By Finian Cunningham
President Trump would do America and the world a favor if he got rid of him immediately.
The escalation of US military forces and rhetoric against Iran is largely down to one person – Bolton, the same person who advocated for the criminal, disastrous American war in Iraq under the George W. Bush administration. That war based on lies spun by Bolton and others resulted in over one million dead, millions of displaced Iraqis, thousands of American casualties, trillions of dollars in US debt and a region inflamed with conflict and terrorism.
Donald Trump, the titular Commander-in-Chief of US forces, appears to be being led into another disastrous war by Bolton. Trump, known for his attention-span deficit, is no doubt preoccupied with fighting a trade war with China, and as a result has allowed his national
security advisor to run the policy on Iran. Trump needs to pull rank and get Bolton off the job – before World War III erupts. Make no mistake, if a war erupts with Iran it will likely draw in other international powers, including Russia, and go nuclear.
“No, there has been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq or Syria,” said Ghika who is deputy commander of the US-led military coalition ostensibly combating Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).
The British general is not alone. Several European and American officials have also been quoted in media reports saying that Bolton’s assessment of security risk from Iran or its alleged proxies are overblown.
“Intelligence and military officials in Europe as well as in the United States said that over the past year, most aggressive moves have originated not in Tehran, but in Washington — where John R. Bolton, the national security advisor, has prodded President Trump into backing Iran into a corner,” reported the New York Times this week.
On a subsequent visit to Russia to meet President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Pompeo asserted that the “US is not fundamentally seeking a war with Iran.” If we take Pompeo at his word, that may be so. But the fundamental problem is that the Trump administration has given the reins of Iran policy to Bolton who is an unmitigated war hawk for regime change in Tehran. Prior to his post as national security advisor, Bolton exulted in calls for a military attack on Iran for regime change.
The incendiary problem with Bolton’s recent warnings of “unrelenting response” to “Iran or its proxies” if they were to attack US interests is that the red line is so expansive, vague and prone to paranoid imagination – of which Bolton has plenty.
In Bolton’s anti-Iran obsession, he sees Tehran’s hand everywhere in the Middle East, much like his fellow-traveler Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Iran, accordingly, is supposedly pulling the strings of Shia militia in Iraq and Syria, is calling the shots from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as well as Hamas in Gaza and Houthi rebels in Yemen. Iran may well have links and sympathies to these groups, but in Bolton’s fevered worldview any activity against American interests can be ascribed to Iran, thereby triggering the “unrelenting response” of US war that he so desires.
The whole powder-keg situation created by Bolton is liable to ignite over the slightest spark, misinterpretation, miscalculation or malicious contrivance.
John Bolton is not only recklessly pushing Iran into a corner. He is also pushing President Trump into a corner too. It was Bolton who took a lead in urging Trump to abandon the nuclear accord with Iran and pursue the policy of maximum pressure to drive Iranian oil exports down to zero.
To be sure, Trump has his own irrational hostility towards Iran and has unwisely embraced the anti-Iran counsel of Israel’s Netanyahu as well as the despotic Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who views Shia Iran as the devil incarnate.
Bolton on the other hand is pushing that threshold for all his inimical worth.
Trump needs to pull the world back from the precipice of war – a war that would inevitably become a world conflagration involving nuclear weapons.
Source: rt.com
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