Blood and oil
In just one week, you out there at your devices will be asked to believe the following:
In Venezuela, the leader must be overthrown because he is a dictator, while in Iran, the son of a dictator must be brought to power, and the power dynamics in Greenland will fundamentally change without a single actor suspected of dictatorship being involved.
By Martin Sonneborn
In Venezuela, the leader must be overthrown because he is a dictator, while in Iran, the son of a dictator must be brought to power, and the power dynamics in Greenland will fundamentally change without a single actor suspected of dictatorship being involved.
By Martin Sonneborn
The mainstream media thinks it's possible to present you with these contradictory viewpoints simultaneously--assuming you won't notice that what's being defended here isn't "democracy" or "freedom," but blatant imperialism.
Don't ask why the same people who always advocated for the wearing of hijabs in the EU are vehemently opposed to it in Iran. Don't ask why the same people who never gave a single line to the lives and deaths of Lebanese, Syrians, Kurds, Druze, Alawites, and Palestinians suddenly discover an urgent compassion for the inhabitants of West Asia. And don't even ask how it's possible that the very same people who systematically restrict fundamental rights and democratic freedoms in the EU can present themselves elsewhere as idealistic humanists for rights they don't respect in their own "democracies" and with their own citizens.
In George Orwell's parlance, this is called "coherence," logical consistency.
Equally coherent is the sudden surge of media enthusiasm for an Iranian clone prince who could (just as easily) have come from the political lineage of Franco, Pinochet, or Mussolini, and who was chosen far less by the Iranian people themselves than by Trump and Netanyahu, the CIA and Mossad, to lead what is now the third pseudo-monarchical, pseudo-democratic puppet regime in Iran.
British and American colonial exploiters have always been so concerned with democracy in Iran that they have been working for over 100 years to thoroughly destroy it. In 1921, the British successfully installed Reza Khan, the former commander of the Persian Cossack Brigade, as ruler, thus securing the British Anglo-Persian Oil Company the desired access to the local oil reserves.
When the (democratically!) elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh decided in 1951 to nationalize Iran's oil reserves and seize the lucrative Anglo-Iranian Oil Company from the British through expropriation, he went from being Time magazine's celebrated "Man of the Year" (who had beaten Churchill and Eisenhower) to a pariah overnight.
After Eisenhower's election, the (as today) boastful but impotent British secret service, which did not dare to carry out the coup alone, was able to persuade the CIA to participate. In "Operation Ajax" (also no joke!), led by Kermit Roosevelt (no joke!), Mossadegh was overthrown in 1953 and replaced by the father of the current hereditary clone prince: the hereditary dictator Reza Shah Pahlavi, who used the notorious secret police SAVAK, torture prisons, repression (and the cheers of his loyal Persian supporters) to secure power for himself and grant Anglophone profiteers access to Iranian oil.
(Incidentally, the same Shah's visit to Berlin in 1967 led to the murder of Benno Ohnesorg and the subsequent course of West German history, but let's leave that aside.)
The British renamed their operation an "ecologically responsible" gas station chain called "BP" and, in return for the successful coup, had to hand over half of their profits to the Americans. For the next 25 years, the parties involved divided the profits. The spoils of the Iranian mafia: 40% for BP, 40% for US oil cronies, 20% for the Shah.
Today's Iran and its current government emerged from a revolution that sought to overthrow the Shah dictatorship, installed by the US at the instigation of Great Britain. In the current "mullah regime," "the West" is thus confronting the preliminary end result of its own violations of international law, its illegal interference, brutal regime-change operations, and short-sighted coups.
Values, coherence--so important.
Just as important and coherent as the latest edition of the "Values Guide for (clueless) Commission Presidents," which finally brings some order to the still somewhat confusing "Middle East" for the descendants of colonizers.
Democratically illegitimate authoritarian regimes that "we" support:
- Saudi Arabia
- Catarrh (including the associated Gates scandal, see EU Parliament corruption)
- Bar-rein
- Onan
- United Arab Emirates Autocracy
- Jordan (EU funds for "security" & "economic resilience": EUR3 billion)
- IS Syria (EU funds for "reconstruction": EUR630 million)
Democratically legitimized authoritarian regimes that "we" do NOT support:
- Iran
You see: When the US & its allies describe the world, "dictator" always refers to the actor who refuses to submit to Western economic and power interests, which is why the term is never applied to military juntas, autocrats, gamblers, butchers, theocratic or other crackpots who are "allied" with Washington.
Values carnival, dictator conga line! Don't even ask about coherence.
And if you knowIf you're wondering why your political representatives have for decades only ever warmed to popular uprisings that aren't directed against them personally, but never to the French Yellow Vests, Polish farmers, Belgian pensioners, the poor throughout the EU, or pacifists, then let someone who must have known the answer remind you:
"The existing parliamentary system is useless. We have no representatives in our parliament who express the interests of our people--the real interests of our people."
Rudi Dutschke
January 15, 2026
©Martin Sonneborn
Martin Hans Sonneborn (born May 15, 1965, in Göttingen) is a German satirist, journalist, and politician (Die PARTEI). He was editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Titanic. Since the founding of Die PARTEI, he has been its chairman and, since 2014, a Member of the European Parliament.
LINK TO THE NEW BOOK
Don't ask why the same people who always advocated for the wearing of hijabs in the EU are vehemently opposed to it in Iran. Don't ask why the same people who never gave a single line to the lives and deaths of Lebanese, Syrians, Kurds, Druze, Alawites, and Palestinians suddenly discover an urgent compassion for the inhabitants of West Asia. And don't even ask how it's possible that the very same people who systematically restrict fundamental rights and democratic freedoms in the EU can present themselves elsewhere as idealistic humanists for rights they don't respect in their own "democracies" and with their own citizens.
In George Orwell's parlance, this is called "coherence," logical consistency.
Equally coherent is the sudden surge of media enthusiasm for an Iranian clone prince who could (just as easily) have come from the political lineage of Franco, Pinochet, or Mussolini, and who was chosen far less by the Iranian people themselves than by Trump and Netanyahu, the CIA and Mossad, to lead what is now the third pseudo-monarchical, pseudo-democratic puppet regime in Iran.
British and American colonial exploiters have always been so concerned with democracy in Iran that they have been working for over 100 years to thoroughly destroy it. In 1921, the British successfully installed Reza Khan, the former commander of the Persian Cossack Brigade, as ruler, thus securing the British Anglo-Persian Oil Company the desired access to the local oil reserves.
When the (democratically!) elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh decided in 1951 to nationalize Iran's oil reserves and seize the lucrative Anglo-Iranian Oil Company from the British through expropriation, he went from being Time magazine's celebrated "Man of the Year" (who had beaten Churchill and Eisenhower) to a pariah overnight.
After Eisenhower's election, the (as today) boastful but impotent British secret service, which did not dare to carry out the coup alone, was able to persuade the CIA to participate. In "Operation Ajax" (also no joke!), led by Kermit Roosevelt (no joke!), Mossadegh was overthrown in 1953 and replaced by the father of the current hereditary clone prince: the hereditary dictator Reza Shah Pahlavi, who used the notorious secret police SAVAK, torture prisons, repression (and the cheers of his loyal Persian supporters) to secure power for himself and grant Anglophone profiteers access to Iranian oil.
(Incidentally, the same Shah's visit to Berlin in 1967 led to the murder of Benno Ohnesorg and the subsequent course of West German history, but let's leave that aside.)
The British renamed their operation an "ecologically responsible" gas station chain called "BP" and, in return for the successful coup, had to hand over half of their profits to the Americans. For the next 25 years, the parties involved divided the profits. The spoils of the Iranian mafia: 40% for BP, 40% for US oil cronies, 20% for the Shah.
Today's Iran and its current government emerged from a revolution that sought to overthrow the Shah dictatorship, installed by the US at the instigation of Great Britain. In the current "mullah regime," "the West" is thus confronting the preliminary end result of its own violations of international law, its illegal interference, brutal regime-change operations, and short-sighted coups.
Values, coherence--so important.
Just as important and coherent as the latest edition of the "Values Guide for (clueless) Commission Presidents," which finally brings some order to the still somewhat confusing "Middle East" for the descendants of colonizers.
Democratically illegitimate authoritarian regimes that "we" support:
- Saudi Arabia
- Catarrh (including the associated Gates scandal, see EU Parliament corruption)
- Bar-rein
- Onan
- United Arab Emirates Autocracy
- Jordan (EU funds for "security" & "economic resilience": EUR3 billion)
- IS Syria (EU funds for "reconstruction": EUR630 million)
Democratically legitimized authoritarian regimes that "we" do NOT support:
- Iran
You see: When the US & its allies describe the world, "dictator" always refers to the actor who refuses to submit to Western economic and power interests, which is why the term is never applied to military juntas, autocrats, gamblers, butchers, theocratic or other crackpots who are "allied" with Washington.
Values carnival, dictator conga line! Don't even ask about coherence.
And if you knowIf you're wondering why your political representatives have for decades only ever warmed to popular uprisings that aren't directed against them personally, but never to the French Yellow Vests, Polish farmers, Belgian pensioners, the poor throughout the EU, or pacifists, then let someone who must have known the answer remind you:
"The existing parliamentary system is useless. We have no representatives in our parliament who express the interests of our people--the real interests of our people."
Rudi Dutschke
January 15, 2026
©Martin Sonneborn
Martin Hans Sonneborn (born May 15, 1965, in Göttingen) is a German satirist, journalist, and politician (Die PARTEI). He was editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Titanic. Since the founding of Die PARTEI, he has been its chairman and, since 2014, a Member of the European Parliament.
LINK TO THE NEW BOOK
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