The Mother of All Battles of Rouhani

If Saddam Hussein were alive, he could hold Hassan Rouhani accountable and ask him to honor the trust of words. Saddam could claim that he was the one who first used the term 'Mother of All Battles' in reference to the war in the Middle East; and he would be right. Saddam's battle and Bush's Desert Storm were named 'Desert Storm' for the war to liberate Kuwait, and it was Saddam who, in a loud speech in August 1991, called this war the 'Mother of All Battles.' Just search for 'Mother of All Battles' on Google, and immediately, this famous five-minute speech by Saddam appears on YouTube, along with countless comments from Arab listeners worldwide that still have no end. Not only in the superficial meaning but even in the deeper sense, Saddam was right. Since then, the Middle East has been caught in a chain of devastating wars, with no end in sight. Now it is Hassan Rouhani who has stepped into Saddam's shoes and speaks of another 'Mother of All Battles' and warns. This comes just a day after Ayatollah Khamenei implicitly praised Rouhani's position in Europe by referring to the 'blocking of the Strait of Hormuz.' In a new threat, Hassan Rouhani announces, 'We have many straits; the Strait of Hormuz is just one of them.' He calls any negotiation with the U.S. under current conditions 'a policy of surrender' and states that the U.S. has declared war on Iran. Is it really true that the U.S. is seeking a direct war with Iran? Does Donald Trump want to do to Khamenei and Rouhani what George Bush did to Saddam? The excessive repetition of famous phrases and wise words is tedious. However, sometimes there is no escape. I refer here to the famous quote by Karl Marx in 'The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,' where he says: Hegel once said that all events and historical figures appear twice. But he forgot to add that once it appears as tragedy, and the second time as farce. Apparently, these days we are witnessing another farce. What greater farce is there than Hassan Rouhani not only repeating Saddam Hussein's bravado verbatim but also placing Donald Trump, who has repeatedly stated that past U.S. wars have all been futile, in the role of George Bush? No one knows if a war between the U.S. and Iran is truly imminent. There may be influential individuals in Washington at the highest levels of decision-making who are nurturing such scenarios, but it cannot yet be said with certainty that the U.S. is planning a war against Iran. It is also true that both Iran and the U.S. are preparing themselves as best they can for a rainy day. Speculation in this regard leads nowhere, especially since many major wars have not occurred with precise prior planning but rather accidentally and due to unforeseen incidents. For instance, World War I is considered an unintended war that ultimately embroiled all European powers due to a chain of unpredictable events. The last incident that finally ignited this war was the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire by a Serbian nationalist. Today, it is similar; the necessary tensions between Iran and the U.S. and its regional allies are many, and any unexpected incident could lead to a full-scale war. For example, if a military confrontation occurs in the Persian Gulf between the IRGC's speedboats and the U.S. Navy. Why has Rouhani turned to confrontational rhetoric following Khamenei? Does he want to showcase the unity of the government and the regime? The answer to this question can be sought in the dark and countless corners of power in Iran, places that are inaccessible to us. We are still at the beginning of the cycle of verbal violence. The real and verbal victims of war are the people of Iran. After Hassan Rouhani's speech and threats to the U.S., the price of currency and gold once again surged. The dollar price in Tehran on Sunday approached 9,000 tomans, and gold reached over 3 million and 200 thousand tomans. The dangerous cycle of verbal threats between Iran and the U.S. reaches a new stage every day. On Sunday, the U.S. Secretary of State is set to speak to Iranians in Los Angeles, and Reuters reported on the same day about a detailed propaganda plan against Iran that the U.S. intends to implement worldwide in the coming weeks and months. And this is just the beginning. The hard and unprecedented sanctions that Trump promised have not yet been implemented. It seems like two unbraked trains are rapidly approaching each other on the same track. Rouhani has repeatedly stated that he is not a reformist. Apparently, these days he has also bid farewell to moderation and prudence, which were his main slogans; at least in words. But an unexpected accident could turn this rhetoric into a catastrophic disaster or, as Rouhani borrowed from Saddam, into new 'Mother of All Battles.'