By Drago Bosnic<\/p>\n
Doing anything in your power to defeat an opponent is\u00a0the very definition of total war<\/a>. This entails everything from\u00a0sabotage<\/a>\u00a0and terrorist attacks\u00a0targeting civilians<\/a>\u00a0to assassinating your adversary\u2019s top-ranking officials (or even the leaders themselves). Obviously, there\u2019s also the possibility of direct war, including the usage of weapons of mass destruction (thermonuclear,\u00a0biological<\/a>, chemical). Conducting any of the aforementioned operations can easily escalate and lead to the latter. This is precisely why there\u2019s the institution of diplomacy, a millennia-old practice that has been respected by\u00a0all of the world\u2019s civilizations<\/a>\u00a0(obviously,\u00a0this automatically excludes the modern-day political West<\/a>). Nazi Germany was one of the first modern nations that stopped honoring any diplomatic agreements, effectively\u00a0reverting (geo)politics to a rather barbaric competition<\/a>\u00a0where everything is permitted at all times.<\/p>\n NATO, essentially its descendant<\/a>, continued this practice.\u00a0To this day<\/a>\u00a0there\u2019s not a single agreement that the belligerent alliance signed\u00a0that is worth more than the paper it was written on<\/a>. The United States, as NATO\u2019s leading member, fully embraced this approach and is now conducting its\u00a0aggression against the world<\/a>\u00a0in a way that could be described as a\u00a0crawling total war<\/a>. The\u00a0warmongers in Washington DC<\/a>\u00a0and the Pentagon are\u00a0openly talking about the so-called \u201cdecapitation strikes\u201d<\/a>\u00a0on countries they don\u2019t like, including\u00a0military superpowers<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0the ability<\/a>\u00a0to simply wipe the US itself\u00a0off the map<\/a>. Former\u00a0CIA directors<\/a>\u00a0and high-ranking officials,\u00a0as well as sitting senators<\/a>, are openly talking about\u00a0\u201ctaking out\u201d powerful global leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a>. This was happening even at times when\u00a0the latter was offering negotiations and mutually beneficial peaceful settlements<\/a>.<\/p>\n The obvious question arises \u2013 if someone is openly threatening a person like Putin, who else could possibly feel safe in such a world? This question becomes all the more relevant if we take into account the latest events concerning the\u00a0assassination attempt on Slovakia\u2019s Prime Minister Robert Fico<\/a>\u00a0and the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a highly controversial helicopter crash. On May 19, Raisi and his Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian both died when their Bell 212 went down near the city of Varzaqan in northwestern Iran. Seven other high-ranking officials, including the governor-general of Tehran\u2019s East Azerbaijan province Malek Rahmati, as well as the state representative in the region Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, were also killed in the crash. Although it\u2019s still too early to say what exactly happened, some rather disturbing reports and details suggest that this wasn\u2019t a mere accident.<\/p>\n The mainstream propaganda machine\u2019s reaction to the assassination attempt on PM Fico and the death of President Raisi also raises serious concerns. Both the\u00a0British Sky News<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Financial Times<\/a>\u00a0published reports where they effectively tried to justify the terrorist who attempted to murder PM Fico, while the state-run BBC called the death of Raisi tragic, but still\u00a0didn\u2019t miss pointing out that he was supposedly \u201chardline\u201d<\/a>. These incidents are highly beneficial to the political West, which fuels speculation about the possibility of its involvement in both cases.\u00a0Fico was always highly critical of NATO\u2019s crawling aggression on Russia<\/a>, insisting that Slovakia doesn\u2019t want to take part in it, while Raisi was a capable leader and also highly respected in the multipolar world. His and the death of\u00a0Iran\u2019s veteran diplomat Abdollahian<\/a>\u00a0is definitely a huge setback for Tehran, one that its adversaries will surely try to capitalize on.<\/p>\n The highly controversial details about the crash certainly haven\u2019t helped dispel speculation about the possible foreign involvement. For instance,\u00a0according to Turkey\u2019s Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu<\/a>, the Bell 212 helicopter that Raisi and Abdollahian flew in either didn\u2019t have its emergency signal transmission system turned on or didn\u2019t have one at all. It\u2019s highly unusual that an aircraft transporting such top-ranking officials wouldn\u2019t have a functioning system that could possibly prevent incidents like this, which further suggests that it could\u2019ve been sabotaged. A malfunction is always a possibility and certainly shouldn\u2019t be rejected entirely, but there are other peculiarities that suggest foul play. For example,\u00a0relevant military sources report<\/a>\u00a0about an unusual arrival of a USAF C-130 aircraft to Azerbaijan that coincided with President Raisi\u2019s departure from the border area where he met his Azeri counterpart, President Ilham Aliyev.<\/p>\n There\u2019s speculation that\u00a0electronic warfare (EW) systems<\/a>\u00a0could\u2019ve been used to crash the helicopter. As Raisi was flown in a US-made Bell 212, which Iran acquired in large numbers back in the 1970s, this surely wouldn\u2019t be a problem for Washington DC. Its services are quite familiar with the helicopter\u2019s avionics, including the aforementioned emergency system. Bell 212\u2019s reputation as a highly reliable aircraft is yet another unusual detail that suggests this wasn\u2019t exactly accidental. It should be noted that Iran itself is yet to accuse anyone of this. However, this is hardly enough to dispel such rumors, as Tehran would certainly want to avoid acquiring the reputation of not being able to protect its leaders and top-ranking officials. Iran has had numerous problems with its adversaries targeting high-ranking military officers and even its embassies, with the latest such incident resulting in a direct response.<\/p>\n However, targeting Raisi directly would be an unprecedented\u00a0act of escalation<\/a>\u00a0that, if proven to be true, could prompt the Middle Eastern superpower to speed up its nuclear program. With the deployment of extremely low-yield warheads such as the 2-7 kt W76-2,\u00a0the US is already trying to bait Iran into a \u201climited\u201d nuclear war<\/a>. Tehran has already demonstrated willingness to target America\u2019s allies in the region, including Israel, which saw Iran\u2019s retaliation for its strike on the latter\u2019s embassy in Damascus. The country would certainly react far more resolutely in case a person of Raisi\u2019s caliber was assassinated. Namely, many expected him to succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, so this fact alone would surely make Raisi a strategic asset of Iran, and thus, a prime target for its adversaries. The late president was also extremely important for\u00a0the rapidly growing multipolar world<\/a>, making his death all the more important for\u00a0those who want to slow it down<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n