The Neocons in the Trump Administration are steering America into another war

This also includes the Saudi Government as well. I say this, because of this piece of news here, via YNetNews.com:

A state-aligned Saudi newspaper is calling for “surgical” U.S. strikes in retaliation against alleged threats from Iran.

The Arab News published an editorial in English on Thursday, arguing that after incidents this week against Saudi energy targets, the next logical step “should be surgical strikes.”

The editorial says U.S. airstrikes in Syria, when the government there was suspected of using chemical weapons against civilians, “set a precedent.”

It added that it’s “clear that (U.S.) sanctions are not sending the right message” and that “they must be hit hard,” in reference to Iran, without elaborating on what specific targets should be struck.

The newspaper’s publisher is the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, a company that had long been chaired by various sons of King Salman until 2014 and is regarded as reflecting official position.

It seems that John Bolton is behind much of this:

Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton wants the United States to go to war with Iran.

We know this because he has been saying it for nearlytwodecades.

And everything that the Trump administration has done over its Iran policy, particularly since Bolton became Trump’s top foreign policy adviser in April of 2018, must be viewed through this lens, including the alarming US military posturing in the Middle East of the past two weeks.

Just after one month on the job, Bolton gave Trump the final push he needed to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement, which at the time was (and still is, for now) successfully boxing in Iran’s nuclear program and blocking all pathways for Iran to build a bomb. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – as the Iran deal is formally known – was the biggest obstacle to Bolton’s drive for a regime change war, because it eliminated a helpful pretext that served so useful to sell the war in Iraq 17 years ago.

Since walking away from the deal, the Trump administration has claimed that with a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, it can achieve a “better deal” that magically turns Iran into a Jeffersonian democracy bowing to every and any American wish. But this has always been a fantastically bad-faith argument meant to obscure the actual goal (regime change) and provide cover for the incremental steps – the crushing sanctions, bellicose rhetoric, and antagonizing military maneuvers – that have now put the United States closer to war with Iran than it has been since at least the latter half of the Bush administration, or perhaps ever.

And Bolton has no qualms about manipulating or outright ignoring intelligence to advance his agenda, which is exactly what’s happening right now.

In his White House statement 10 days ago announcing (an already pre-planned) carrier and bomber deployment to the Middle East, Bolton cited “a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran to justify the bolstered US military presence. But multiple sources who have seen the same intelligence have since said that Bolton and the Trump administration blew it “out of proportion, characterizing the threat as more significant than it actually was”. Even a British general operating in the region pushed back this week, saying he has seen no evidence of an increased Iranian threat.

Pat Buchanan observes:

After Venezuela’s army decided not to rise up and overthrow Nicholas Maduro, by Sunday night, it was Iran that was in our gun sights.

Bolton ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln, its carrier battle group and a bomber force to the Mideast “to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.”

What “attack” was Bolton talking about?

According to Axios, Israel had alerted Bolton that an Iranian strike on U.S. interests in Iraq was imminent.

Flying to Finland, Pompeo echoed Bolton’s warning:

“We’ve seen escalatory actions from the Iranians, and … we will hold the Iranians accountable for attacks on American interests. … (If) these actions take place, if they do by some third-party proxy, whether that’s a Shia militia group or the Houthis or Hezbollah, we will hold the … Iranian leadership directly accountable for that.”

Taken together, the Bolton-Pompeo threats add up to an ultimatum that any attack by Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, or Iran-backed militias — on Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE or U.S. forces in Iraq, Syria or the Gulf states — will bring a U.S. retaliatory response on Iran itself.

Did President Donald Trump approve of this? For he appears to be going along. He has pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions. Last week, he canceled waivers he had given eight nations to let them continue buying Iranian oil.

Purpose: Reduce Iran’s oil exports, 40% of GDP, to zero, to deepen an economic crisis that is already expected to cut Iran’s GDP this year by 6%.

Trump has also designated Iran a terrorist state and the Republican Guard a terrorist organization, the first time we have done that with the armed forces of a foreign nation. We don’t even do that with North Korea.

Iran responded last Tuesday by naming the U.S. a state sponsor of terror and designating U.S. forces in the Middle East as terrorists.

[…]

Today, Trump’s approval rating in the Gallup Poll has reached an all-time high, 46%, a level surely related to the astonishing performance of the U.S. economy following Trump’s tax cuts and sweeping deregulation.

While a Gulf war with Iran might be popular at the outset, what would it do for the U.S. economy or our ability to exit the forever war of the Middle East, as Trump has pledged to do?

In late April, in an interview with Fox News, Iran’s foreign minister identified those he believes truly want a U.S.-Iranian war.

Asked if Trump was seeking the confrontation and the “regime change” that Bolton championed before becoming his national security adviser, Mohammad Javad Zarif said no. “I do not believe President Trump wants to do that. I believe President Trump ran on a campaign promise of not bringing the United States into another war.

“President Trump himself has said that the U.S. spent $7 trillion in our region … and the only outcome of that was that we have more terror, we have more insecurity, and we have more instability.

“People in our region are making the determination that the presence of the United States is inherently destabilizing. I think President Trump agrees with that.”

But if it is not Trump pushing for confrontation and war with Iran, who is?

Said Zarif, “I believe ‘the B-team’ wants to actually push the United States, lure President Trump, into a confrontation that he doesn’t want.”

And who makes up “the B-team”?

Zarif identifies them: Bolton, Benjamin Netanyahu, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.

Should the B-team succeed in its ambitions — it will be Trump’s war, and Trump’s presidency will pay the price.

Buchanan also writes:

After an exhausting two weeks, one is tempted to ask: How many quarrels, clashes and conflicts can even a superpower manage at one time? And is it not time for the United States, preoccupied with so many crises, to begin asking, “Why is this our problem?”

Perhaps the most serious issue is North Korea’s quest for nuclear-armed missiles that can reach the United States. But the reason Kim is developing missiles that can strike Seattle or LA is that 28,000 U.S. troops are in South Korea, committed to attack the North should war break out. That treaty commitment dates to a Korean War that ended in an armed truce 66 years ago.

If we cannot persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons in return for a lifting of sanctions, perhaps we should pull U.S. forces off the peninsula and let China deal with the possible acquisition of their own nuclear weapons by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Iran has no nukes or ICBMs. It wants no war with us. It does not threaten us. Why is Iran then our problem to solve rather than a problem for Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and the Sunni Arabs?

Nor does Russia’s annexation of Crimea threaten us. When Ronald Reagan strolled through Red Square with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1988, all of Ukraine was ruled by Moscow.

The Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro was established decades ago by his mentor, Hugo Chavez. When did that regime become so grave a threat that the U.S. should consider an invasion to remove it?

During the uprising in Caracas, Bolton cited the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. But according to President James Monroe, and Mike Pompeo’s predecessor John Quincy Adams, who wrote the message to Congress, under the Doctrine, while European powers were to keep their hands off our hemisphere — we would reciprocate and stay out of Europe’s quarrels and wars.

Wise folks, those Founding Fathers.

Bolton must go, if Trump wants to remain President. because those who elected him, who do not subscribe to the neocon foreign policy doctrine, will vote for someone else or not at all.

 

Reuters: U.N. puts harsh new sanctions on North Korea drafted by U.S., China

This could be a double edged sword:

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution that dramatically expands existing U.N. sanctions on North Korea in response to its Jan. 6 nuclear test, a measure largely negotiated by Washington and Beijing.U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said the new sanctions on Pyongyang go further than any U.N. sanctions regime in two decades and are aimed at cutting off funds for its nuclear and other banned weapons programs.Under the sanctions, all cargo going to and from North Korea must be inspected and North Korean trade representatives in Syria, Iran and Vietnam are among 16 individuals added to a U.N. blacklist, along with 12 North Korean entities.Previously states only had to inspect North Korean cargo shipments if they had reasonable grounds to believe they contained illicit goods. – Source: U.N. imposes harsh new sanctions on North Korea drafted by U.S., China | Reuters

The reason why I say that this could be a double edged sword is that Kim Jong-un has been known, much like his Father; to be an unstable leader. This could lead to more rockets being fired into South Korea. Which could lead to South Korea going to war, which they have said that they would be willing to do. Park Geun-hye has stated that she will defend her Country if needed. If you read her bio, you will fully understand why. To say, that she personally has been affected by North Korea’s lunacy, would be an understatement.

So, I would say, that it would be a good idea to keep an eye on that little situation.

The National Review misses the point on the Korean flare up

Once again, the National Review is speaking out of their bazoo again, this time about the Korean flare up:

This weekend, North Korea significantly increased its forward deployed artillery units and sent around 50 attack submarines out to sea. The submarine movement is especially interesting, because it’s not easy for North Korea to deploy subs; they are poorly maintained and expensive for the resource-starved regime to operate. In deploying so many simultaneously, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, clearly wants to make a point.And to some degree, young Kim’s submarine wager has already paid off. To counter the North’s deployments, the U.S. and South Korea canceled a military exercise originally scheduled to run until this Thursday. The North has also managed to get the South to the negotiating table at the Panmunjom “truce’ village.

Source: Deterring North Korea — American Strength, Chinese Pressure | National Review Online

Like I wrote over there:

This article totally misses the point.

The Norks are acting out, because the South Korean have set up loudspeakers, blasting anti-North Korean propaganda. Now, I am not a Nork Fan boy ok? Not by a long shot. But, if Mexico decided to set up speakers at our border and had them blasting anti-America propaganda; wouldn’t you think Americans and our Government would be a bit pissed? I’d say so.

If anything, the President should call South Korea’s President and tell HER to either stop the broadcasts with the speakers, or we will be removing ALL military personnel and we will wish them luck.

This is nothing like the Korean War of old. That was an invasion of the North; this is the south trying to provoke a reaction out of the North and they’re about to get it too.

Anyone that thinks anything other than this is either a misinformed person or a straight up neoconservative hawk.

Now, do not misunderstand me here; Communism is bad. But, putting loudspeakers at the border is not going to do anything to stop it. All it is going to truly do is cause a confrontation and I am thinking that is what this President of South Korea wants. If she is not really careful she might just get it. If she thinks that America is going to come to her rescue, when she gets in over her head; she is going to be in for a very big surprise. President Obama is no Harry Truman, not by a longshot.

The Korean peninsula is turning into a powder keg

Because I have been so busy with covering local stuff, moral failings and silly attacks on multi-racial people; I have overlooked the fact that the fit is about to hit the shan in the Korean peninsula. 😯

Via CNN:

Paju, South Korea (CNN)North Korea outlined an ultimatum Friday to its southern neighbor: Stop the “provocations” and “psychological warfare” or pay the price.

“If South Korea does not respond to our ultimatum,” North Korean U.N. ambassador An Myong Hun told reporters, “our military counteraction will be inevitable and that counteraction will be very strong.”

North Korea’s regime, known for being both thin-skinnedand fond of saber rattling, has made plenty of threats before. In fact, articulating derogatory and intimidating words about South Korea and the United States has been more the norm than not for years.

What makes this case different, though, is that two South Korean soldiers have been seriously wounded (by landmines August 4 in the Demilitarized Zone) and that there’s been firing back-and-forth since then. An said Friday that “all the (North Korean) frontline large combined units (have) entered into a wartime state … fully armed to launch any surprise operations and finish their preparations for action.”

Specifically, this threat is tied to cross-border propaganda loudspeakers that South Korea resumed using last week for the first time in a decade. Pyongyang is demanding they be turned off by Saturday evening.

“The situation of the country is now inching closer to the brink of war,” Ji Jae Ryong, North Korean ambassador to China, told journalists in Beijing on Friday.

The part that gets me is that South Korea is actually provoking this whole thing.  If I were President Obama, I would be making a phone call to South Korea’s President and telling her, “Cut the crap, or we don’t lift a finger to assist you.”

The Korean War was one of the worst Wilsonian foreign policy blunders ever, that was given to us, by President Harry Truman. President Truman ended one war, that was declared properly and started another one at the request of the United Nations. We lost many a man on those battlefields, and what did we gain? Nothing. It ended in an armistice.

The President of South Korea is needlessly putting US troops at risk with what she is doing. She should be told to stop; or the United States of America should withdraw our forces from the region and wish them good luck.

Commie Nork Leader tells army, “Prepare for War”

Normally, I would not think that this would be anything to worry about, as the Norks have been doing this sort of saber rattling for years. But, seeing the way that the situation is now with a weak White House and ISIS on the move; if I were in a position of authority in the Military or at the Pentagon, I would be watching this one like a hawk.

The Story:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has urged his army to prepare for war with the United States and its allies, state media said Saturday, as Pyongyang ramps up the rhetoric ahead of US-South Korea military drills.

Kim’s comments came after South Korea and the United States Friday conducted a joint naval drill involving 10 South Korean warships and a US Aegis destroyer, ahead of the launch of large-scale military exercises that have enraged the North.

“The prevailing situation where a great war for national reunification is at hand requires all the KPA (Korean People’s Army) units to become (elite) Guard Units fully prepared for war politically and ideologically, in military technique and materially”, he was quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying.

North Korea regularly ratchets up hostile rhetoric at times of joint US-South Korea military exercises that spark a sharp surge in tensions on the divided peninsula.

Kim called on the military to train hard in order “to tear to pieces the Stars and Stripes”, in comments made while opening a new hall at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang, KCNA said.

via MSN: North Korean leader tells army: ‘prepare for war’.

Again, this might be just more of the same old saber rattling from the Norks. But, I would still be watching it and I mean very closely.

Some good reading on the Iraq War

This is some good reading here. It is a progressive magazine and writer; but man does he ever have a point. The sick part is, we might just be doing it again, with Iran.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the invasion of Iraq turned out to be a joke. Not for the Iraqis, of course, and not for American soldiers, and not the ha-ha sort of joke either. And here’s the saddest truth of all: on March 20th as we mark the 10th anniversary of the invasion from hell, we still don’t get it. In case you want to jump to the punch line, though, it’s this: by invading Iraq, the US did more to destabilize the Middle East than we could possibly have imagined at the time. And we—and so many others—will pay the price for it for a long, long time.

via Why the Invasion of Iraq Was the Single Worst Foreign Policy Decision in American History | The Nation.

As for the Nork’s, I think that is a bunch of bluster myself. Of course, we are watching them and making sure nothing major goes on over there.

This is because China supports their actions

Sometimes the woefully obvious is just too much for the media:

Hong Kong (CNN) — North Korea’s neighbors have condemned the secretive nation’s launch of a long-range rocket, with Seoul calling the launch a “challenge and threat” to stability on the Korean peninsula and the world at large.

The rocket passed close to the territory of Japan and South Korea but both have refrained from any retaliation.

Japan said it did not take any action to destroy what it termed “a missile,” which passed over its territory near the island if Okinawa, and had not seen any signs of damage.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said the launch was “extremely regrettable.”

Beijing, North Korea’s main ally in the region, took a softer line.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei expressed regret at North Korea’s decision to launch despite the concerns of the international community.

via China’s reaction key as neighbors decry North Korea rocket launch – CNN.com.

Anyone that believes that China does not support what the Norks are doing — is crazy. They give the stuff needed to fire those missiles, and so, they obviously must support the actions. Besides, China is a communist nation, as is North Korea; so, why wouldn’t they support them?

Like I said, the obvious is as plain as the nose on the end of ones face. Too bad CNN and rest are just too dumb to figure this out.

North Korea fires long-range missile, says South Korea

No matter how you slice it, this is not a good thing.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a long-range rocket Wednesday morning in its second launch under its new leader, defying warnings from the U.N. and Washington only days before South Korean presidential elections.

North Korea declared the launch of a rocket and satellite a success, and state television planned a special broadcast about the launch at noon (0300 GMT).

South Korean and Japanese officials confirmed that liftoff took place shortly before 10 a.m. (0100 GMT), while the United States did not immediately comment on it. Each nation had been urging North Korea to refrain from a launch widely seen as a cover for a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a nationally televised news conference that a South Korean Aegis-equipped destroyer deployed in the Yellow Sea detected the launch but South Korea still didn’t know the launch was successful. North Korea had indicated technical problems with the rocket earlier and had extended its launch window to Dec. 29.

Japan said one part of the rocket fell into waters west of the Korean Peninsula and another part fell in the sea east of the Philippines. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak planned an emergency national security council meeting Wednesday, and Japan protested the rocket launch.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took power after his father Kim Jong Il died on Dec. 17 last year, and the launch also comes about a month before President Barack Obama is inaugurated for his second term.

The North says the Unha rocket was meant to put a satellite in orbit. A similar launch in April broke apart shortly after liftoff, and the condemnation that attempt received is likely to be repeated. Washington sees the launch as a cover for a test of technology for missiles that could be used to strike the United States.

Rocket tests are seen as crucial to advancing North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions. North Korea is thought to have only a handful of rudimentary nuclear bombs. But Pyongyang is not yet believed capable of building warheads small enough to mount on a missile that could threaten the United States.

North Korea has spent decades trying to perfect a multistage, long-range rocket. Experts say that ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology. This is the fifth attempt at a long-range launch since 1998, when Pyongyang sent a rocket hurtling over Japan. Previous launches of three-stage rockets weren’t considered successful.

Washington sees North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as a threat to world security and to its Asian allies, Japan and South Korea.

via South Korea Says North Korea Has Fired Long-Range Rocket – NYTimes.com.

There a few reasons why this is not a good thing and I will lay them out there for everyone who reads here:

  • The Norks are communist as hell, unlike the poser Communist Party of America; these turkey’s are the real deal. 
  • The Norks are being aided (read $$$$) by the Iranians, who are themselves dangerous as hell and support terrorism.
  • If the Nork’s missile ever hit America, it would suck majorly bad, especially if something like nukes or worse were on it.
  • The Nork Government and its people are like nuttier than a snicker’s bar. So, we really do not want them having this sort of stuff.
  • As it says above, the Norks and these missiles are danger to Asian region, not to mention anywhere else they decide to point those rockets.

Again, this one is a bit important.