‘Obama will have to back Iran strike to get re-elected’

After the fiascos of Iraq and Afghanistan, America’s next catastrophic mistake is likely to be a war with Iran, former US Attorney General, lawyer and peace activist Ramsey Clark has told RT in an exclusive interview.

Clark believes Israel is pressing the US to make an urgent assault on Iran simply because it wants the operation executed before presidential elections in America.

The fact that the Obama administration is resisting does not mean they are favoring Iran in any way – the issue has simply become “a domestic political matter,” Clark said.

Clark agrees that America won’t stand for yet another war, but says that people “do crazy things, that’s why the world is such a mess.”

It is not Obama’s choice to side with Israel for a pre-emptive strike on Iran. However Ramsey Clark believes that Obama will have to support the military operation against Iran for fear that “if he does not join Israel, that will be too costly at election, and he will lose it.”

“You have to see the American system – they [the Obama team] are nervous,” explains the peace activist. “If he [Obama] loses this election, he is a failed president. All his major decisions will be primarily conditioned by how they impact on the upcoming election.”

Ramsey Clark has put partial blame for the murder of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi on the American people who “let their government do it.”

Naturally, the American government is not in the habit of consulting the public before taking important foreign policy decisions.

“I would call it manipulation. The government tries to manipulate public opinion to support its policy, whatever it is, particularly looking towards a military action,” Ramsey Clark said, adding that the American public is not concerned about the wider world, except if it is about to take “a vacation trip or something like that.”

“All those countries have been victims of American aggression because of US geopolitical and economic interests,” Ramsey Clark said. “Our foreign policy is overwhelmingly driven by the economic power the US has,” he added, comparing military operations to “business exportation.”

‘Assad is a gentle person’

Asked about the situation in Syria, Ramsey Clark confirmed that “Syria is a part of the effort to eliminate every government independent of US control.” Brutal regimes are perfectly acceptable, if they are dominated by the US.

In any case, the outcome will be very tough for the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, predicts Clark.

”I don’t know whether he will make it or not,” he admitted.

“Right now he tries to save his country as he sees it. That is a rough business,” Clark said, calling Assad “a gentle person.”

Speaking on domestic policies in the US, Ramsey Clark defined America as a “military-dominated society and the people are unaware of it.”

In the opinion of Clark, who has been at the center of American politics for half a century, the US has become much stronger on a federal level, while the states have become less powerful.

Ramsey Clark believes the Occupy Wall Street movement has “enormous potential” if it tries hard to define its objectives and become less selfish by pursuing more general interests, because simply wanting to have a bigger stake in the economy is a selfish interest.

Pakistan-Iran-Afghan talks ‘a message of defiance’ to the US

With trilateral talks between the leaders of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan underway in Islamabad, one question arising is what each side has to gain. Political analyst Ahmed Quraishi says Pakistan is sending a message of defiance to the US.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Pakistan for a trilateral summit aimed at addressing how Islamabad should facilitate negotiations between Afghanistan and the Taliban. Many see the move as a defiance of US will by two traditional American allies – Pakistan and Afghanistan – who are now seeking to include Iran, a stated adversary of the US, into the negotiation process.
Ahmed Quraishi, the President of the Paknationalists Forum, believes each side is pursuing its own goals.
“Washington considers Iran as some sort of an enemy,” he told RT, “and Pakistan is sending a message that Pakistani policy – for quite some time, actually – would be independent and that Pakistan would pursue its interest even if those interests do not fall within the larger, strategic plan of the United States in the region.”
Quraishi noted that Iran timed the visit specifically because of rising fears brought on by war rhetoric coming from the US and its allies. He noted that Iran’s principal aim was to ensure that it would not become encircled by Washington's allies.
“They’re worried about the rhetoric and drums of war – the psychological warfare, and I think they’re very keen to ensure that at least two neighbors – Pakistan and Turkey – will not join the pro-US encirclement of Iran,” Quraishi noted. “Pakistan continues to be the weak link because there are people within the Pakistani power structure who would probably support US use of Pakistani territory against Iran.”
As for Afghanistan, Quraishi said the country’s leadership isn’t keen on pursuing the American method of fighting the Taliban, and is now willing to include the Taliban in the national power structure. That, according to Quraishi, is Karzai’s main goal in Pakistan
“He’s meeting with key Pakistani political and religious leaders, Islamic leaders who have maintained traditionally very close ties to the Afghan Taliban and other Afghan resistance groups,” he remarked. This move, Quraishi says, is a major shift for Afghanistan, as it had previously shunned those groups.
The analyst said he does not believe President Karzai is really thinking of fighting the Afghan Taliban, but that he is looking toward integrating them and opening his own direct talks. "And I think everybody is,” he added.