Odious Warmonger John Bolton Really, Really Wants to Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran
An ‘architect’ of the disastrous Iraq war, Bolton sets his sights on inciting war with Iran.
Listen up, mothers and fathers throughout this land: John Bolton is coming for your children once they reach fighting age.
First among the long list of reasons we must ride ourselves of the pestilence that is Donald Trump is the lurking presence of national security adviser John Bolton. Bolton’s itchy trigger finger is an existential threat to the safety and well-being of all Americans (not to mention globally).
It’s fairly safe to believe that Trump won’t go to war in an election year. But if the unimaginable occurs on election day, 2020, Bolton’s drum beat of war with Iran will gain currency with a president who doesn’t have a clue.
How dangerous is Bolton? Here’s is a good two-minute summary, publish by Guardian News via YouTube:
America’s Foreign Policy
Because of warmongers like John Bolton, the US has on occasion attacked countries that posed no threat to it. And it is usually turned out that the pretext to justify US aggression was American-made subterfuge.
Examples abound: “Remember the Maine!” turned out to be not a Spanish attack…Reagan inviting Libyan missile fire of US war planes to justify a bombing campaign…Johnson’s Gulf of Tonkin resolution to escalate the Vietnam War exaggerated North Vietnamese mischief…and the granddaddy of them all: Iraq’s mythical weapons of mass destruction.
Architect of the Iraq War
As undersecretary of state for arms control for George W. Bush, Bolton demanded the resignation of the elected head of a chemical weapons inspection organization because the he was deemed an obstacle to creating the case for the invasion of Iraq. According to the official, Brazilian Jose Bustani, Bolton demanded he step down in 24 hours, adding, according to Bustani, “we know where your children are.”
Bolton continues to stand by the US invasion of Iraq as late as 2018. But now that Iraq is old news, Bolton has other fish to fry.
Bomb, Bomb, Bomb…Bomb, Bomb Iran
With Bolton out of power during the Obama administration and with the world’s eyes turned worriedly towards Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, Bolton repeatedly called for the bombing of Iran (the above headline is a take-off of the Beach Boys’ song, “Barbara Anne”) to stop its nuclear program.
President Obama, along with his secretary of state John Kerry, had other ideas. After months of tense negotiations, a group of world powers, the P5+1 that included the US, United Kingdom, France, Germany, China and Russia, finally agreed in 2015 to a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Under the accord, Iran agreed to halt its nuclear enrichment program until the year 2024 and allow international inspectors to confirm compliance. In return, there would be a lifting of sanctions that were crippling Iran’s economy.
It was a great day for world peace. It wouldn’t last long, however.
Ignoring the pleas of almost every world leader, President Trump withdrew from the Iran accord. Additionally, the Trump administration reimposed sanctions and began lifting waivers that permitted other countries to purchase Iranian oil and other goods. With its economy in free fall, Iran has apparently retaliated by exceeding its nuclear enrichment threshold set forth in the agreement. Bolton recently declared it “nuclear blackmail.”
According to Peter Beinart of the Atlantic, “the hypocrisy is astounding. After massively expanding sanctions–and thus denying Iran the key benefits it was promised under the nuclear deal–the Trump administration is now threatening Iran for potentially violating an international agreement that the United States has been brazenly violating for more than a year.”
It looks very much like American foreign policy redux: Provoke Iran until it provides the perfect rationale for America to strike militarily. Here’s a two and a half minute video of Bolton’s dangerous conspiracy theories, published by one of my favorite websites Media Matters for America via YouTube:
There are so many poster boys for bad behavior in the Trump administration. But this one goes to the heart of our survival.
