America had never invaded and occupied Iraq, the number of American casualties - caused by Iraq or Iran - would have been zero. That is, one can say Iranians killed our troops, but one could just as easily say the policies of President George W. Bush led to the deaths of our troops.)
Thirdly, per the accepted narrative, “Iran” has encouraged or produced legions of citizens who killed myriad Americans in myriad terrorist attacks.
However, as it turns out, this is not true. In fact, the only Iranian sympathizer I can think of who killed Americas might be the man who killed several Americans in a Texas bar, presumably as “revenge” after America and Israel attacked Iran.
The real terrorists, who have produced significant body counts, were Al Qaida and ISIS terrorists and Iran is/was an opponent of both terrorist groups. (FWIW, Iran condemned the 9-11 attacks and expressed condolences to these American victims.)
(I will say that, so far, articles on the Iran War haven’t been particularly popular at my Substack, but at some places they are).
Another reason the narrative (Iran is THE evil terrorist nation in the world) might be changing is that more Americans and global citizens are starting to listen to commentators who are presenting Iran’s version of world events.
The most influential of these commentators is a professor from Tehran University named Seyed Marandi.
Professor Marandi, who speaks American English better than I do, must do 12 interviews with international podcasters every day. (I’m actually surprised YouTube hasn’t completely blocked these interviews and, also, I’m somewhat surprised America or Israel hasn’t killed Professor Marandi yet. Note: See Bonus Content in today’s Reader Comments).
In the parlance of war, Professor Marandi is probably a more dangerous force than three divisions of the Iranian Army.
Many people who have watched any of his interviews have no doubt concluded this man is highly intelligent, very persuasive and comes across as honest, credible and humble.
In numerous interviews, he has admitted that yes, Iranians chant “Death to America!” all the time. But he, convincingly, makes the point that Iranians are not calling for the death of every-day Americans or any Americans, what Iranians want to see happen is the American government defeated and American forces to get out of the Mideast and quit imposing draconian sanctions on their country, etc.
Iranians, he makes clear, have no beef with every-day Americans, who when they do visit Iran are always treated with respect and allowed to go back home.
The fact these messages (which are really efforts to rebut authorized narratives) are resonating with millions of people around the world is because Professor Marandi has become a kind of “rock star” of YouTube podcasts (at least among those who are weary of CNN, NBC and Fox News “coverage” of the war).
Speaking for myself, I’ve acknowledged the common “death to America!” chants, but, as they say, actions speak louder than words and one can simply judge what nation is committing actions that kill and wound huge numbers of the other nation’s citizens.
That is, no Americans are gathering in the streets chanting “death to Iran!” but the militaries of America and Israel have recently killed at least 3,000 Iranian citizens (more than 9-11) and wounded many more in two different bombing and missile assaults occurring across all sections of Iran.
One could argue, convincingly, that the President of the United States might as well be screaming “death to Iran!” As he’s made too many comments and made too many posts on Truth Social to keep track of where he’s told the people of Iran that America is going to “obliterate” its nation or “destroy its civilization” or bomb this nation back to the Stone Age.
President Trump has gloated about taking out Iran’s Supreme Leader and still hasn’t expressed any condolences or remorse about the 168 Iranian school children our military murdered.
I would also like to note that President Trump has repeatedly bragged and crowed about an assassination he ordered in his first term - the death by Hellfire Missile of IRGC general Qasem Soleimani in Iraq in January 2020.
This, I think, was when one could note another significant change in the thinking of political leaders (and the non-outraged response of the vast majority of the U.S. population).
Just like today, when Trump ordered the assassination of this Iranian leader, our nation had actually not declared war on Iran. Soleimani had been invited by America’s now-ally Iraq to speak to Iraq’s prime minister.
He and nine other people (including five citizens of Iraq) were then instantly blown up by a Hellfire missile fired from a drone by the U.S. military. (Sidebar trivia: Lockheed Martin’s Hellfire missile, as well as the THAAD and JASSM missiles, are built in my hometown of Troy, Alabama, meaning if all these regional wars ever go global, our family is going to be watching the skies closely).
IMO, once upon a time, this event would have been viewed by most world leaders, the press and diplomats as a state-sponsored assassination (and/or an act of terrorism).
But not in 2020. By this time, a reassessment had obviously occurred and the act was actually cheered by most political observers and all Fox News pundits. For their part, American citizens just shrugged their shoulders. (On an Outrage Scale going from 1 to 100, the level of public outrage might have been a 1.)
FWIW, Iran responded by bombing a U.S. military base in the region after Iran gave a heads-up it was getting ready to do this. Notably, this was not one of today’s “tic-for-tac” responses as Iran did not try to assassinate, say, the chairman of U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
While it didn’t get any corporate news coverage, one assumes the Outrage Scale among Iranian citizens was probably a 100, but the Supreme Ruler (later assassinated himself) did not authorize a stronger response. Still, the event probably did produce a few more rallies where, curiously, even more Iranian citizens chanted, “Death to America!”)
IMO, the assassination of Gen. Soleimani was also a seminal event as several years later President Trump green-lit missile attacks on purported Venezuelan cocaine smugglers.
Again, once upon a time, instantly killing civilians (in a country America was not at war with) would have created outrage among numerous members of the Influencer Class.
But this was no longer the case. Per the new “assessment” any American president could order the military to kill any civilians, at least if they were believed to be transporting cocaine.
Long-held principles of American jurisprudence like “Innocent until proven guilty” or habeas corpus or that an instant death penalty shouldn’t be administered to people in the illegal drug trade … no longer applied. (Needless to say, these principles do not apply to “dealers” in the legal drug and “vaccine” trade).
At least for myself, it’s amazing and surreal to take note of all the previous assessments that no longer apply and all the new assessments that now do apply. Also, it’s striking to reflect on all the assessments that, as I write are, perhaps, being reassessed.
Not long after 9-11, all the political experts who mattered assessed that America had to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, military operations that, we were told, would be accomplished in a couple of months.
Needless to stipulate, America always had to defend and support Israel, which is still the assessment of both parties in Congress.
However, also of note, this is one assessment where the views of political leaders seems to be increasingly at odds with the views of the American “men and women on the street.” (Even Facebook is replete with posts from people who seem to have moved at least some of their previous iron-clad assessments into the trash file).
In the last five months, per the assessment of everyone who matters, the regime of Iran had to be changed or else Iran was going to nuke America or Israel any day.
President Trump said Operation Epic Fury (not “Operation Liberate Iran”) would take four to five weeks and Americans, and President Trump, would be showered with roses once our military disposed of Iran’s villainous leaders. (Instead, in “the largest funeral in world history,” 40 million Iranians mourned the leader USrael” murdered.)
In 2001, America - by far - had the world’s strongest economy and people in most countries of the world had a favorable opinion of our nation.
Nobody had heard of Jeffrey Epstein or the Epstein Class. If a typical citizen had heard of such a vile person, most Americans would just assume the government would prosecute him and all his co-accomplices and would also prosecute any and all “Johns” Epstein pimped young girls and women to.
This “assessment” has certainly changed. Indeed - who had this on their Bingo card? - it’s Iran that seems to have declared war on the “Epstein Class.”
In 2026, a U.S. president finally decided to do what Benjamin Netanyahu (and Lindsey Graham) had been lobbying for for a quarter century and change the regime in Iran.
In 2001, per common assessments of the time, any policy that would costs hundreds of billions of dollars and jeopardize the lives of many American military members and risk economic catastrophe, would at least have required a vote of Congress … but not in 2026.
Skip forward a couple of decades and a president could simply do this on his own volition and didn’t even need to brief one member of Congress.
Still, most Americans had little issue with such a sneak attack and certainly few Americans equated this to what Japan did to America on Dec. 7, 1941.
Eight months ago, per everyone’s assessment, Iran was a backwards, uncivilized nation of “Arabs” who could make quality rugs as well as farmers who excelled at raising goats. If this “assessment” hasn’t changed by now, I just … give up.
Also, according to intelligence assessments, Iran’s leaders had just killed 3,000 protestors … later assessed at 10,000 … then 30,000 … then 40,000 and now 52,000. (Presumably, the mass graves will be unearthed in the years to come).
Iran certainly didn’t have the military capability, nor the public support, to put up much of a fight against the combined might of American and Israel.
In a couple of weeks, Iran would surrender unconditionally and, in two years, McDonalds and Dollar General stores would be on every other corner in Tehran.
Until I came up with today’s story idea, I hadn’t thought about this, but the “reassessments” are actually kind of stunning once you start itemizing a few of them … Not just reassessments but sudden and dramatic reassessments.
It’s almost like a strange kind of low-yield neutron truth bomb - one, like “vaccine” deaths, is hard to easily detect - is already starting to detonate.
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