In the nuclear age, the United States must refrain from all-out war because it would easily lead to nuclear escalation. Instead, wage hybrid warfare.
In recent weeks, we have witnessed two conflicts: Venezuela and Iran. Both have been carried out through a combination of overwhelming economic sanctions, targeted military attacks, cyber warfare, stoking fear, and relentless misinformation campaigns. Both are long-term CIA projects that have recently escalated. Both would cause further confusion.
The United States has long had two goals toward Venezuela. The goal is to gain control of the Orinoco Belt’s vast oil reserves and to overthrow the left-wing government that has been in power since 1999. The United States’ hybrid war against Venezuela dates back to 2002, when the CIA supported a coup attempt against President Hugo Chavez. When that failed, the United States stepped up a complex of other measures, including economic sanctions, the confiscation of Venezuela’s dollar reserves, and measures that crippled Venezuela’s oil production, which eventually collapsed. Despite the chaos caused by the United States, the hybrid war did not bring down the government.
US President Donald Trump has now escalated his efforts to bomb Caracas, kidnap President Nicolas Maduro, steal Venezuelan oil shipments, and blockade the seas, which are, of course, acts of war. It also appears likely that Trump is enriching powerful pro-Zionist campaign donors who are aiming to seize Venezuela’s oil assets.
Zionist interests are also looking to overthrow the Venezuelan government, which has long supported the Palestinian cause and maintained close ties with Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the US attack on Venezuela as a “perfect operation”.
Along with Israel, the United States is also simultaneously escalating its ongoing hybrid war against Iran. Subversion, airstrikes, and targeted assassinations by the United States and Israel are expected. The difference with Venezuela is that a hybrid war against Iran could easily escalate into a devastating regional or even global war. US allies in the region, particularly the Gulf states, are conducting intensive diplomatic efforts to persuade President Trump to withdraw and avoid military action.
The war with Iran has an even longer history than the war with Venezuela. The first US intervention in Iran dates back to 1953, when democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized Iranian oil in defiance of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now BP).
The CIA and MI6 engineered Operation Ajax to oust Mossadegh using a combination of propaganda, street violence, and political interference. They reinstated Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, who had fled the country in fear of Mossadegh, and helped the shah consolidate his grip on power. The CIA also assisted the Shah by helping to establish the notorious secret police SAVAK, which suppressed opposition through surveillance, censorship, imprisonment, and torture.
Ultimately, this repression led to a revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power in 1979. During the revolution, students took American hostages in Tehran after the United States granted treatment to the shah, leading to fears that the United States would seek to return the shah to power. The hostage crisis further deteriorated relations between Iran and the United States.
Since then, the US has been planning to torment Iran and overthrow its government. Among the myriad hybrid actions the United States has undertaken is financing Iraq to wage a war against Iran in the 1980s that left hundreds of thousands dead but did not overthrow the government.
The United States and Israel’s objectives toward Iran are antithetical to a negotiated settlement that would normalize its position in the international system while curbing its nuclear program. The real goal is to bankrupt Iran economically, corner it diplomatically, and keep up the pressure domestically. President Trump has repeatedly blocked negotiations that could lead to peace, starting with his withdrawal from the 2016 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which provided for monitoring Iran’s nuclear energy activities and lifting economic sanctions.
Understanding hybrid warfare tactics helps explain why President Trump’s rhetoric swings so sharply between threats of war and false proposals for peace. Hybrid warfare thrives on contradiction, ambiguity, and outright deception.
Last summer, the United States was scheduled to negotiate with Iran on June 15, but two days before that, it supported Israel’s bombing of the country. For this reason, signs of detente in recent days should not be taken at face value. These attacks could easily be followed by direct military attacks.
The examples of Venezuela and Iran show how the United States and Israel are mired in hybrid warfare. The CIA, Mossad, allied military contractors, and security agencies have worked together to foment chaos across Latin America and the Middle East for decades.
They have upended the lives of hundreds of millions of people, stunted economic development, provoked terrorism and triggered massive waves of refugees. There is no indication that they have spent billions of dollars on covert and overt operations beyond the chaos itself.
There is no security, no peace, no stable pro-American or pro-Israel alliances, only suffering. In the process, the United States is also doing its best to undermine the United Nations Charter, which came into existence after World War II. The UN Charter makes clear that hybrid warfare violates the core of international law, which requires states to refrain from the use of force against other states.
There is one beneficiary of hybrid warfare, and that is the military-technological-industrial complex of the United States and Israel. In his 1961 farewell speech, President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the grave dangers posed to society by the military-industrial complex. His warnings are more accurate than he imagined, now driven by artificial intelligence, mass propaganda, and reckless US foreign policy.
The world’s best hope is that the 191 UN member states other than the United States and Israel will finally say no to reliance on hybrid warfare: no to regime change operations, no to unilateral sanctions, no to the weaponization of the dollar, and no to repudiation of the UN Charter.
The American people do not support their government’s illegal actions, but they have a very difficult time passing dissent. They, and nearly every other country in the world, want the atrocities of the American deep state to end before it’s too late.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
