A Tennessee Tech Political Science Professor said the weekend’s attacks on Iran will likely escalate tensions in the Middle East region.
Dr. Michael Gunter said the United States and Iran have had animosity toward one another since Iran’s democratic government was overthrown in 1953.
“It’s escalating,” Gunter said. “I don’t know how far it will escalate, but anytime you have this situation, it is in danger of pulling in more countries.”
Gunter said Iran is different than most of it’s middle eastern counterparts as it is predominantly Shia Islam, which has had a history of martyrdom and feeling marginalized by their enemies.
Gunter said on the other hand, though Iran’s current regime had a lot of support 40 years ago, he wonders if the regime has truly become unpopular with its people.
“I’ve seen all kinds of numbers, 30,000 Iranians were killed just in January protesting the government,” Gunter said. “I wonder to what extent maybe there is a real animosity towards the regime in Iran on the part of Iranians, and can the United States somehow get the Iranians to overthrow their own government? Our history on that is not that good, everyone is being told. On the other hand, look at what the United States did in World War II. We basically overthrew the Nazi government and the Japanese imperial government and helped create two of our best friends in world affairs right now, Germany and Japan.”
Gunter said the American government is not very popular in the Middle East despite having many allies.
“The United States is looked upon by many in the Middle East as the successor to British and French imperialism, which divided the Middle East after World War I and exploited the Middle East for its oil resources and various other geostrategic, geopolitical ambitions on the part of the United States,” Gunter said. “So there are reasons for why many in the Middle East do not like the United States. We certainly do have some friends in the United States, but our main friend is Israel. And, as you know, Israel is opposed by most Middle Eastern states on the grounds that Israel was founded by taking away Muslim land in 1948, when the state of Israel was created.”
According to reports, six Americans have been killed so far in retaliation by Iran. Gunter said attacks over the weekend in some definiton has already started a war.
“The last time Congress declared war, I wasn’t even born,” Gunter said. “That was in December 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, the last time the U.S. Congress declared war. But don’t tell me we haven’t had a war since then.”
