- Is Iran seeking peace?…
- Going abroad in search of monsters…
- The income secret that could literally MAKE your retirement…
Dear Reader,
Is Tehran hoisting a flag of truce… and extending a hand of peace?
The Wall Street Journal:
- Iran has been urgently signaling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs, sending messages to Israel and the U.S. via Arab intermediaries, Middle Eastern and European officials said.
- In the midst of a ferocious Israeli air campaign, Tehran has told Arab officials it would be open to returning to the negotiating table as long as the U.S. doesn’t join the attack, the officials said. Iran also passed messages to Israel saying it is in the interest of both sides to keep the violence contained.
The Arab intermediaries Tehran has signaled are — reportedly — Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman.
My spies inform me the reports are likely accurate. It is my sincere wish that they are.
As Sir Churchill did not actually say:
“To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.”
Let’s Make a Deal
Iran does benefit from protracted warfare with Israel — much less the United States.
Nor does Israel benefit from protracted warfare with Iran.
Both nations could simply walk away at this early stage, honors roughly even.
Israel has drawn greater blood, it is true. Yet Iran has drawn its portion.
Should subsequent negotiations fail, the two can regather their lances… and resume the joust.
Global financial markets anticipate that peace will in fact prevail.
Stocks were up and away yesterday, aloft on dove’s wings.
The safe havens of gold and oil, contrarily, absorbed substantial blows as peace prospects glowed brighter.
Meantime, online wagering platform Kalshi gives nearly 50% odds that the United States and Iran will shake upon a nuclear agreement this year.
Never before have Kalshi’s odds neared 50%.
“We Will Have PEACE, Soon”
President Trump is himself hopeful of peace — and eager to accept applause for it:
- Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal… we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place. I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that’s OK, the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!
A fellow can hope. Yet I hazard the Middle East will remain far from great for some time at least.
My central concern is not the welfare of the Middle East. My central concern is the welfare of the United States.
And I do not believe excessive involvement in the Middle East advances the welfare of the United States.
It has ensnared the United States in ancient hatreds… and manufactured enemies where none had previously existed.
It has imperiled something of the American soul.
The Wisdom of J.Q. Adams
America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy,” said Adams (John Quincy) in 1821.
He continued:
- She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own…
- She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.
- The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force… She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit…
The American founders had studied their history… and knew well the pitfalls of empire.
Going Abroad in Search of Monsters
Yet the once modest American Republic took up the hunt for monsters at the end of the 19th century.
It found its first monster in fiendish Spain.
Americans remembered the Maine. And they forgot their Adams.
They have been forgetting their Adams ever since.
The United States has gone buccaneering around the globe, chasing down monsters.
Several have been located in the Middle East.
For each monster it scotched, another rose in its place.
There is always another. And another. And yet another.
Yet it is in the logic of empire.
An Empire Is an Empire
And the United States is an empire of sorts — though none dare say the word.
It differs in form from empires before it. Yet not in substance.
It performs the identical functions.
As far as empires run, the American empire is a rather benign empire.
And to their everlasting credit, Americans are poor imperialists.
We are a restless, fitful people. We are eternally on the jump. We are forever hunting the next opportunity, perpetually peeking over the next hill.
That is, Americans lack the patience required of empire.
A Foregone Conclusion
Is the American empire — such as it is — in decline?
I hazard it is.
“Empires have a logic of their own,” wrote authors Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin in Empire of Debt, concluding:
“That they will end in grief is a foregone conclusion.”
It would appear so.
Assume the American empire ends in grief.
I pray merely for a quiet grief, a whimpering grief — not a banging grief — and certainly not a banging grief emanating from the Middle East.
Brian Maher
for Freedom Financial News
