Political geographer and activist, Zoltán Grossman joins Allen Ruff to talk about the Israel-Iran-US war. They move beyond the mainstream media narratives and sanitized versions of history used to justify the US’s military engagement in the region. Grossman reminds listeners that 1953 was the beginning of the antagonism between the US and Iran and that the oil industry has always driven the US’s involvement in the Middle East.

Grossman also describes the development of anti-Muslim sentiment in the US, especially after 1979 and how this ideology has been used to sell the public on US military intervention, including it’s support of Iraq’s invasion of Iran. 

We also hear from callers who want to know more about the US’s history in the Middle East, how history is repeating itself, how recent events might ripple around the world, and more. Grossman says we have to be able to connect the wars abroad and the wars at home, from ICE raids to the US support of Israel.

Zoltán Grossman is a professor of geography and Native American and World Indigenous Peoples studies at The Evergreen State College. He is the author of several books, most recently Unlikely Alliances: Native Nations and White Communities Join to Defend Rural Lands (University of Washington Press, 2017).

Featured image of a petrochemical plant in Asaluyeh, Iran via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

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