<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">If only this message could be printed in the NYT or the WaPo…. Brilliant take down .<br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">From: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">Caitlin Johnstone <<a href="mailto:donotreply@wordpress.com" class="">donotreply@wordpress.com</a>><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><b class="">[New post] “Iran Must Begin Acting Like A Normal Nation,” Says Totally Normal Nation</b><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">Date: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">January 12, 2020 at 9:20:15 PM CST<br class=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b class="">To: </b></span><span style="font-family: -webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><a href="mailto:mkb3@mac.com" class="">mkb3@mac.com</a><br class=""></span></div><br class=""><div class=""><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#DDDDDD" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; 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background-color: rgb(67, 164, 208); height: 8px; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;"><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td class=""></td></tr></tbody></table><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="subscribe-header" style="width: 600px; color: rgb(0, 136, 204); font-size: 1.6em; background-color: rgb(239, 239, 239); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td class=""><h2 class="subscribe-title" style="line-height: 1; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(70, 70, 70); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; padding: 0px; font-size: 16px !important; margin: 5px 20px !important;">New post on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong class="">Caitlin Johnstone</strong></h2></td><td style="text-align: right;" class=""><img border="0" class="head-avatar" src="https://i1.wp.com/caitlinjohnstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/cropped-caitlinpic1.jpg?resize=32%2C32&ssl=1" alt="" width="32" height="32" style="margin: 5px 20px 5px 0px; vertical-align: middle;"></td></tr></tbody></table><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="20" bgcolor="#ffffff" style="width: 600px;" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td class=""><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="width: 560px;" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td valign="top" class="the-post"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="width: 560px;" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td style="white-space: nowrap; vertical-align: top; width: 60px !important;" class=""><a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/?author=2" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178); display: block; margin-right: 10px;" class=""><img border="0" alt="" src="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/12152988a68a6d4dae7506812444c18f?s=50&d=monsterid&r=G" class="avatar avatar-50" height="50" width="50"></a></td><td class=""><h2 class="post-title" style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); margin: 0px; font-size: 20px;"><a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/01/13/iran-must-begin-acting-like-a-normal-nation-says-totally-normal-nation/" style="text-decoration: none !important; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">“Iran Must Begin Acting Like A Normal Nation,” Says Totally Normal Nation</a></h2><span style="color: rgb(136, 136, 136);" class="">by<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/?author=2" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(136, 136, 136) !important;" class="">Caitlin Johnstone</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="post-content" style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 1em; max-width: 560px;"><div style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class=""> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">The government which runs a globe-spanning empire led by a reality TV host keeps talking about the lack of normality in the nation of Iran.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">"What we want all countries to join in,"<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/1216487635763519500" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">said</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus in a recent Fox News interview, "is to help us not only to de-escalate any tensions with Iran, but to help us bring Iran to a place where they are ready to stop their terrorist and malign behavior, and where they are ready to discuss with the United States, with Europe, with everyone, about how they can change their behavior to act like a normal nation."</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">"We want Iran to simply behave like a normal nation," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1215665270951419915" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">said</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in a press statement the other day. "We believe that the sanctions we imposed today further that strategic objective."</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">These would be the additional sanctions which have been expanded to include<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/we-want-iran-behave-normal-nation-us-imposes-sanctions-virtually-entire-iran-economy" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">virtually the entire Iranian economy</a>, deliberately targeting Iran's<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/starvation-sanctions-are-worse-than-overt-warfare-b52604b53290" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">already sanction-starved populace</a>, with the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1216179230788046849?s=20" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">explicit goal of fomenting a civil war</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in that nation.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">Which is of course a perfectly normal thing to do, from a perfectly normal nation.</p><div class="embed-twitter" style="direction: ltr;"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="420" data-dnt="true" style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: italic; color: rgb(135, 135, 135); border-left-width: 3px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1em; margin: 1em 1em 1em 2em;"><p lang="en" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">.<a href="https://twitter.com/statedeptspox?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">@StateDeptSPOX</a>: We want all countries to join us in encouraging<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Iran?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">#Iran</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to behave like a normal nation.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://t.co/XvnG8x0YZ8" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">pic.twitter.com/XvnG8x0YZ8</a></p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">— Department of State (@StateDept)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/1216487635763519500?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">January 12, 2020</a></p></blockquote></div><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">This would be the same Iran whose cultural heritage sites were<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/threat-destroy-heritage-sites-akin-cultural-genocide-experts/story?id=68144819" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">threatened with destruction</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>if it retaliated for the totally normal assassination of its top military official via flying robot. The same Iran whose financial system was just<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/11/trump-administration-warns-iraq-could-lose-new-york-fed-account-wsj.html" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">threatened with destruction</a> using the totally normal hegemony of American central banking. Perfectly normal, perfectly healthy.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">So what can Iran do to become a "normal nation"? Well, since it's the United States making this demand, we can safely assume that it's the model Iran should look to.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">In order to become a normal nation, Iran will need to expand its interests from the region and begin toppling noncompliant governments and invading nations all around the world.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">In order to become a normal nation, Iran will need to circle the planet with hundreds of Iranian military bases.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">In order to become a normal nation, Iran will need to become the most dominant military, economic and cultural force in the world, and then use that dominance to destroy any government, political party, ideology, faction, movement or person who stands in its way.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">In order to become a normal nation, Iran will need to arm violent extremist factions all around the world with the goal of eliminating all governments that refuse to bow to its interests.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">In order to become a normal nation, Iran will need to become the dominant producer of films, music and TV shows and use this influence to propagandize its power structure's ideology to every possible cultural sphere.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">In order to become a normal nation, Iran will need to begin meddling in scores of democratic elections all around the world and then crying for years at the possibility of any nation returning the favor.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">In order to become a normal nation, Iran will need to shore up economic control of the world so that it can crush any sort of disobedience by starving civilians and depriving them of medical care while pretending that it's a force for peace.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">In order to become a normal nation, Iran will need to indefinitely occupy a vast region on the other side of the planet with thousands upon thousands of troops and trillions of dollars in military equipment to no benefit of a single ordinary Iranian.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">In order to become a normal nation, Iran will need to create a presidency led by a reality TV star oligarch who is only supported because Iran's populace is so disgusted with the status quo of their government.</p><div class="embed-twitter" style="direction: ltr;"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="420" data-dnt="true" style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: italic; color: rgb(135, 135, 135); border-left-width: 3px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1em; margin: 1em 1em 1em 2em;"><p lang="en" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">Sec. of State Mike Pompeo: "The goal of our campaign is to deny the regime the resource to conduct its destructive foreign policy. We want Iran to simply behave like a normal nation. We believe the sanctions that we impose today further that strategic objective."<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://t.co/f4Wz0c1q9r" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">pic.twitter.com/f4Wz0c1q9r</a></p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/1215665270951419915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(37, 133, 178);" class="">January 10, 2020</a></p></blockquote></div><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">I am kidding, of course. The US government does not want Iran to become like the US. The US government does not want<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em class="">any</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>nation to become like the US. The US likes its abnormality among nations just the way it is, thank you very much. The US is the exception to all its own rules. That's how American exceptionalism works. This is one of those "do as I say, not as I do" situations.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">The US doesn't want Iran to be like America. The US wants Iran to be like the other nations which have allowed themselves to be absorbed into the blob of the US-centralized empire.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">The US would be perfectly happy for Iran to begin acting like Saudi Arabia: arming terrorist factions, beheading heretics, committing war crimes and deliberately creating humanitarian disasters for geostrategic convenience, yet aligning fully with US military, financial, and resource control agendas.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">The US would be perfectly happy for Iran to begin acting like Israel: a nuclear-armed military outpost which constantly bombs adjacent nations, interferes in the US and other nations' politics to shore up support, works toward the slow extermination of its indigenous population and fires upon protesters with live ammunition.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">The US would be perfectly happy for Iran to begin acting like Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand or the EU: obedient military/intelligence assets who function as extra American states when it comes to foreign policy and international affairs.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">That is what the US means by acting "normal". Not acting moral. Not acting healthy. Certainly not acting like the US. It means acting obedient, compliant, and enslaved.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">Which is precisely what Iran is resisting.</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class="">________________________</p><p style="direction: ltr; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 1em;" class=""><em class="">Thanks for reading! 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