Iran 5-7-2019

7, May 2019                                      Iran

John Bolton, the hawkish national security advisor is huffing and puffing threatening the Islamic State of Iran “with “dire consequences”- while President Trump is preoccupied with the demons of impeachment and obstruction of justice. Both men have much in common. Both have never experienced the horrors of war, both escaped the draft. Bolton played a significant role in the fabrication of lies in the run-up to the Iraq war and pushing for that disastrous war. John Bolton’s lack of credibility on foreign policy is matched by Donald Trump’s lack of credibility on climate change. The bullying tactics of the Trump administration is forcing countries to boycott Iranian oil in favor of American oil buttressing up their profits.

In a rare moment of honesty Bolton admitted “all the WARS fought in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere were all about OIL & GAS”. There you have it. One sentence encapsulates American foreign policy. What do Venezuela, Iraq, Iran Libya and Afghanistan have in common? Oil and gas. Afghanistan serves as a critical pathway for transporting natural out of Turkmenistan.

Perhaps Bolton and his boss should turn back the pages of history and review the dark role of the CIA in its overthrow of the Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq in a 1953 coup, snatching democracy from the people of Iran. The US installed the demonic Shah of Iran who purchased billions of dollars of US weapons and used the Savak secret police to terrorize the Iranians. It’s time we apologized to the Iranian and offered them billions of dollars in reparations.

Egged on by our “allies” Israel and Saudi Arabia, Bolton will likely engage Iran in an escalation of war of words and a possible conflict which could easily spin out of control. Do we really wish to put our troops in harm’s way to defend two nations, Israel and Saudi Arabia who have an appalling history of human rights abuses? And as former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates said, the Saudis want to fight the Iranians to the last American.”

Paul Pillar, formerly with the CIA, commented “the Iranians have shown tremendous discipline and restraint, because they have not responded to these provocations from the Trump Administration, and they are still adhering to the nuclear deal from 2015”.