What is it that makes men who never served in the military so eager to go to war? This week it’s Donald “Bone Spurs” Trump and John “Shoot First, Aim Later” Bolton rushing the aircraft carrier, Abraham Lincoln, to the Persian Gulf, while sending the imperious, condescending, Mike “Fat Man” Pompeo, off to Brussels and points east where he was rebuffed by the EU, and warmly received by Vladimir Putin. All these moves designed to prepare the world for our military intervention “just in case” Iran “does something to undermine our interests.” It looks eerily like Wag the Dog. Start a war to deflect attention from the political chaos at home.
So far, Iran hasn’t done anything new or different, as far I can see. It’s Trump who provoked and precipitated the confrontation by pulling out of the Iran nuclear treaty last year. Iran has continued to abide by the treaty’s conditions as have its other signatories. It’s only America that has not. But, John Bolton has been itching for a war with Iran for 25 years, and Donald Trump is the perfect tool to get him there.
In 2003, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and the Neo-Cons, all draft evaders, dragged us into a war we couldn’t win based on contrived and faulty intelligence. Remember “yellowcake,” the African uranium Saddam Hussein allegedly obtained to create his nuclear bomb?
Of course you don’t, it was a hoax like Donald Trump’s bone spurs and today’s crisis with Iran. Ambassador Joseph Wilson was sent to investigate the “yellowcake” claim and concluded it was unfounded, but his findings so upset the Neo-Cons they vengefully “outed” his wife, Valerie Plame, as a covert CIA agent. Wilson discredited their “intelligence,” intended to justify the US invasion of Iraq, but the Neo-Con Express had already left the station and another disruptive destabilizing war in the Middle East was underway.
It seems to me that these old hawks didn’t get enough Cowboys and Indians as kids. I suggest a little retraining – 12 weeks of boot camp under the “guidance” of a Marine drill instructor at Parris Island or MCRD San Diego. That might do wonders for these old “warriors.” They might get in shape, quit chasing their tails, and stop getting all frothy-mouthed about playing war games with other people’s children. This isn’t a drill. There are real lives at stake.
Postscript (May 16, 2019): This morning Senator Lindsey Graham (Foreign Relations Committee) reported that no one in the Senate has been briefed on what’s going on in Iran even though a carrier group has been sent to the Gulf, 120,000 troops have been alerted, and the Embassy staff in Iraq has been ordered to leave the country. WTF are Bolton, Pompeo, and Trump up to?
As usual, I couldn’t agree with you more Jack. But please, no more photos of Parris Island DI’s in their smokey the bear hats…they bring back (not fond) memories of a Staff Sgt. “Mad Dog” Delaney from my AOCS time in Pensacola FL. (Still gives me chills!) By the way, what did you do? It looks like Sgt. Soto is emphatically ordering you to get off his base! 🙂