Posted on 01/15/2019 11:38:54 AM PST by Kaslin
"Stop the ENDLESS WARS!" implored President Donald Trump in a Sunday night tweet.
Well, if he is serious, Trump had best keep an eye on his national security adviser, for a U.S. war on Iran would be a dream come true for John Bolton.
Last September, when Shiite militants launched three mortar shells into the Green Zone in Baghdad, which exploded harmlessly in a vacant lot, Bolton called a series of emergency meetings and directed the Pentagon to prepare a menu of targets, inside Iran, for U.S. air and missile strikes in retaliation.
The Wall Street Journal quoted one U.S. official as saying Bolton's behavior "rattled people. ... People were shocked. It was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting Iran."
Bolton's former deputy, Mira Ricardel, reportedly told a gathering the shelling into the Green Zone was "an act of war" to which the U.S. must respond decisively.
Bolton has long believed a U.S. confrontation with Iran is both inevitable and desirable. In 2015, he authored a New York Times op-ed whose title, "To Stop Iran's Bomb, Bomb Iran," said it all. He has urged that "regime change" in Iran be made a declared goal of U.S. foreign policy.
When Trump announced his decision to withdraw the 2,000 U.S. troops now in Syria, Bolton swiftly imposed conditions: ISIS must first be eliminated, Iranian forces and allied militias must leave, and the Kurds must be protected.
Yet enforcing such red lines would require a permanent presence of American troops. For how, without war, would we effect the removal of Bashar Assad's Iranian allies, if he declines to expel them and the Iranians refuse to go?
Bolton has an ally in Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In Cairo last week, Pompeo declared it U.S. policy "to expel every last Iranian boot" from Syria.
And though Hezbollah has been a "major presence" in Lebanon for several decades, "we won't accept this as the status quo," said Pompeo, for Hezbollah is a "wholly owned subsidiary of the Iranian regime."
But how does the secretary of state propose to push Hezbollah out of Lebanon peacefully when the Israelis could not do it in a month-long war in 2006?
Pompeo's purpose during his tour of the Middle East? Build a new Middle East Strategic Alliance, a MESA, an Arab NATO, whose members are to be Egypt, Jordan and the nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
There are other signs a confrontation is coming soon. The U.S. has objected to Iran's pending launch of two space satellites, saying these look like tests of missiles designed to deliver nuclear warheads. Yet Iran has never produced weapons-grade uranium or plutonium and never tested an ICBM.
Pompeo has also called for a conclave in Poland in February to bring together an anti-Iran alliance to discuss what is to be done about what he calls "our common enemy."
Over the weekend, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu boasted of Israel's latest strike in Syria: "Just in the last 36 hours, the air force attacked Iranian warehouses with Iranian weapons at the international airport in Damascus. The accumulation of recent attacks proves that we are determined more than ever to take action against Iran in Syria, just as we promised."
Israel brags that it has hit 200 targets inside Syria in recent years. The boasting may be connected to Bibi's desire to strengthen his credentials as a security hawk for the coming Israeli election. But it is also a provocation to the Iranians and Syrians to retaliate, which could ignite a wider war between Israel and Syrian and Iranian forces.
What does the U.S. think of the Israeli strikes? Said Pompeo: "We strongly support Israel's efforts to stop Iran from turning Syria into the next Lebanon."
In short, forces are moving in this country and in Israel to bring about a U.S. confrontation with Iran -- before our troops leave Syria.
But the real questions here are not about Bolton or Pompeo.
They are about Trump. Was he aware of Bolton's request for a menu of targets in Iran for potential U.S. strikes? Did he authorize it? Has he authorized his national security adviser and secretary of state to engage in these hostile actions and bellicose rhetoric aimed at Iran? And if so, why?
While Trump has urged that the U.S. pull out of these Mideast wars, Pompeo has corrected him, "When America retreats, chaos often follows."
Is Trump looking for a showdown with Iran, which could result in a war that might vault his approval rating, but be a disaster for the Middle East and world economy and do for him what Operation Iraqi Freedom did for George W. Bush?
One thing may confidently be said of the rhetoric and actions of Bolton and Pompeo: This is not what brought out the new populists who made Donald Trump president, the people who still share his desire to "stop the endless wars."
Time to put Bolton back out to pasture
He wants to keep starting wars
bought time. Carter and Bush II missed the boat.
Making contingency plans are a bad thing?
When we say we are prepared to do what it takes to make sure Iran doesn’t get a nuke, we should be clear with ourselves what we are saying.
Hey Pat!
It’s nice you view nothing worth fighting for and that negotiating from strength is an anathema, but you’re not in charge.
A lot of folks kick Bolton for being so forceful of word and proposed action ..
but any guy who wants to lop the top 20 stories off the UN building and turn the rest into a homeless shelter or actually retaliate decisively against our enemies instead of trying to hug them ..
is OK with me.
A lot of folks kick Bolton for being so forceful of word and proposed action ..
but any guy who wants to lop the top 20 stories off the UN building and turn the rest into a homeless shelter or actually retaliate decisively against our enemies instead of trying to hug them ..
is OK with me.
Pat IS “out to pasture”, he earned it.
Who was the big Buchanan supporter that used to post on FR? Can’t remember the screen name but he always had Go Pat Go in his posts. LOL.
A good old fashioned barn burner of a War makes for good elections...Voters are less apt at vote out a sitting President during War time..
I sure as hell hope so. It’s been my analysis for some time that kicking the crap out of Iran would pay a lot of dividends. Besides they’ve had it coming since 1979. Because of 79 Revolution and Jimmah Carter’s inaction he gets most of the blame for the current state is Islamic affairs in the world today.
A change of regime in Iran would benefit the world.
Yeah contingency planning for everything is normal for the military, i don’t see how asking for a list of targets to be drawn up is evidence for anything
I’m betting Israel will handle it pretty soon IMHO. Once those elections are over in Israel, it’s game time.
Stopped reading right there. So the people who are charged with national security are rattled when someone asks for a contingency plan in case any ass-kicking is required? (which has to be ordered by the president anyway) If so, God help us.
War in the same sense that Israel went to war with Iraq when it bombed the Osirak reactors. Except USAF and USN can be a lot more thorough, given the ease of ingress and egress vis-a-vis Iran - for US aircraft - from both Gulf kingdom air bases and carriers in the Indian Ocean, and combined US air assets 10x what the Israelis had available, not to mention the availability of allied Gulf kingdom air assets in supporting roles.
the IslamoNazis running Iran have declared war on USA, threatening (promising) to destroy at least 7 major American cities with their ICBM-nuclear bombs (as Obama enabled for them)....
if the Iranian dictators aren’t stopped they will be the death of us, literally
remembering also, that USA (under Jimmy Carter) helped afflict the Iranian people with these murderous thugs....
if we are ever to stop “regime change” then at the very least we should make sure the regimes are sane (and NOT threatening USA or our allies)......THAT would be a good time to refrain from “regime change” ... at least insofar as the dangerous mess in Tehran is concerned
Let Israel fight its own wars.
They will and they’ll easily win all of them.
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