Jordan Fabian — Trump replaces McMaster with Bolton as national security adviser

As they say in the military, "the shit's on." Here we go again.

The Hill
Trump replaces McMaster with Bolton as national security adviser
Jordan Fabian

Dem senator [Markey] on Bolton hire: Trump is 'lining up his war cabinet'

Brett Samuels

Also

LobeLog
Bolton: A Prime Mover Of The Iraq WMD Fiasco

Greg Thielmann

John Bolton: The Essential Profile

Mitchell Plitnik

see also

Zero Hedge
Trump Replaces McMaster With John Bolton As Security Advisor

Trump Admin Approves $1BN Arms Deal With Saudi Arabia, Including 6,700 Missiles

Trump Slaps China With $50 Billion In Tariffs

US To File WTO Suit Against China For Trade Law Violations

China Responds: "Not Afraid Of Trade War", Vows To "Fight To The End"

Tyler Durden

See also

Craig Murray Blog
Boris Johnson A Categorical Liar
Craig Murray, formerly British ambassador to Uzbekistan and Rector of the University of Dundee

Also

Credit Writedowns
John Bolton’s appointment by Trump confirms serious geopolitical risk

Trump Is Playing The ‘Taiwan Card’ Against China NowEdward Harrison

Mike Whitney — Trump’s Plan B for Syria: Occupation and Intimidation

Tillerson’s comments underscore the fact that recent setbacks in the 7-year-long conflict, have not dampened Washington’s determination to topple the elected government of Syria and to impose its own political vision on the country. They also confirm that the United States intends to occupy parts of Syria for the foreseeable future....

As we have noted before, Washington is determined to throw up an iron curtain along the Euphrates consistent with its plan to split Syria into smaller parts, support the central government’s enemies, and create a safe haven for launching attacks on the government in Damascus....

Good strategic analysis. Whitney puts his finger on it. The whole article is worth reading.

Counterpunch

Trump’s Plan B for Syria: Occupation and Intimidation
Mike Whitney

Also

Irrespective of what we may think of Syria, this is little but a full-scale assault on international law and the normative system embedded in the UN Charter that has taken decades of hard work to build, a fundamental cornerstone of the management and civilizational development of the world order system.

Seen in comparison with the other attempts at undermining the UN – which began in the 1990s in Bosnia-Herzegovina – this should be a cause of deep concern among people in the truly civilizational corners of our world.

And it can’t be sold to the world under the headline of a Responsibility to Protect....

We’ve of course seen it all before. It’s about bases (like, say, Kosovo), about control of resources (like, say, Iraq), about regime change (like, say Saddam Hussein and Moamar Khadafi) and it’s about the exceptionalist belief that God’s own country has God’s mandate to create US Imperial peace everywhere – no matter how many times it has already gone madly wrong and no matter how many innocent people are killed and wounded in the process....

The New US Syria “Strategy”, a Recipe For Continued Disaster
Jan Oberg

Moon of Alabama — "Above All" - The Junta Expands Its Claim To Power

Is the US now ruled by a military junta through soft coup?

Moon of Alabama
"Above All" - The Junta Expands Its Claim To Power

b

Korean War 2.0?

HH: How concerned should the American people be that we are actually on the brink of a war with North Korea?

HRM: Well, I think it’s impossible to overstate the danger associated with this.

Zero Hedge
McMaster: U.S. Preparing For "Preventive War" With North Korea

Tyler Durden

The United States is preparing for all options to counter the growing threat from North Korea, including launching a “preventive war,” national security adviser H.R. McMaster said in an interview with MSNBC that aired Saturday.

Newsweek

U.S. Prepared To Launch ‘Preventive War’ Against North Korea, Says H.R. McMaster

Jason Le Miere

See also

This is a controversial claim that many experts dispute or deny, but there is no way actually to know for sure.

SHTF Plan
Retired Green Beret Warns: “North Korea Can Deliver A Warhead Containing An EMP Weapon Dead Center Over The Continental United States”

Also

NK is not the only hot spot. The US is involved directly in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria Libya, and Somalia, and indirectly in Ukraine. That's not counting the South China Sea, the Persian Gulf peripheral to Iran, and the periphery of the Russian border other than Ukraine.

Yahoo Finance
McCain backs general, threatens to craft own Afghanistan strategy if Trump can't in time

Jeff Daniels

Fabius Maximus
Our generals reveal why we lost in Afghanistan, and will continue to lose

Editor

Jim Lobe — Bannon Down, Pentagon Up, Neocons In?

Balanced article on US politics relative to international relations and foreign and military policy.

LobeLog
Bannon Down, Pentagon Up, Neocons In?

Jim Lobe

SST — McMaster and Russia by Willy B

Has H. R. McMaster gone over to the Dark Side? A former fan of his thinks it may be the case.

Sic Semper Tyrannis
McMaster and Russia by Willy B

Rebecca Savransky — McMaster downplays removal of Bannon from role on NSC

President Trump appears to have capitulated to the US Deep State regarding foreign and military policy. 

He may have realized that he was bleeding political capital over this and needed to staunch the bleeding before he became a lame duck in his first 100 days in office.

Apparently the president concluded that disappointing and possibly alienating America Firsters is worth getting the US Deep State off his back.

If he is politically astute, he will credit all the foreign and military policy moves to US Deep State advise, so he can blame them if (when) things go wrong, as they inevitably do. and there is blowback.

It is also looking like Steve Bannon has been told to go along to get along, or leave.

The Hill
McMaster downplays removal of Bannon from role on NSC
Rebecca Savransky

Moon of Alabama — The War Hawks Rolled Donald Trump

Lt. Gen. H. R. McMasters may be better than Ambassador John Bolton as national security advisor but Moon of Alabama doesn't think by much. 

And now that Flynn has been disposed of, Bannon is next on the list.

Moon of Alabama
The War Hawks Rolled Donald Trump

b

Reuters — Trump's new security advisor differs from him on Russia, other key issues

Is Trump adopting Obama's team of rivals approach?

U.S. President Donald Trump has shown little patience for dissent, but that trait is likely to be tested by his new national security adviser, Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster.

McMaster is joining the White House staff with views on Russia, counterterrorism, strengthening the military and other major security issues that diverge not only from those of the Trump loyalists, but also from those the president himself has expressed.…

McMaster will not be alone, however. His prominent administration allies include Defense Secretary Jim Mattis; Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee; as well as many of the soldiers who have served with him....

Reuters
Trump's new security advisor differs from him on Russia, other key issues

John Walcott

William D. Hartung — The Promise and Peril of H.R. McMaster

The good (assessment of Vietnam) and the bad (assessment of Iraq), and let's hope not the ugly (war with Iran).

Lobe Log
The Promise and Peril of H.R. McMaster

William D. Hartung | the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy and a senior adviser to the Security Assistance Monitor