Appointing John Bolton national security advisor is like making a pyromaniac fire chief.
Former Israeli IDF chief of staff/later defense minister Shaul Mofaz said he knows Bolton “from when he was the US ambassador to the UN. He tried to convince me that Israel needs to attack Iran.”
Mofaz dismissed the idea as reckless unless an imminent threat emerges, nothing indicating one now—at the same time falsely claiming “the Iranian threat is very significant to Israel’s security.”
Former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz turned truth on its head, saying “Iran is striving for a nuclear weapon, which in its view will give it strategic immunity. The world needs to guarantee it doesn’t get there.”
Tehran deplores these weapons, seeks a nuclear-free Middle East, Israel the only nuclear armed and dangerous country in the region.
Netanyahu wants the Iran nuclear deal ended, urging Trump to pull out unless unacceptable changes are made.
Four former top Israeli military officials oppose rescinding the deal, Mofaz, Gantz, Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz.
Outgoing Israeli military intelligence chief General Herzl Halevi falsely accused Iran of destabilizing the Middle East—a US/Israeli specialty, not the Islamic Republic, threatening no one, the region’s leading peace and stability champion.
Like other Israeli hardliners, Halevi lied, claiming Tehran “threatens to upset the equilibrium and the efforts of the world to stabilize Syria.” The opposite is true.
Longstanding US/Israeli policy calls for regime change in Iran. According to Halevi, a “united front” against Tehran increases the likelihood.
John Bolton wants war on everyone. He and Nikki Haley represent the administration’s lunatic fringe.
National Iranian American Council founder president Trita Parsi tweeted: “The appointment of Bolton is essentially a declaration of war with Iran. With Pompeo and Bolton, Trump is assembling a WAR CABINET.”
Project on US Relations with the Islamic World in the Center for Middle East Policy senior fellow Shadi Hamid tweeted: “I *wish* Bolton was a neocon. That would be much preferable to what he actually is: someone who seems like a neocon when it comes to the use of force—but without values, moral concern, or belief in democracy.”
Bolton wants regime change in Iran, Syria, North Korea, Russia, China, and other sovereign independent countries—their governments forcibly toppled.
Months earlier, he told an extremist Iranian exile group that by end of 2018, the Islamic Republic will be ended.
As national security advisor, he’s in a position to greatly influence US policy in this direction. Given Trump’s extreme hostility toward Iran, he’s likely sympathetic to regime change.
To this day, Bolton claims Bush/Cheney’s disastrous war on Iraq was a good thing.
In 2002, he was their undersecretary of state for arms control and international security when the administration killed the 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea, freezing its nuclear program, engaging in diplomacy with the country.
Bush/Cheney “axis of evil” hostility pushed for regime change in Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Bolton was one of its architects.
The DPRK was falsely blamed for US deceit, reneging on an agreement fostering peace for its war agenda.
Last September on Fox News, Bolton said the only way to address Pyongyang’s nuclear program is “to end [its] regime” by striking first, adding: “Anybody who thinks that more diplomacy with North Korea, more sanctions, whether against North Korea or an effort to apply sanctions against China, is just giving North Korea more time to increase its nuclear arsenal.”
“We have fooled around with North Korea for 25 years, and fooling around some more is just going to make matters worse.”
His solution to North Korea and other independent countries is war and more of it—peace, stability and diplomatic outreach are anathema notions for him.
Will war on the Korean peninsula and against the Islamic Republic erupt on his watch?
With him and other extremist neocons in charge of Trump’s geopolitical agenda, world conditions got hugely more dangerous.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
Hogwash. Is Pompeo part of the fringe too? The 55 Senators who want to continue our participation in the war in Yemen? What about proposing a torturer for head of the CIA? Think about the 29 standing ovations Bibi got. And Kushner, Greenblatt and Friedman have been appointed to craft a fair settlement for Palestine. Sadly, Bolton is mainstream.