US pokes Iran — and, again, our Lamestream and Congress are silent

07 May 2019

Warmongering willy-nilly-ers

National Security Adviser John Bolton (and presumably our Commander in Chief) have set the following into action:

The U.S. is sending an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East ahead of schedule and warning that Iran and its proxy forces are showing “troubling and escalatory” indications of a possible attack on American forces in the region.

Neither Bolton nor other officials would provide any details about the supposed threat, which comes as the Trump administration wages a campaign of intensifying pressure against Iran and nearly a year after it withdrew from an Obama-era nuclear deal with Tehran.

“Our objective is to get the Islamic Republic of Iran to behave like a normal nation,” [Secretary of State] Pompeo told reporters during a visit to Finland. “When they do that, we will welcome them back.”

As ABC News reported:

U.S. officials told ABC News the deployments were in response to "clear indications" Iranian and Iranian proxy forces were preparing for a possible attack against U.S. forces on land, including in Iraq and Syria, and at sea.

U.S. Central Command requested approval from acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to move additional assets into the region, which Shanahan approved on Sunday, one official said.

Pompeo's expressed sentiment about Iranian duplicity is particularly rich

The world's most violently rogue nation, the United States, is calling comparatively pipsqueak Iran a stability-unbalancing troublemaker.

What is odd, to my agedly experienced eye, is that

Virtually no one outside American government is disputing the probably made-up BS that Iran is threatening American forces.

Evidently, we "all" accept whatever nonsense our goose-stepping hierarchy wants to maintain. Even if that acceptance means yet another unprovoked war and the deaths of hundreds of thousands more innocent people.

How more weak-mindedly Nazi-like can a culture become?

If you think about the American claim

You recognize that Iran would have to be suicidal to attack American assets.

Yet, Iranians strike neither me, nor the historical record, as being suicidal. Or foolish.

Ergo, we can probably safely hypothesize that American leadership is lying again.

There is also this striking oddity — as to leadership form

President Trump is evidently letting CENTCOM's combatant commander (Marine Corps General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr) dictate national war-making policy in the Iranian regard.

Given that our combatant commanders have been singularly unsuccessful in coming up with conflict-winning strategies (of any kind) for many decades, that seems a reckless allowance.

This is not — admittedly — to imply that our civilian leadership has historically been any wiser. Thus (per the wording of the ABC News report) I suspect that the President is keeping General McKenzie available for blame-taking, should something go awry.

But that never happens in war, does it?

As days and years pass, the US leaks credibility

Our pee bag has ruptured.

Currently, Russian and Chinese leadership are more likely to let Reality partially color their statements, than American government does.

This considerably reverses the historical pattern.

The moral? — Soft power dies, when smothered in lies

When virtually no one believes American propaganda anymore — as will inevitably happen on our current course — we will have noticeably weakened our ability to favorably influence others.

Tacitus' ghost cannot be impressed with this strategy. Or with its probable result.

PeteFree.com

US pokes Iran — and, again, our Lamestream and Congress are silent