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The World: "Marooned in a blizzard of lies."
By mickielynn on 2019-05-23 13:44:14
[caption id="attachment_ 12605" align="alignleft" width="600"]
John Bolton,
You're Fired!
Should I fire Mr. Mustache?
He's just itching to get us into at least one war.[/caption] This cartoon is from a satirical letter in the voice of the occupant of
the White House; musing about why he ought to fire John Bolton. It comes along with a petition to give Bolton a pink Slip.
Lately as I read and listen to the news I find myself thinking of the old Dave Frishberg song:
Embedded video at https://www.youtube.com/embed/WB_qZWor_gY
It's a pretty old song, and some of the references might be obscure to those too young to have heard them before. Why did I
think of this particular song in the first place?
At this time in the history of our country there is a debate over what truth actually is. Bolstered by constant cries of “fake
news" and the concept of “alternative facts." | was a late bloomer but since the Vietnam war I've known on a deep, personal
level that our government lies to us. Especially about covert actions, surveillance, torture, and real motives for wars. But
since 2015, the level of prevarication is several orders of magnitude beyond those past lies of omission and just plain
falsehoods. For instance: by the end of April 2019 the fact checkers at the Washington Post documented and annotated more
than 10,000 lies told by our president. And the rate has been increasing over the past several months. These are just the lies
that he has made public in tweets, on TV appearances, and increasingly at political rallies.
Embedded iframe at
https://web.archive.org/web/202 10000000000/https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/fd0e2190-4fb3-11e8-85c1-
9326c4511033
We've gotten to the point where public lies and misleading statements are becoming commonplace. Almost all of this
administration's cabinet members, press and communications people, and other high level officials follow Trump's example.
Some lies are more dangerous to the world than others! Especially our president's dealings with leaders and diplomats of
other countries around the world, where he may say or agree to something at one time but then renege on it the next time he
speaks. Which leads to a flurry of lies told to defend the false statements that our chief executive makes. Since this blog
usually deals with avoiding war, injustice, civilian deaths, hate speech, and human rights violations; and since one could
write a book about all of the lies affecting domestic and foreign policies; TODAY I wanted to focus on the consequences of
lies and false information being used to ratchet up tension with Iran and to bring us to the point where a war of either
deliberate choice/ or miscalculation has become possible. If we long term memory avoiders can learn from recent history,
let's think back to the lies and manipulation of intelligence that launched us into war with Iraq. A war that destroyed an
advanced country and created sectarian violence and terror that the people of Iraq are still dealing with today. After the
revelations that there had been no weapons of mass destruction and no threats to the United States we admitted that we had
made a terrible mistake and would never do it again. [caption id="attachment_12614" align="alignnone" width="600"]
| } , Illustration by Lyne Lucien of
a showdown between Iran and the US In the persons of John Bolton, National Security Advisor/"Ambassador" and General
Qasem Soleimani.
From Wikipedia:
Soleimani is an Iranian Major General in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and since 1998 commander of its Quds
Force—a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations.
Soleimani hailed from a humble background.[/caption] One of the major lies that our President tells is that he understands
foreign policy and is well informed about history and the geopolitical consequences of his actions. But since he isn't, he
appoints people whom he thinks can manage national security for the United States. Unfortunately he has made some very
poor choices! Enter John Bolton who dislikes treaties, believes in military solutions and military might to solve conflicts,
and still thinks that the Iraq war was a good thing. Add to that the fact that he has been_proposing bombing Iran since 2008.
For a complete recent history of the swathe of John Bolton's destruction of diplomatic options and established treaties see Is
John Bolton the most dangerous man in the world? In April of 2018 President Trump appointed John Bolton as his National
Security Advisor (a position that doesn't need congressional confirmation.) Just one month later he moved from words to
deeds , withdrawing unilaterally from the carefully negotiated, multiparty Iran nuclear agreement. Many feel that this set up
the situation that has been escalated by Bolton's and Pompeo's policies of "maximum pressure" with increased sanctions and
military threats. Remember that sanctions also kill innocent civilians. In the decade before the 2003 invasion of Iraq up to a
million people died from the resulting shortages of food and medical care. [caption id="attachment_ 12613"
align="alignnone" width="600"]
President Donald Trump and
National Security Advisor John Bolton. Although Bolton is standing behind him, who is making foreign policy? Photo by
Jonathan Ernst/ Reuters[/caption] [caption id="attachment_12617" align="alignnone" width="600"]
Bolton is on a fast track,
seemingly aware that Trump’s time in office may be limited. Photo by Jim Young/ Reuters[/caption] So let's follow the
increased creation of a false narrative that would enable war with Iran based on false and manipulated information. On May
5th John Bolton released a statement from the White House, claiming that intelligence information indicated that the threat
of military escalation by Iran was based on new facts. But it turns out that this so called new information was supplied by
Israeli intelligence. It may be part of a deception where there is really no evidence of significant changes in Iranian
behavior. Both Israel and Saudi Arabia would love to have the US fight a war with their arch rival, Iran. Then on May 13th,
Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo crashed an EU meeting and tried to convince the high level representatives there that Iran
represented a new threat. They were not impressed. In fact they refused to meet with him as a group and also advised that
the US "exercise maximum restraint in this situation." Greece's top diplomat warned "Accidents happen when tension is
rising." [caption id="attachment_ 12612" align="alignnone" width="600"]
Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo paid a surprise visit on Monday to Brussels, where European Union foreign ministers were meeting to discuss the
Iran nuclear accord, which Washington has abandoned. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Bloomberg News)[/caption] [caption
id="attachment_12611" align="alignnone" width="600"]
Portuguese Foreign Minister
Augusto Santos Silva (L) speaks with Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell (C) speak with EU's High Representative for
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini during a EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting at the EU
headquarters in Brussels on May 13, 2019. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP/ Getty Images)[/caption] As more and more worry
and skepticism developed in the legislative, military and intelligence communities here at home, Secretary Pompeo and
Acting Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan briefed Congress in a closed door session this week. Unfortunately, the
responses to the briefing instead of being unified in evaluating the situation and discussing steps to deescalate broke down
along partisan lines and were being used for political posturing. [caption id="attachment_12647" align="alignnone"
width="600"] Acting U.S.
Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, left, speaks to members of the media as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, listens
after a closed briefing for Senate members on Tuesday, May 21, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Acting Secretary
Shanahan and Secretary Pompeo joined Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford to brief Congressional members
on Iran. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/TNS)[/caption] And to consider the political and partisan divide on this vital issue of war
or peace and congressional rights to authorize war under the war powers act - Yesterday in the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations there was a vote on a bill that would have required congress to authorize war before any military action could be
taken against Iran. In a strictly party line vote the resolution was defeated in committee.
