With Israel and Iran exchanging direct fire, Trump pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and John Bolton promoting regime change in Tehran, Inder Comar offers four reasons why the US may be close to attacking the Islamic Republic.
By Inder Comar
In 1953, the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency, with the help of the British government, orchestrated a coup against Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadeq.
Mossadeq had nationalized the Iranian oil industry, including the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. This was unacceptable to the United Kingdom. A request to the United States for assistance led to “Operation Ajax,” and the overthrow of Mossadeq.
Mossadeq’s political successor was the Shah of Iran, who ruled with the support of the U.S. and the U.K. until 1979, when he was himself overthrown by a popular revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini.
None of this is secret. The CIA openly admitted that it was behind the coup in 2013.
While the coup is not a secret, it remains ancient history in the United States. Maybe even forgotten history.
But while the U.S. has forgotten, the rest of the world remembers. Iran certainly remembers.
Mosaddegh in 1951: Iranians remember.
And this history adds a weighty and grim perspective to the U.S. decision to walk away from the multi-party agreement with Iran related to nuclear development.
The fact of the matter is that the United States has already successfully sponsored regime change in Iran. And even more recently, the United States invaded Iran’s neighbor, Iraq, under false pretenses to overthrow its government. The United States promised democracy, but instead, Iraqis were subjected to years of death and destruction, torture and ISIS.
The past is prologue. In the wake of the invasion of Iraq, the bombing of Libya, the support of rebel groups against Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and the support of a Saudi-led war of aggression in Yemen, the question on everyone’s mind at this time is a terrible one: has the United States now committed itself to violent regime change in Iran?
Here are four reasons that point towards a potential attack against Iran in the near future.
(1) President Trump is now openly committed to regime change. This, according to the President’s personal lawyer, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Trump thus joins in the opinion of his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who has been openly advocating for regime change since 2016.
Trump additionally joins his national security advisor, John Bolton, who also supports regime change. Bolton gave a speech in 2017 in which he promised members of an Iranian exile group, known as the Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK) that the Iranian regime would be toppled by 2019 — next year. Bolton was an early member and supporter of the Project for the New American Century, a now infamous non-profit that provided the intellectual framework for the invasion of Iraq.
(2) The United States does not care about its international law obligations. In any other nation, a political party that openly advocated for war and regime change in another country would be a scandal.
But in the United States, it is common place, an every-day affair.
In the Middle East (and elsewhere), the United States has blatantly disregarded its international legal obligations to maintain collective peace and security. The United States committed the crime of aggression against Iraq, and illegally sponsored armed militias in Syria as a means of overthrowing the Syrian government.
There are very clear international norms regarding the use of violence internationally—norms that are designed to keep global peace.
But time and time again, the United States has ignored them, and violated them.
These international rules might stop another country. But they will not pose any barrier to a U.S.-led invasion of or attack against Iran.
(3) There is already a brewing conflict in Syria between Iran and Israel. One of the biggest proponents of a U.S. walkaway from the
Netanyahu: Got Trump to walk away from the deal. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Iran deal was Benyamin Netanyahu, who gave a televised address in English on April 30, claiming that Iran could not be trusted.
In hindsight, the speech was nakedly aimed at convincing Trump to walk away from the deal. It worked. And just an hour after Trump’s decision to tear up the deal, Israel was already bombing targets in Syria, trying it seems to provoke an Iranian response. Iran did respond with an ineffective rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which on Thursday unleashed a full Israeli response on Iranian targets in Syria.
There is a real potential for a grave flashpoint in the coming weeks that could lead to a major war.
(4) Imperialism and militarism, now dominant as cultural values in the United States, will make another war seem attractive to many Americans. It is a sad, awful truth, but it is one that honest people have to confront: militarism is an accepted and glorified value in the United States.
The U.S. is a country where nearly two-thirds of the population support torture against suspect terrorists, and where more than forty percent of Americans think it was the “right decision” to invade Iraq in 2003–a war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands, produced millions of refugees, led to the rise of ISIS, and was done in blatant violation of international law.
The painful reality is that imperial values are ascendant in the United States.
A lonely, alienated mass of consumers, too spiritless to question the dominant narrative, will simply look the other way as their government targets another society for annihilation.
Democratic norms are lost even as a vast surveillance and killing machine is deployed abroad. Precious and inalienable freedoms are swiftly traded for the false glory of foreign wars and domination.
Spiritual decay sets in, violence ever more glorified, hierarchy and dictatorship seen as positive forces.
America is desperately in need of a cultural and spiritual change. But the good that America and Americans could do will never flower so long as war and aggression are accepted and celebrated.
This article was originally published on Inder Comar’s blog.
Inder Comar is the executive director of Just Atonement Inc., a legal non-profit dedicated to building peace and sustainability, and the Managing Partner of Comar LLP, a private law firm working in technology. He is a recognized expert on the crime of aggression, the legality of the Iraq War, and international human rights. He holds a law degree from the New York University School of Law, a Master of Arts degree from Stanford University and Bachelor of Arts degrees from Stanford University. His Twitter handle is @InderComar.
After reading this column I wondered why I had not run across anything by this author before. So insightful. The last few paragraphs gave me shivers. Perhaps we should start reading up on Stockholm Syndrome. I fear it may have reached epidemic proportions.
Thank you Inder,
For focusing attention on the darker angels now torturing the American soul as we commit our collective futures to the militaristic henchmen leading our government and us once again into the the valley of death. Your remarks suggest to me that their livelihood as legislators and think tank appointees is paid by the monetary interests of the top 1%, not the 99% who pay most of the financial freight and 100% of the lives. Is this the kind of world we want to tell our kids about?
Seeing the creepy pic of the 2 political perverts and poster boys of Reverse Darwinism, Satanyahu and his ventriloquist dummy, illustrating this intelligent and succinct piece reminded me of Justice Potter Stewart’s comment on pornography: “…I know it when I see it.”
I cannot see any forces of sanity and reason willing or able to deter or impede these lunatics and their diabolical co-conspirators in this trumped up criminally demented anti-Iran folly.
since people in the US don’t care, it’s up to other countries to stop following.
Modern day Diplomacy ?
“And just an hour after Trump’s decision to tear up the deal, Israel was already bombing targets in Syria, trying it seems to provoke an Iranian response.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=122&v=KEBVm_byma4
Netanahu while in Moscow with Putin orders the ILLEGAL bombing of Syria , ( Putin + Russia being the main ally of Syria ) ? ? ?
Was this like Trump at dinner telling Chinese President ( Xi Jinping ) that the US had just ordered the ILLEGAL bombing of Syria ?? .
……………………………………………………………………………………….
It’s not true that imperial values and militarism are in the ascendant in the US. In fact the reverse is true, most Americans are fed up with foreign wars and disgusted with their government’s conduct. The problem is the government doesn’t appear to care at all. The gap between what the citizens want and what the government wants has never been wider. The question is what this means for the furture: will the government change or will the US simply drop any pretense of being a democracy?
@ ” In fact the reverse is true, most Americans are fed up with foreign wars and disgusted with their government’s conduct.”
Polls suggest that Americans’ disgust with foreign wars is kind of mushy. When asked in the abstract, they say they don’t want foreign wars. But when it comes down to a particular war after the softening up propaganda, the majority support the war.
My takeaways: [i] Americans are downright ignorant on the legality of wars; and [ii] they are easily influenced by pro-war propaganda appeals based on a humanitarian theme, e.g., intervention to stop chemical gas attacks on civilians.
Of course there are some of us who believe that the U.S. is not a humanitarian organization. …
I am afraid it has been that way for years and years. The will of the people does not make a damned difference to those who run this shitshow.
I think that it is true that some Americans will find a war with Iran to be attractive, but most will not. The majority will simply be indifferent, just as they already are to U.S. military activities in other countries. This is because the government and the media have groomed people into a state of passive acceptance of whatever the establishment wants them to believe. Didn’t we used to have a robust antiwar movement? Where did it go?
Ask Obama. Since his ascension, so many changes were allowed to his powers, nobody believing that the powers given could be misused by a new POTUS. Trump and his chosen advisors, as Rouhani has noted from Iran, have no idea of international law (or normal human decency, I add) and its importance for all of us. MAGA means nothing to any but the rich, and Israel is allowed to decide policy and personnel in government and business regardless of the real interests of the US population and environment.
Stop with the lies and masturbatory practices :
You had a robust ‘don’t draft me’ movement
Iran needs to immediately ask Russia for help or else it’s going to end up like Iraq, Libya & Syria? Russia needs to be convinced to set up Airbase’s & some of their Airforce in strategic locations within Iranian Territory & also have tactical nukes available as a warning that the US regime change agenda won’t be tolerated by Russia just as it wasn’t tolerated by Putin in Syria? The Russian S400 missile defence systems need to also be sold to Iran & deployed at the border of the Golan Heights? The stunning thing about this whole situation is how evil & brutish the American Govt is, it’s the cause of all this chaos in the Middle East due to its incredible greed & arrogant hubris as the “exceptional nation”, unique in its warmongering murderous ways? This Antichrist, false God of a Country has made itself the Worlds Judge,Jury & executioner & is just a cowardly bully in the same league as Hitlers Nazi Germany? The only thing that will stop US regime change is having a nuclear deterrent! Don’t give up your nukes Nth Korea or else your next & if your got some nukes to spare, send them to Iran?
The world and many of its people are being destroyed by:
“The ‘Great Satan’ and His Satanic Gang of War Criminals”
There are monsters in our midst
Did you know they exist?
They plan and plot for many wars
They are Satan’s warmongering whores…
A few years ago the epithet, ‘Great Satan’ [1] was used to describe the USA. Today, that epithet could be deemed appropriate when one sees all the atrocities and carnage committed by America and its allies.
Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen are some of the countries destroyed by the agents of evil masquerading as doing “good.” Their demonic “work” could be called, “The Diabolical Destroyers of a Number of Countries.”…
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-great-satan-and-his-satanic-gang-of.html
Too bad the American people are too brainwashed to see what is going on. Trump’s scrapping the nuclear deal with Iran was a step to prepare for war. Now Israel will on cue, give him an excuse to do so.
Maybe “mad-dog Mattis” can talk some sense into chicken hawks Trump and Bolton. I never thought I would be glad to have a general in that position.
The plan being enacted now to draw the US into war with Iran is revealed in this Sputnik article:
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201805111064343876-israel-provocations-us-war-with-iran/
Actually the neocons in the Trump administration have put Israel up tp playing this provocateur role, to give the US a reason to attack Iran.
Iran says it will abide by the agreements as long as the Europeans do, screw Trump. He’s going to have to come up with some clever excuses to start another war. One might be to have Israel continue its strikes and bait Iran into a major retaliatory attack. If Iran is smart it will lie low and let Trump and Netenyahu piss, moan and bluster; showing their mendacity to the world.
Item # 4 makes me wish I had emigrated during the Reagan regime-so depressing.
Paul G. – my bet is the Europeans are not going along with Trump because their citizens are strongly opposed to it, as they’re actually aware that Iran has done nothing wrong and has abided by the agreement. Watch for some false flags, some phony chemical weapons attack in order to give the British and the French an “excuse” to go in against Iran. Prime Minister May is still hurting from the Skripal fiasco. She doesn’t dare do anything right now. But if she is given a good reason to go in against Iran, she will. That’s what I think is going on.
The U.S. and Israel have been baiting the Syrians, Russians and Iranians in Syria with hits and lies, expecting to shake the hornet’s nest enough to make them retaliate, thereby giving a good excuse to go in. Other than Iran’s feeble hit on the Golan Heights yesterday and the odd retaliation from the Syrians, they haven’t yet taken the bait. They know what awaits them if they do.
Trump has no idea what he’s doing. He doesn’t know the history. Satanyahu and the neocons are in full control. If anyone gets hit, I hope it’ll be Tel Aviv.
Hey backwardsevolution Alexander Mercourious thinks Europe will be squeezed by the U.S. over market share…. like Iran’s tiny sized market vs America’s mega sized market. Europeans will have no choice but to choose the bigger American sized market to do business in. Although this may work for the U.S. in the short term it leaves one to wonder to what the long term relationship between the U.S. and Europe will be like. Do you think a little strained?
http://theduran.com/eu-claims-to-stand-by-jcpoa-with-iran-should-not-be-taken-seriously-heres-why/
Joe Tedesky – hi, Joe. I haven’t talked to you in a long time. Hard to tell what’s going on. IMO, it’s all a done deal. The EU will come in when something happens, which will be manufactured out of thin air. They make out like Macron tried to convince Trump on his recent visit to the White House, but I don’t think that’s what happened at all. It looks good to the French people, though. They get to think their leader actually tried to talk some sense into Trump. Then when something happens, when Iran is framed for doing something they didn’t even do and France goes in, they will say, “Well, since Iran used chemical weapons (or whatever), we just have to get involved.”
I think they want Iran in the same way they wanted Iraq and Syria. They want to control that corridor, and I don’t think they’re going to stop until they get it. I don’t think it has anything to do with Israel being afraid of Iran. That’s just a story; Iran has no intention of bombing Israel, and they know it. But the Israelis are keeping the bombing up in order to make Iran angry, to get a reaction out of them, anything to allow the West to go in.
They couldn’t overthrow Iran’s leader (like they previously did) and inciting citizen protests hasn’t worked. Time to pull the big rabbit out of the hat: trump up something – anything – on Iran.
The last few years has been like watching a pack of wolves take down its prey. They just keep chipping away and chipping away until the prey gets weaker and weaker. It’s really quite despicable and cunning.
You take care, Joe. Good talking to you.
Backwardsevolution –
Yes. That is what seems to be the plan. I don’t think they really tell you what they talk behind the closed doors – Trump, Macron, Merkel, and May, when they have meetings. All these Nations are joined at the hip – just about in every way, including their intelligence agencies. They have minor differences here and there, for a show. This week, we had visitors from U.K..The people there are brainwashed by the media, just like the way it is here.
But a war on Iran is going to be on a much bigger scale than on Iraq. Persians are nationalistic people and the scale of destruction and refugees are going to be even much more than it was in Syria and Iraq. It seems to me the only thing preventing such a catastrophe is that Trump does not have strong political support among the people, and if some thing goes wrong that will be used by the Ruling Establishment to oust him which they are desperate to do. Trump knows it, and he may not be such a fool to start a war.
Another most likely scenario is to intervene in Syria. France, U.K., Israel, and our Neocons here desperately want to do it. The last two secular states Syria and Lebanon left in ME are a thorn in their side, and these nations won’t rest until they destroy these states and install puppet regimes.
Dave P. – “…Trump does not have strong political support among the people, and if some thing goes wrong that will be used by the Ruling Establishment to oust him which they are desperate to do. Trump knows it.”
Yes, I’m pretty sure Trump does know this. So far all Trump has done is wrist-slapped Syria twice, even forewarned them that the missiles were coming. Keeping that in mind, I just don’t see him going ballistic on Iran. Sanctions? Yes. Outright bombing? I’d be surprised. I think if he were really in bed with these neocons, Syria would have been obliterated by now. But I could be wrong.
It’s really bad, isn’t it, Dave? I feel for Iran and I will be absolutely furious if they hurt those people.
Trump must know right from wrong, Backwards. He expressed reasonable thinking about, not just the current tensions, but also our entire recent history of making war during the campaign. Now that he is in office, he is acting like a puppet for the same warmongering neocons who pulled the strings on the Clintons, Dubya and Obomber. Either he lied to get elected or he is acting under threats to his life, his family and his family fortune. The distinction won’t matter if it gets us all killed, or even if it just gets a lot of other people killed. This country will share collective guilt for destroying all these other societies. We’ve already incurred way too much of that. To do our own moral duty we have to say things that cause most brainwashed Americans to consider us traitors. The incessant false narratives by the media is why it is so easy for the masses to condemn alternative news sources and even hold them up as a logical oxymoron. “Alternative facts” they say is just another word for BS propagated by America’s enemies. It’s a heavy lift to defend what we see as the truth in America today, but how can one lie to one’s self?
Realist – “It isn’t hard to tell the truth once you know what the truth is”, or however that saying goes. Getting there is the hard part. I keep bending over backwards for Trump, but I’m looking at what he’s said and done and the precarious position he’s in.
He has hit Syria twice, after forewarning them, but I’ll just bet the neocons were wanting much more than the slap he gave them. He did lie about Syria using chemical weapons (perhaps he is being lied to by his advisers), but he moved way too quickly. He should have waited for the facts. He also keeps saying that “We’ll be getting out of Syria soon,” but they’re still there.
He was apparently very angry over being lied to about the expulsion of the Russian diplomats. He was told that everybody else would be expelling the same amount, but they’d didn’t. He has said all along that he didn’t like this Iran agreement (I never understood why), so that isn’t a surprise really. Stupid, though. He’s far too close to that little jerk leader in Israel.
“Either he lied to get elected or he is acting under threats to his life, his family and his family fortune.”
This is what I’m unsure of. The only thing I do in situations like this is I look at their personality and their past. Trump is a builder, an entertainer, a hotelier. He builds golf courses. These are all things that bring happiness and fun to people’s lives (well, a lot of people’s lives). I’m sure he’s been competitive in his life, but I doubt very much whether he played with army men as a child or fantasized about becoming a general when he grew up. IOW, bombing the crap out of another country doesn’t fit his personality profile.
Was he lying about wanting to end the wars? Maybe, but I don’t think so. He was adamant about writing his own Inaugural Speech, they say, and in that speech he said what he wanted to do. He didn’t have to do that. He was “already” President. I think he meant those words, that he wanted to end the wars and bring jobs back, but something has gone terribly wrong since then.
I suspect what’s happened is he has been totally surrounded by the neocons, and quite possibly threatened. I mean, look at what these guys are capable of: torture, assassinations, convenient accidental deaths. Russiagate, I think, has served to shut Trump down. The Democrats and the media are frying him, and many in his own party are also sabotaging him. I guess they’re too beholden to corporate interests. The FBI, CIA and the Department of Justice are undermining him. There’s leaks all over the place. He’s really up against it.
You’ve got me! We’ll have to wait and see. If all he does is sanction Iran, then fine. It’s not fair, but at least nobody will get killed. But if these insane psychopaths wanting war are pushing him in that direction, then he needs to fire the lot of them. If they are threatening him, then he needs to inform the American people of this fact.
The lead article right now on Zero Hedge is that the FBI planted a mole (yet unidentified) in his campaign apparatus. Talk about meddling in American democracy! The intelligence agencies apparently wanted to influence if not control the election. It’s only a small step up from that to blackmailing the president into enforcing the agency’s policies rather than his own. Of course, Hoover was infamous for doing the same thing in his day. This may have always been a police state with just the fake trappings of a democratic republic and fair elections. Makes one question the sense of working to make this a better world, as we will always be thwarted by someone dirty. Just roll with the sleaze and grab what you can for yourself… seems to be the way too many operate.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-10/wsj-fbi-hid-mole-trump-campaign
Realist – “This may have always been a police state with just the fake trappings of a democratic republic and fair elections.” I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Somehow this last election got away on them, and they are going to make sure it never happens again. These psychos are trying to impeach Trump before the evidence of corruption comes out. Hillary Clinton said it herself: “If this get’s out, we’ll all hang.”
The only news I watch is Tucker Carlson (not always) and Sean Hannity (and I only watch the part of his show that gives updates on the above from Judicial Watch, various lawyers, members of the House Intelligence Committee, etc.) It’s absolutely fascinating. The noose is tightening around the necks of Rosenstein at DOJ, Comey, McCabe, Clapper, Brennan, Hillary Clinton, maybe Mueller, and the other clowns involved. They tried to stop Trump getting elected, and then after he was elected they spied on him, then set up a special prosecutor to go after Trump. If what I’ve heard is anywhere close to the truth, then what these people have done is criminal and they should be behind bars.
They have attempted to overthrow the President of the United States. That’s what it comes down to. They are stalling on releasing documents. Rosenstein even begged Devin Nunes not to insist on seeing names and documents. It’s heating up. Will the information come out before the Democrats impeach Trump? If it does, then all Hell is gonna break loose.
On what brought about the apparent Trump reversal: It is the complete surrounding of the administration by the NSC, a group of 2400 warmongers who keep the admin in crisis mode and sell the idea that only they know the true perfidy of their preferred enemies.
The NSC view their job as pressuring the Pres to war for their own egos. They do not think, they work for the group rewards. Obama was indeed captured by them, as shown in Woodward’s The War Within for the AfPak “surge” case. Hillary gave the boys with the medals all that they asked, Obama demanded reason that it would work, and they stonewalled him until he capitulated. Biden objected mildly that it was irrational, and was excluded from NSC meetings. They simply outnumber, surround, and bully the administration. No one is prepared to fire them all. We need exactly zero of them, and could eliminate 80 percent of the military with no ill effects at all.
The ziocons are unlikely to attack Russia but may trap themselves. The Repubs and Dems want to attack Iran to get the 3 billion annual US “aid” to Israel into their pockets and campaign accounts, and the zionists want the same. The MIC wants another long-term foreign enemy to get money to steal and waste.
The 2018 campaign bribery season may elicit some incidents. Hopefully Russia will have enough S-400s by then to close Syrian and Iranian airspace. Perhaps then the victory will go to whomever has the cheapest rockets or anti-rockets.
B.E.-
Tucker and Judicial Watch are going up against what Robert Parry called “the Mighty Wurlitzer” of the rest of the MSM. No matter how much they have the truth behind them, I fear they will be drowned out. I would love to see our DOJ do the right thing, but I think they have a snowball’s chance in hell.
Skip Scott – Tucker Carlson doesn’t cover this corruption much. It’s Sean Hannity that’s doing it, and he is unrelenting. And this isn’t just Judicial Watch (they play a small part). This is a whole host of lawyers and investigative journalists who are working on this, along with the House Intelligence Committee. The House Intelligence Committee has threatened Contempt of Congress against the Department of Justice, and they say they will follow through if they do not get the documents they’re requesting.
To me, it sounds like the Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, the DNC, Clapper at the DNI, Loretta Lynch (maybe) and other players are all complicit in trying to not only get Hillary elected, but to overthrow the President. The Department of Justice has most definitely been involved.
When this information gets released, I do not see how they could possibly keep a lid on it.
Hi B.E.-
This string has been very educational and interesting. I am hopeful for the House Intelligence Committee, but I am fearful of “the long knives”, and suspect the investigation will get quashed at some point.
As for Trump’s true colors:
“I suspect what’s happened is he has been totally surrounded by the neocons, and quite possibly threatened.”
As far as I can tell, he chose to surround himself with neocons, given all his picks for these important positions. Was he really threatened to the point where he needed to pick the “worst of the worst” when it comes to warmongers? They nearly all hold opinions 180 degrees from what Trump espoused during his campaign.
Putin needs to enter a formal alliance with Iran, and make clear to the Empire that he will fight them with his advanced conventional weapons if they attack Iran. He needs to do this now before it is too late to stop America’s war machine. His resolve now may forestall a nuclear WWIII.
If Russia waits to draw it’s red line until Syria and Iran are destroyed, it will be too late to counter the Empire. Russia has little choice but to respond to the Empire’s aggressions NOW! S400 air defense systems should be installed in Damascus right away, and any Israeli attacks should be responded to by shooting down their aircraft. If the US fleet launches a massive missile attack, those ships should be targeted and sunk by Russia’s new missiles. Putin needs to understand that there is a point beyond appeasement where only a forceful response is adequate. We are at that point now.
How about a about a large shipment of S 400’s.
Excellent idea – and send them soon!
Perhaps that’s why Putin invited Bibi to the V-Day parade. In the words of Sun Tzu (Art of War):
“It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.”
Absolutely correct in your comments Mike, Putin needs to draw a red line in the sand immediately? Like it al not, America can’t be t that stupid to realise that Russia has the capacity & capability, if push comes to shove, to totally reduce America to a pile of nuclear ashes, many times over? Let’s see if the Deepstate elite class have the stomach to rule over a nuclear wasteland of a Country?
I agree with you Mike on this as well. However, I believe that people have to understand that President Putin and his lieutenants are playing the “long game”. To begin with, there are varying reports that have Russian S-300 systems already in Syria or are on their way. According to military intelligence articles I have read, these S-300 systems have been upgraded to such an extent that they can operate at similar levels to the S-400.
To date, what S-300 systems are in Russia are under Russian control. This means that the new systems will be operated by Syrian Army specialists. And with this, training will have to arranged and it will take some time to make good use of it.
Russian reticence to make a formal alliance with Iran may also be a result of President Putin’s distaste for any appearance of empire-building, something he most assuredly does not want to invest Russia’s valuable capital on.
I have watched President Putin for many years on the world stage. He is a master at international strategies. To date he has done an excellent job in curbing the lunacy of US foreign policy endaevors.
I would just relax and wait for his next move. Trust me, it will be something the US and Israel will not expect… :-)
Iran will eventually learn to ignore the US balloon tiger. It is puffed up and stretched oh so thin. The US is operating at a debt to gnp similar to the full on intensity at the end of world war 2. The US has gone mad. It is collapsing and could obliterate the world as it goes.
Russia, China, Turkey and Iranian chess masters will take the Israeli bullying. Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia will remain as silent as possible, as will the Philippines, So too will Hawaii and the pacific coast of north America.
The US public conscience has been destroyed by money control of mass media and elections, the dictatorship of the rich that has destroyed democracy. Bribery to US politicians controls the entire nation, a fraction of its budget fed back through the MIC/Israel/WallSt to corrupt political parties. Control of mass media by the rich hides the real governing mechanisms. A state of war permits primitive tyrant politicians to invent foreign enemies to pose with the flag as fake protectors, to demand power and accuse their moral superiors of disloyalty. We can stop this tyranny.
When the mass media are protected from domination by money, we will have public debate of all policy viewpoints by experts instead of propagandists. When elections and the federal branches are reformed, we will have far more beneficial policies. This requires constitutional amendments to restrict funding of elections and mass media to limited individual contributions. It requires better checks and balances, restriction of executive power, renegotiation of NATO as purely defensive, and elimination of AUMFs.
Our poorly regulated economy allows unethical bullies to prevail. Their belief system and principal skills are lying, cheating, and stealing, and we have allowed them to deny us democracy. Requiring quality and truth in manufacturing and advertising, plus heavy taxation of incomes more than twice the average, will remove most incentives for unethical conduct. Together these reforms will restore the public conscience.
I hope and pray the American military will counsel President Trump on the downside of playing nuclear chicken with the rest of the world, on the costs and futility of another slaughter throughout the region, and on the possibility that BiBi may be in a political fight at home that should not cost one American, Syrian, Iranian, or Russian life.