The Guardian in this opinion piece reminds us of John Bolton's fabulous career of war-mongering. "Bolton has no qualms about manipulating or outright ignoring intelligence to advance his agenda, which is exactly what’s happening right now." (no pay-wall!)
NYTimes: Wendy Sherman former state dept. under secretary and one of the negotiators for the Iran nuclear agreement reviews the run-up to the current war-mongering and urges European leaders, Congress, and, I suppose, the rest of us to STOP! And this warning:
"Finally, it is crucial that the news
media in the United States and elsewhere continue its crusade for the
facts about what is going on with Iran. We cannot repeat the days before
the Iraq war when even many of our most reliable news outlets repeated
and amplified what was, in fact, a flimsy case for war." Okay NYT...you know who you were!.....
Just in:
Just in:
WASHINGTON — President Trump has told his acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, that he does not want to go to war with Iran, according to several administration officials, in a
message to his hawkish aides that an intensifying American pressure
campaign against the clerical-led government in Tehran must not escalate
into open conflict."
Lindsay Graham thinks Congress ought to be told what this is all about, even though he concedes that he will go along with seeking out those Iranian weapons of mass destruction or whatever it is they come up with this time.
ReplyDeleteEven if one subscribes to a just war philosophy, I'm not seeing how this would meet the definition of a just war.
ReplyDeleteYes, the news media and Congress need to hold the war mongers' feet to the fire.
Any polls yet on what the American public "thinks"? Or are they too preoccupied with what happened on Game of Thrones and Avengers:Endgame. My Google popups reference these make believe conflicts more than Iran:The Fake War we don't need. Bolton's the evil guy in this one. He looks more like the poster child for the banality of evil. They should get some of the makeup artists from the aforementioned cartoon shows to spice him up.
ReplyDeleteThe war-monger said today that he doesn't want to go to war, according to the NYTimes:
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON — President Trump has told his acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, that he does not want to go to war with Iran, according to several administration officials, in a message to his hawkish aides that an intensifying American pressure campaign against the clerical-led government in Tehran must not escalate into open conflict.
Mr. Trump’s statement, during a Wednesday morning meeting in the Situation Room, came during a briefing on the rising tensions with Iran. American intelligence has indicated that Iran has placed missiles on small boats in the Persian Gulf, prompting fears that Tehran may strike at United States troops and assets or those of its allies.
-- Of course, a statement in a meeting does not have the same level of authority as a Tweet would.
WaPo reported yesterday that Trump was pushing back on Boulton and some intelligence officials. Prez was concerned about consistency with campaign promise not to get embroiled in military actions. So good news if that's true.
ReplyDeleteSadly, my friend Chuck Grassley noted that he doesn't think Trump pays attention to what Grassley has been telling him about tariffs and farmers in I-o-way. Sen. Grassley said he is going to put his concerns in a letter, probably the LEAST effective means of getting Trump to take note.
It'd be a good time for those pacifist bone spurs to act up.
DeleteBrendan Michael Dougherty has written one or two pieces on this theme: the true Constitutional crisis right beneath our noses is that the president's own appointees and advisers slow-walk, ignore and outright contravene his orders. He is accountable to the electorate; they're not. Here are a couple of snippets:
ReplyDelete"One of the outstanding features of the Mueller report was its portrait of Donald Trump’s presidency, in which the orders and directives he gives are routinely ignored by his own White House staff and cabinet members. ...
"What makes this a true constitutional crisis is that both sides of the argument are correct. Those who are inclined to defer to the president’s wishes are absolutely right when they say a foreign policy and military establishment that stubbornly resists and undermines the president’s ability to act as commander-in-chief is essentially thwarting democracy, undermining the people’s ability to influence foreign policy through their choice of presidents.
"However, those who are partial to the permanent foreign-policy staff, which is acting under extreme duress, are also correct: Advisers and subordinates owe the president their best counsel, and the United States cannot run a foreign policy as inconstant and unpredictable as the untutored impulses of man who won’t even stand behind his own orders to conclude U.S. operations in a war that has no congressional or popular support. In the normal course of things, presidents ought to show constancy. "
The "war with no congressional or popular support" is the war in Syria. Dougherty's column was written in mid-late April, before the heightened tensions with Iran were making the news; Dougherty's piece is about how the president's advisers seem to be undermining his stated desire to withdraw our troops. But the concern is extensible to other situations and crises.
Here is a link to the Dougherty piece.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/donald-trump-wants-out-of-syria-will-his-staff-listen/
Dougherty, and hardly alone, makes it crystal clear that Trump has no more business running the executive branch of our government than I'd have running the supercollider.
DeleteTwo front pagers today on China and Iran: The gist of them is that there has been a lot of misreading going on. In China, XI hadn't expected Trump to object to the Chinese editing of the agreement (and supposedly its translation into Chinese!). With Iran, the drum-beating in DC has raised the threat level there. It is now said that Pompeo and Bolton are not on the same page and the policy is in disarray.
DeleteChina: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/world/asia/trade-xi-jinping-trump-china-united-states.html
Iran: (I think this is yesterday's story with added info). https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/world/middleeast/iran-war-donald-trump.html
We can't know exactly what's going on until Bob Woodward write the next book, but in both cases you have to ask whether the hollowing out of top-level State Dept., CIA, and the Pentagon is leaving the U.S. without top-notch intelligence and savvy. This quite apart from who's sabotaging who a la Dougherty in Jim's post above.
Israel is denying it wants war...(deniability before time!)...https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/world/middleeast/israel-iran-netanyahu-war.html
Supporting Tom's point: executive privilege is running amuck.
Deletehttps://www.thedailybeast.com/bad-football-fake-springsteen-real-probe-inside-new-jerseys-investigation-into-trumps-inaugural?ref=scroll
ReplyDeleteBLOWBACK
Trump Admin Moves Fueled Iran’s Aggression, U.S. Intel Says
‘Most of the activities that the Iranians are undertaking are in response to our very aggressive posture in the region,’ one member of the House Intelligence Committee said.
Betsy Woodruff,
Adam Rawnsley
05.16.19