Posted on 05/14/2018 5:17:05 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
Trump’s decision to renege on the nuclear deal was a terrible unforced error, and the process that led to that decision is no less worrisome:
Even if Mr. Mattis had wanted to fight for the deal, it is not clear how much he would have been heard. Mr. Bolton, officials said, never convened a high-level meeting of the National Security Council to air the debate [bold mine-DL]. He advised Mr. Trump in smaller sessions, otherwise keeping the door to his West Wing office closed. Mr. Bolton has forged a comfortable relationship with the president, several people said, channeling his “America First” vocabulary.
Bolton’s handling of the run-up to Trump’s decision on the nuclear deal shows that he isn’t interested in presenting a range of opposing views to the president and the president is content to let Bolton limit the information he receives. One of the reasons to be worried about having Bolton as National Security Advisor is that he will not be an honest broker when it comes to presenting the president with all the facts. That worry was obviously well-founded. Because Bolton is an ideologue and has extremely hard-line views on Iran in particular, he isn’t going to allow the president to hear views that contradict his own, and that means that Iran policy in particular and U.S. foreign policy in general is going to become more aggressive and ideologically-driven than they already were.
This is all the more disturbing because of reports that Bolton’s NSC is circulating plans to foment regime change in Iran:
The plan, authored by the Security Studies Group, or SSG, a national security think-tank that has close ties to senior White House national security officials, including National Security Adviser John Bolton, seeks to reshape longstanding American foreign policy toward Iran by emphasizing an explicit policy of regime change, something the Obama administration opposed when popular protests gripped Iran in 2009.
The regime change plan seeks to fundamentally shift U.S. policy towards Iran and has found a receptive audience in the Trump administration, which has been moving in this direction since Bolton—a longtime and vocal supporter of regime change—entered the White House.
It doesn’t come as a surprise that talk of regime change in Iran has increased since Bolton took office. Bolton is a longtime advocate for the Mujahideen-e Khalq, a deranged totalitarian cult that he would like to install as the next government of Iran, and he has made no secret of his desire to topple the Iranian government. It was just a matter of time before he started trying to make this official policy.
A better plan than destruction of the nation might be to try to moderate Iran's behavior and thereby leaving them as a factor opposimg terrorists like ISIS.
Foolishness
Fanatic Religious Ideologies can only be killed. The people must rise up and kill them
Revolution is the alternative to war
Its a very dangerous course as Patrick Buchanan has pointed out and Ann Coulter is none too pleased as well.
I did note vote for Donald J. Trump to get us involved in military actions against country after country like the former president Trump roundly criticized George W. Bush.
There ya go....... Pat is an archaic isolationist 1930’s style Republican who cannot function in the 21st century
BS and poppycock. You do not need to shiver in the corner any more.
Unfortunately you can’t fix stupid. Staying in a deal that the other party doesn’t adhere to and facilitating their development of a nuclear weapon is stupid. The nattering voices are either stupid or hoped we were stupid and didn’t see their secondary gains at America’s expense.
A modern “condemned out of their own mouths” scenario.
The regime change should have happened on Nov 6, 1979 after giving the Mullahs 24 hours to release our hostages. The Carter’s administration lack of action then caused the deaths and suffering of told innocent victims (Muslim, Christian, Jew, go down the list!). What the heck: “I’ll just build houses for Habitat for Humanity to show what a good guy I am.” Dante needs to return and write a new chapter to include a separate level of Hell for Carter/Obama (Hillary is already at the bottom level so we be cool there).
P.S. This post is not “Monday morning quarterbacking”. These were my thoughts as a USAF officer back in 1979.
Exactly. If I wanted a Sunni Muslim cabal in the White House I would have voted for Lindsey Graham or Jeb Bush.
What?
Trump's decision to leave Obama's horrible Iran deal which a. Virtually guaranteed that Iran ended up nuclear weapons
b. Left Iran free to continue sponsoring virtually every terrorist group known to man...
c.unfettered freedom to develop ballistic missile to carry their nuclear and other weapons to America
Etc etc was an “unforced error” by Trump?
On what planet is that?
Not to mention, regime change in Iran is not equal to US invading Iran.
What a stupid article.
"Renege?"
I don't think that word means what the author thinks it means.
Trump scrupulously observed the terms and spirit of the Obama agreement, even while the Iranians kept to the technical letter, but not the spirit--developing missile delivery technology and performing secret nuclear research at un-inspectable defense facilities. Trump bitched, but recertified the deal... until he decided not to.
Another thing: Since the Iranians never actually signed this agreement, it wasn't even an agreement--it was a one-sided pledge from Obama.
Conservatives, those with some perception capabilities are missing the point widely when they second guess Donald Trump.He is likely to accomplish successfully what he endeavors to do.Much oh the misperception is in determining what the goal actually is. It is not necessarily defined by DGT’s initial pronouncements. Donald is negotiating with his opponent with every word he speaks and every move he makes and he does not explain to his colleagues and the press what it all really means. The nation was and is at a critical point, an existential crux. Mr. Trump was injected into the mix as the only individual capable of saving the Republic. Trust his instincts and talents because if he cannot do it no one can and the nation dissolves into anarchy and internal war and/or iron tyranny, probably rapidly.
The infantile idiocy of this article is complete. It has zero intellectual merit.
I will put this in simple terms for the braid dead morons pushing this no-isolationist stupidity.
Iran gets the bomb, Saudi Arabia is going to get the bomb to protect itself
18% of the worlds oil and a good chunk of the worlds natural gas goes thur the Persian Gulf. Detonate a nuke anywhere around there and the world economy doesn’t just crash, it goes into great depression.
Contrary to the screaming ignorant infantile notions of the know nothing clown posse, the US is directly effected by the worlds economy. Unlike the clown posse, the rest of us actually want a better life for our kids and grand kids instead of them having to live the clown posse’s chosen lifestyle of living in Moms basement until their 70.
While I think an official policy of the U.S. acting directly and covertly to engineer regime change in Iran would be bad policy, because (a) it cannot be done secretly in Iran, it will be exposed and (b) the knowledge and recognition of it will be a giant negative to any Iranian movement that works with it. In short, it WILL backfire.
On the other hand, openly, diplomatically, in all the global media, we should provide public support and open encouragement of the Iranian movements seeking political change in Iran. And further, we should encourage our European allies to do the same. That will be enough encouragement for “regime change”. What we must show is we are for the people of Iran, not the Mullahs of Tehran.
Iran is ripe for Revolution. A combination of economic pressure, diplomatic isolation and aid to the anti Regime forces should do the trick.
Appeasement, which is what the Neo Isolationist advocate, has NEVER worked for the appeasers. It always emboldens your foes. Peace is brought by strength and resolve, not ass kissing you foes.
It not 1930 anymore. You cannot hide out in Moms basement wishing the rest of the world go away any more infants. You have to learn to deal with the World as it is, not as you fantasies it should be.
The Noe-Isolationists are very bit as intellectual dead as the screaming fools on the Left. They live in a bubble world reality that has never existed and simple scream hysterically when you try to point the inconvenient facts out to them
It is a day for drinking the tears of "palaeos!"
This demand for change is being instigated by the conflict with Israel. We need to let Israel fight their own damn wars. They kick the hornets nest, let them, and them alone, deal with it.
You’ve been fooled by an Establishment “Republican”, who wrote this opinion piece.
No, ripping up the flawed Iran Deal, was NOT an “unforced error.”
And Israel does indeed fight their own battles. They have not “kicked the hornet’s nest”. They live in the hornet’s nest of Jew hating Islamists.
Is Pat Buchanan an establishment republican? They do not always fight their own battles. They stayed out of the gulf war, offering no troops to assist the US, UK, and other allies— I know there were many excuses offered. I agree the Iran deal is flawed, but if Iran does as they threaten, “we will attack Israel”, will we fight that war for them? Israel attacked a defenseless US military observation ship back in the 60s. I know they claim to be an ally, but I have seen no evidence to support that assertion.
Who exactly is this idiotic moron at American Conservative anyways? Other than being a Never Trumper and a Bolton hater?
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