John Bolton Again

[Warlord]

He wants a war with Iran and this is the man advising the President!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-h...an-11547375404

[Swordsmyth]

President Trump’s National Security Council asked the Pentagon to provide the White House with military options to strike Iran last year, generating concern at the Pentagon and State Department, current and former U.S. officials said.

The rest is behind a pay wall.


Bolton needs to go, hopefully Trump will get rid of him for trying to undermine the Syria pullout.

[spudea]

Riddle me this, how does a NSC advisor have the authority to tell the pentagon to do anything. This happened during Mattis as well, so I bet he was in agreement.

[Swordsmyth]

Riddle me this, how does a NSC advisor have the authority to tell the pentagon to do anything. This happened during Mattis as well, so I bet he was in agreement.

He doesn't so Mattis probably backed him up, now that Mattis is gone they are openly proclaiming that they "Don't take orders from Bolton".

Last night, the Wall Street Journal reported that the withdrawal would begin immediately.
Scores of ground troops are headed toward Syria to help move troops out, and a group of naval vessels headed by the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge is headed to the region to back up troops at the vulnerable moment they are leaving the country, the officials said. The Kearsarge carries hundreds of Marines, helicopters and other aircraft.
"Nothing has changed," one defense official said. "We don’t take orders from Bolton."

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...l-syria-begins

[nikcers]

I've had it with these mother $#@!ing snakes.

[Anti Globalist]

Bolton should be hanged for war crimes.

[enhanced_deficit]

Won't be surprised if Bolton received a Freedom Medal from MAGA in time ahead.

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/13/whit...rike-iran.html

The White House requested options for a military strike against Iran last September, a report by the Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday, citing current and former U.S. officials.

The request, reportedly made the National Security Council led by national security advisor John Bolton, alarmed Pentagon and State Department officials, The Journal wrote on Sunday. The Council made the move after an Iranian-aligned group fired missiles into Baghdad's diplomatic quarter, which hosts the U.S. embassy in Iraq. No one was harmed.

According to the publication, it remains unclear whether President Donald Trump himself knew about the request, whether the Pentagon ultimately delivered military options to the White House, and if concrete attack plans against the Islamic Republic were actually formulated. But officials who spoke to the publication confirmed that the Defense Department did indeed comply with the National Security Council's request to develop those options.

Bolton, an avid proponent of the Iraq invasion during the George W. Bush administration, has long taken one of the hardest lines against Iran in Washington and has openly supported the idea of regime change in Tehran.

A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately reply to a CNBC request for comment. Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the National Security Council told The Journal: "We continue to review the status of our personnel following attempted attacks on our embassy in Baghdad and our Basra consulate, and we will consider a full range of options to preserve their safety and our interests."

Wall Street Journal can require membership to read more than a couple of articles so I do not use them to quote.

[Swordsmyth]

John Bolton Again

Started by Warlord, Yesterday

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46828810

Bolton isn't the only one itching to go after Iran.

US to expel every last Iranian boot from Syria - Pompeo

The US will work with allies to "expel every last Iranian boot" from Syria, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says.

Mr Pompeo warned there would be no US reconstruction aid for areas controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad until Iran and its proxies had left.

He also criticised ex-President Barack Obama's Middle East policy, saying he had made "dire misjudgements".

Mr Pompeo was speaking in Cairo three weeks after President Donald Trump said US troops were pulling out of Syria.

The announcement had shocked US allies and sparked strong criticism in Washington.

Mr Pompeo, who has been seeking to reassure allies following Mr Trump's surprise announcement, said: "America will not retreat until the terror fight is over. We will labour tirelessly alongside you to defeat Isis [the Islamic State group], al-Qaeda and other jihadists that threaten our security and yours."

He said that the US was a "force for good" in the Middle East, adding: "Where America retreats, chaos follows."

Iran, alongside Russia, has been supporting the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war, providing arms, military advisers, and reportedly combat troops.

The US is deeply suspicious of Iranian activity in the Middle East and views it as a destabilising force in the region.

It is also an ally of Israel and Saudi Arabia, two of Iran's foes.

On Thursday, Mr Pompeo said: "We will not ease our campaign to stop Iran's malevolent influence and actions against this region and the world."

He added that American sanctions against Iran were "the strongest in history and will keep getting tougher".

[Zippyjuan]

Neo Cons haven't left the building.

[Swordsmyth]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46828810

Bolton isn't the only one itching to go after Iran.

That thread is about the OP article, you are creating a duplicate in the wrong forum. (it should be in US Politics)

Neo Cons haven't left the building.

Mattis left for a reason, others will follow.

[Zippyjuan]

That thread is about the OP article, you are creating a duplicate in the wrong forum. (it should be in US Politics)


Mattis left for a reason, others will follow.

Yes, he had morals.

[Swordsmyth]

Yes, he had morals.

LOL
As if you or Mattis even know what those are.

[Zippyjuan]

Riddle me this, how does a NSC advisor have the authority to tell the pentagon to do anything. This happened during Mattis as well, so I bet he was in agreement.

Some presidents use their National Security Advisor as their #1 choice for policy decisions. Some look to their Secretary of State. Trump looks to Trump (and occasionally Fox News).

[Swordsmyth]

Hopefully Trump is reading Buchanan again:


Stop the ENDLESS WARS!” implored President Donald Trump in a Sunday night tweet.
Well, if he is serious, Trump had best keep an eye on his national security adviser, for a U.S. war on Iran would be a dream come true for John Bolton.
Last September, when Shiite militants launched three mortar shells into the Green Zone in Baghdad, which exploded harmlessly in a vacant lot, Bolton called a series of emergency meetings and directed the Pentagon to prepare a menu of targets, inside Iran, for U.S. air and missile strikes in retaliation.
The Wall Street Journal quoted one U.S. official as saying Bolton’s behavior “rattled people. … People were shocked. It was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting Iran.”
Bolton’s former deputy, Mira Ricardel, reportedly told a gathering the shelling into the Green Zone was “an act of war” to which the U.S. must respond decisively.
Bolton has long believed a U.S. confrontation with Iran is both inevitable and desirable. In 2015, he authored a New York Times op-ed whose title, “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran,” said it all. He has urged that “regime change” in Iran be made a declared goal of U.S. foreign policy.
When Trump announced his decision to withdraw the 2,000 U.S. troops now in Syria, Bolton swiftly imposed conditions: ISIS must first be eliminated, Iranian forces and allied militias must leave, and the Kurds must be protected.

Yet enforcing such red lines would require a permanent presence of American troops. For how, without war, would we effect the removal of Bashar Assad’s Iranian allies, if he declines to expel them and the Iranians refuse to go?
Bolton has an ally in Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

In Cairo last week, Pompeo declared it U.S. policy “to expel every last Iranian boot” from Syria.
And though Hezbollah has been a “major presence” in Lebanon for several decades, “we won’t accept this as the status quo,” said Pompeo, for Hezbollah is a “wholly owned subsidiary of the Iranian regime.”
But how does the secretary of state propose to push Hezbollah out of Lebanon peacefully when the Israelis could not do it in a month-long war in 2006?
Pompeo’s purpose during his tour of the Middle East? Build a new Middle East Strategic Alliance, a MESA, an Arab NATO, whose members are to be Egypt, Jordan and the nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
There are other signs a confrontation is coming soon. The U.S. has objected to Iran’s pending launch of two space satellites, saying these look like tests of missiles designed to deliver nuclear warheads. Yet Iran has never produced weapons-grade uranium or plutonium and never tested an ICBM.
Pompeo has also called for a conclave in Poland in February to bring together an anti-Iran alliance to discuss what is to be done about what he calls “our common enemy.”
Over the weekend, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu boasted of Israel’s latest strike in Syria: “Just in the last 36 hours, the air force attacked Iranian warehouses with Iranian weapons at the international airport in Damascus. The accumulation of recent attacks proves that we are determined more than ever to take action against Iran in Syria, just as we promised.”
Israel brags that it has hit 200 targets inside Syria in recent years. The boasting may be connected to Bibi’s desire to strengthen his credentials as a security hawk for the coming Israeli election. But it is also a provocation to the Iranians and Syrians to retaliate, which could ignite a wider war between Israel and Syrian and Iranian forces.
What does the U.S. think of the Israeli strikes? Said Pompeo: “We strongly support Israel’s efforts to stop Iran from turning Syria into the next Lebanon.”
In short, forces are moving in this country and in Israel to bring about a U.S. confrontation with Iran ... before our troops leave Syria.
But the real questions here are not about Bolton or Pompeo.
They are about Trump. Was he aware of Bolton’s request for a menu of targets in Iran for potential U.S. strikes? Did he authorize it? Has he authorized his national security adviser and secretary of state to engage in these hostile actions and bellicose rhetoric aimed at Iran? And if so, why?
While Trump has urged that the U.S. pull out of these Mideast wars, Pompeo has corrected him, “When America retreats, chaos often follows.”
Is Trump looking for a showdown with Iran, which could result in a war that might vault his approval rating, but be a disaster for the Middle East and world economy and do for him what Operation Iraqi Freedom did for George W. Bush?
One thing may confidently be said of the rhetoric and actions of Bolton and Pompeo: This is not what brought out the new populists who made Donald Trump president, the people who still share his desire to “stop the endless wars.”


https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...trump-war-iran

[enhanced_deficit]

Stop the ENDLESS WARS!” implored President Donald Trump in a Sunday night tweet.

Who exactly was implored, his NSA Bolton, team Jarvanka, ZOA, his top funder Sheldon "drop atom bomb on Iran" Adelson or someone else?

As a commander-in-chief, can't he just order it instead of imploring?