For Pompeo a “Normal Nation” Is an Attack Dog of the Empire

Night club bouncer Mike Pompeo has demanded Iran starts behaving “like a normal nation” “just like Norway”. Just how normal is Norway? Answer:

Norway is a member of NATO and has close ties to the United States and Great Britain. The political, economic and bureaucratic elites are firmly integrated in transatlantic networks, a nexus of economic connections, think tanks, international institutions, media and a thousand other ties that bind.

They tend to identify with the liberal wing of the empire, (i.e. the Democrats, not the Republicans), but will work with any US administration.

The members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee are selected by the Norwegian parliament, and the Committee is nominally independent.

Despite being considered – and where the population considers itself – a ‘peace nation’, there are few countries that have eagerly joined more wars than Norway, from the attack on Yugoslavia in 1999, Afghanistan 2001, the occupation of Iraq, Mali, Libya 2011 and the ongoing occupation of Syria.

Norway spends large sums of money supporting the joint Western effort to control the rest of the world through comprador intermediaries in non-governmental organizations.

Aha, so this “normal nation” has joined in the attack on Yugoslavia in 1999 and on Libya in 2011, has participated in the occupation of Iraq, and is still participating in the occupation of Afghanistan.

Even more useful for the Empire its Atlanticists elites are only too eager to prop up the Empire in diplomatic, moral and propaganda spheres.

This isn’t the resume of a normal nation but one of America’s auxiliary attack dogs.

It will be much preferable if Iran stays what it is, a normal and independent country, a rarity in our world.

“We just want Iran to behave like a normal nation. Just be like Norway," says @SecPompeo, in speech to Stanford students at @HooverInst. He says US strategy is to reestablish "real deterrence" against the Iranian regime. pic.twitter.com/h8TSomjhx3

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) January 13, 2020