The specter of a Russian-Iranian strategic coalition bridging through Afghanistan has haunted Western imperialists for almost two centuries. The current U.S. view dates back to Carter’s 1980 State of the Union speech, when he warned

Iranian leaders that “the real danger to their nation lies in the north, in the Soviet Union and from the Soviet troops now in Afghanistan....” He continued:

“The region which is now threatened by Soviet troops in Afghanistan is of great strategic importance: It contains more than two-thirds of the world’s exportable oil. The Soviet effort to dominate Afghanistan has brought Soviet military forces to within 300 miles of the Indian Ocean and close to the Straits of Hormuz, through which most of the world’s oil must flow. [Editor’s note: The straits are a 35-mile-wide passage between Iran and U.S.-armed Oman.] The Soviet Union is now attempting to consolidate a strategic position, therefore, that poses a grave threat to the free movement of Middle East oil.... An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”

Carter was essentially declaring the same war that Obama is now waging in Iraq and Afghanistan — and that will logically expand into Iran.

Iran: Missing Cornerstone of U.S.-U.K. Energy Empire

Third in the world in oil reserves and second in natural gas, Iran commands key Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea supply routes. Allied control of the “Persian Corridor” and its underlying crude helped the U.S. and the Soviet Union defeat the Nazis in World War II. In 1953, after Iran elected a Soviet-tilting government, President Mossadegh threatened to nationalize the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Shortly, a CIA-led coup placed the dictatorial Shah on the throne. Anglo-Iranian, now called British Petroleum, remained in Iran, but only as a junior partner to U.S. giant Exxon-Mobil’s forerunners.

For decades, the Pentagon armed the Shah’s regime, which served the U.S. both as an oil source and a hired gun protecting the eastern flank of the Mid-east treasure trove, with grand prize Saudi Arabia at its center. Israel policed the western side.  In 1979, two events brought this regional racket crashing down. The Soviets, by then fully capitalist and imperialist, invaded Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Iranian Islamist nationalists, backed by the pro-Soviet, phony communist Tudeh party, deposed the Shah.

The U.S. countered both militarily and ideologically. In Afghanistan, Washington supported anti-Soviet Islamic warriors, ultimately the base of al Qaeda and the Taliban. Jimmy Carter declared that the Mid-east was of vital U.S. interest (see box above), meaning that Exxon Mobil’s exclusive oil and gas rights would be defended by U.S. troops. Carter launched the Navy’s Persian Gulf Rapid Deployment Force, which has grown into the Pentagon’s Central Command. Today CENTCOM, with the slaughter of millions of Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis under its belt, has the mandate to plan and execute future assaults on Iran.

Back in 1979, U.S. rulers demonized Iran’s new Islamist regime by provoking the “hostage crisis.” David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger brought the ailing ex-Shah to New York for medical treatment, knowing full well that it would trigger a response in Teheran. Outraged Iranian militants retaliated by taking hostage 50 U.S. diplomats and spies at the U.S. embassy. As a result, Iran’s mullah-Tudeh alliance was branded as a terrorist rogue state — a label that clings to the clerics to this day and will serve to justify a possible U.S. invasion.