It appears that Bolton was still pushing the idea within the administration earlier this month. The Washington Free Beacon reported on May 10 that a three-page paper outlining a regime-change strategy from a small far-right organisation called the Security Studies Group, with which Bolton is said to have close ties, was circulated among NSC officials. The quotes from the paper in the story make it clear that the strategy is based largely on seeking to exploit ethnic and religious conflicts in Iran.
The paper reportedly makes the point that ethnic minorities – such as Kurds, Azeris, Ahwazi Arabs and Baloch – represent one-third of Iran’s population, and argues that the Iranian regime’s “oppression of its ethnic and religious minorities has created he conditions for an effective campaign to splinter the Iranian state into component parts”.
It adds: “U.S. support for their independence movements, both overt and covert, could force the regime to focus attention on them and limit its ability to conduct other malign activities.”
Those minorities have all had organisations that have carried out violent actions, including bombings and assassinations against Iranian officials, over the past decade, and such a strategy would presumably involve supporting a step-up in such activities – in other words, U.S. support for terrorist activities against Iranian government targets.…
What could go wrong — again!
Consortium News
Bolton Trying to Convince Trump to Topple Iran
Gareth Porter
See also
Econospeak
Iran Responds to Plan B
J. Barkley Rosser | Professor of Economics and Business Administration James Madison University
See also
Econospeak
Iran Responds to Plan B
J. Barkley Rosser | Professor of Economics and Business Administration James Madison University
So ... I guess we can look forward to an increase of US/Israeli provocations against Iran to suck them into a war.
ReplyDeleteMaybe "suck into a war" is the wrong choice of words. I mean, there is only so much humiliation a country can take before it eventually decides to fight back, right?
By fighting back, and correct me if I am wrong Tom, it would probably mean the Iranians blowing up the US fleet in the Str. of Hormuz. Would the US government/Joint Chief of Staffs be willing to take such losses?
Personally, I wish the broad-mustachioed Bolton would convince the "broad-shouldered" Trump to topple Canada. (They can use the stalled NAFTA talks as an excuse.) You see, I reckon an American invasion will eventually lead to some sort of political integration of Canada by the US. That's good news for me as I have been trying to figure out a way to get my ass down to Virginia or the Carolinas. Couldn't care less about the northeast: because NORTH -- *brrrr* -- east; the mid-west has no coastline, ergo no beaches; Florida is too bloody humid, and the west is just too damn far -- not to mention that I don't like the thought of always being 3 hours behind everyone to the right of me... Trivia: most Canadian NHL hockey players (probably at the behest of their spouses, no doubt) retire to Virginia or the Carolinas :)
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ReplyDeleteJust to add,
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Dunford has the mettle to say to the orange buffoon, "Attack Iran? Not on my f---ing watch." Of course I am thinking of Dunford's predecessor, General Martin Dempsey.
Trivia: Goofball, and shamelessly sleeping with the hired help, Joe Scarborough had the nerve to call for Dempsey's firing when Dempsey, in Congressional testimony (2012) considered Iran to be a "rational actor." I bet Mika can beat Joe up ;)
We should give Bolton an M16 and send him to Iran.
ReplyDeleteMore likely Iran would take out the Gulf oil fields if attacked and close the Straits of Hormuz. That would drive the oil price through the roof and bringing US allies Europe and Japan to their knees. Russia would be laughing all the way to the bank.
ReplyDeleteAs usual the US leadership handling this is not thinking things through. Hopefully the military will clue them in to the potential downside.
He'd dodge Iran the same way he dodged Vietnam ;)
ReplyDelete“there is only so much humiliation a country can take before it eventually decides to fight back, right? “
ReplyDeleteYou mean the US right???
More likely Iran would take out the Gulf oil fields if attacked and close the Straits of Hormuz. That would drive the oil price through the roof and bringing US allies Europe and Japan to their knees. Russia would be laughing all the way to the bank.
ReplyDeleteIndeed ... and that the US Navy has no defense against Iran's anti-ship cruise missiles ;)
You mean the US right???
Matt, I bet Netanyahu used that line of "reasoning" on Trump. Then again, considering Trump's abject ignorance and thin skin (more like orange peel), it just might work.
PART 2 of 2
ReplyDeleteTrump’s handlers now have two problems regarding Iran. First, Europe will keep the Iran deal in defiance of U.S. and Israeli demands. Second, every act of belligerence toward Iran weakens the Atlanticists, and strengthens the nationalists (just like belligerence toward Russia).
BY THE WAY, Bashar al-Assad was an Atlanticist when he first took office in 2000. His wife was born and raised in London.
Assad’s promise of neoliberal “reforms” made him a darling with Western corporate media outlets. Muammar Gaddafi also went Antlanticist (actually his sons did when Gaddafi formally retired from power in 2003). You recall that Libya ceremoniously discarded all its "WMDs."
Despite Assad and Gaddafi bowing to the Empire, the Empire marked them for elimination because they declined to bow to Israel.
Gaddafi’s sons in Libya, and Assad in Syria, imposed neoliberal “reforms” that benefitted the rich at the expense of the rest. This, combined with a prolonged drought in Syria, created enough social tension in Libya and Syria for the Empire to attack.
Iran too has a prolonged drought, but Iran is a tougher case for the Empire. Libya was socially divided between [1] Benghazi in the east, and [2] Tripoli in the west. Syria was divided between [1] Damascus / Aleppo, and [2] Homs and everywhere else. By contrast, Iran is not clearly divided geographically.
From Consortium news: Despite the neocon fixation with supporting MEK, both the CIA and the Israelis have long regarded the idea that it could be an instrument for regime change in Iran as ridiculous.
It’s ridiculous because no one in Iran, on any side, at any level would tolerate the MEK, which is communist and militant feminist, and which fought alongside Iraq in the 1980-88 war that killed almost half a million Iranians.
Why then is Washington DC rattling its sabers at Iran? Because Washington DC is quite simply insane.
The dying Empire has entered terminal dementia.
In my view, the die is now cast. It's now almost inevitable that there will be war and the probability it will go nuclear is high.
ReplyDeleteThe question now is whether it begins in the Middle East, North Korea, Ukraine, or the South China Sea.
We'll see.
ReplyDeleteUkraine is expected to attack Donbass shortly now that the weather is not at issue, and NATO is ramping up. Congress just approved upping production of tactical nukes.
The US baiting the Chinese military in the South China Sea.
The NK summit is cancelled.
I would add Venezuela but I don't think that overthrowing the government there would lead to a a world war. All the others would likely lead either to WWIII or at least a lot of hot conflicts, because so many interests are involved.
But once it starts, there's no way of knowing in advance how it is going to unfold or what the outcome will be.
“The Chosen People are doing everything they can to race toward self-extinction”
ReplyDeleteNot extinction but maybe a good ass kicking.... either would expose the same “end times!” dogmas as falsehoods...
See the previous RCC dogmas on LGBT issues... next thing you know the institution is revealed as a homosexual
pedofile operation....
If all of this “end times!” stuff is false there is only one way to reveal that and I don’t see how it would be in any way favorable for the nation of Israel....
“Beware of false prophets..... By their fruit you will recognize them.” Mat 7
This is the way truth works... including the collateral damage to humans... get over it...