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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://theintercept.com/2019/01/15/john-bolton-wants-to-bomb-iran-and-he-may-get-what-he-wants/">https://theintercept.com/2019/01/15/john-bolton-wants-to-bomb-iran-and-he-may-get-what-he-wants/</a></font>
<h1 class="Post-title">John Bolton Wants to Bomb Iran — and He
May Get What He Wants</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Mehdi Hasan - January 15,
2019</div>
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<p><u>You underestimate John</u> Bolton at your peril.</p>
<p>Remember when he was passed over for the job of
secretary of state because, we were told, Donald Trump
didn’t like his “<a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-is-holding-a-government-casting-call-hes-seeking-the-look/2016/12/21/703ae8a4-c795-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?utm_term=.5e15d073f880">brush-like
mustache</a>“? How we laughed. Yet less than 18
months later, after <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/business/media/john-bolton-trump-fox-news.html">regular
appearances</a> on the Fox News casting couch, he
was <a
href="https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/977009884595093504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E977009884595093504&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2018%2F03%2F22%2Ftrump-ousts-mcmaster-makes-bolton-national-security-adviser%2F">appointed</a>
national security adviser, with an office around the
corner from the president’s.</p>
<p>Remember when Defense Secretary James Mattis met with
the new national security adviser on the steps of the
Pentagon and <a
href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/03/29/bolton-mattis-meeting-devil-incarnate-sot-wolf.cnn">joked</a>
that he was the “devil incarnate”? Mattis is <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/us/politics/jim-mattis-defense-secretary-trump.html">gone</a>.
Bolton is still standing.</p>
<p>Remember when White House chief of staff John Kelly
got into a “<a
href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/412100-kelly-and-bolton-get-in-profanity-laced-shouting-match-report">heated,
profanity-laced shouting match</a>” with Bolton,
over immigration, right outside the Oval Office? Kelly
is <a
href="https://www.vox.com/2018/12/8/17117790/john-kelly-fired-resigned-trump">gone</a>.
Bolton is still standing.</p>
<p>Remember when Trump <a
href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1075528854402256896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1075528854402256896&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fhomenews%2Fadministration%2F422179-trump-defends-syria-withdrawal-invokes-memory-of-fallen-soldiers">announced</a>
that the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria were “all coming
back, and they’re coming back now,” only a few weeks
after Bolton had <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/bolton-us-forces-will-stay-in-syria-until-iran-and-its-proxies-depart/2018/09/24/be389eb8-c020-11e8-92f2-ac26fda68341_story.html?utm_term=.19bcf30e00d9">said</a>
they would be staying until all Iranian troops and
proxies left the country? We were told that Bolton had
been ignored, overruled, sidelined even. Not quite.
Earlier this month, on a visit to Israel, the national
security adviser <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/bolton-promises-no-troop-withdrawal-from-syria-until-isis-contained-kurds-safety-guaranteed/2019/01/06/ee219bba-11c5-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html?utm_term=.5edd1a124192">confirmed</a>
that there was no timetable for pulling out the troops
and it all would depend on the Turkish government
guaranteeing the safety of U.S.-backed Kurdish
fighters. “John Bolton puts brakes on Trump withdrawal
from Syria,” read a <a
href="https://www.ft.com/content/f199a438-11d2-11e9-a581-4ff78404524e">headline</a>
in the Financial Times.</p>
<p>Trump’s national security adviser is a hard man to
keep down.</p>
<p><u>In 2003, Bolton</u> got the war he wanted with
Iraq. As an influential, high-profile and hawkish
member of the Bush administration, Bolton <a
href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/27/the-stovepipe">put
pressure</a> on intelligence analysts, <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/03/29/john-bolton-trump-bush-bustani-kids-opcw/">threatened</a>
international officials, and told <a
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/11_november/20/ws_johnbolton.shtml">bare-faced
lies</a> about weapons of mass destruction. He has <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/26/iraq-war-was-justified">never
regretted</a> his support for the illegal and
catastrophic invasion of Iraq, which killed <a
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/iraq-death-toll_n_4102855.html">hundreds
of thousands</a> of people.</p>
<p>Now he wants a war with Iran. So say State Department
and Pentagon officials, according to the <a
href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-sought-options-to-strike-iran-11547375404">Wall
Street Journal</a>, who were “rattled” by his
request to the Pentagon “to provide the White House
with military options to strike Iran last year.” The <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/13/us/politics/bolton-iran-pentagon.html">New
York Times</a> also reported that “senior Pentagon
officials are voicing deepening fears” that Bolton
“could precipitate a conflict with Iran.”</p>
<p>Should we be surprised? In March 2015, Bolton, then a
private citizen, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times
headlined: <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/opinion/to-stop-irans-bomb-bomb-iran.html">“To
Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.”</a> In July 2017, just
eight months prior to joining the Trump
administration, Bolton <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/03/23/heres-john-bolton-promising-regime-change-iran-end-2018/">told</a>
a gathering of the <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2017/07/07/mek-iran-rajavi-cult-saudi-gingrich-terrorists-trump/">cultish
Iranian exile group</a>, the MEK, that “the declared
policy of the United States of America should be the
overthrow of the mullahs’ regime in Tehran” and that
“before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran.”</p>
<p>Despite the leaks to the press over the past few days
from “rattled” but unnamed officials at the State
Department and the Pentagon, Bolton is far from being
the only person close to Trump who is pushing a
belligerent line on Iran. He has plenty of allies in
the administration. As <a
href="https://www.vox.com/world/2019/1/14/18181962/iran-news-bolton-strike-pentagon-trump-mattis">Vox</a>
reported on Monday, “Bolton has staffed up the NSC
with people who share his views. Last week, he hired
Richard Goldberg, a noted Iran hawk, to run the
administration’s pressure campaign against the
country.”</p>
<p>Outside of the Bolton-dominated National Security
Council, there’s also the hawkish Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo, who <a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/congressional-hawks-gear-kill-talks-bomb-iran/">once
suggested</a> launching “2,000 sorties to destroy
the Iranian nuclear capacity.” As I <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2019/01/11/mike-pompeo-speech-cairo/">noted</a>
last week, in his <a
href="https://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2019/01/288410.htm">recent
speech</a> on Middle East policy in Cairo, Pompeo
made more than 20 references to “malevolent” and
“oppressive” Iran and denounced “Iranian expansion”
and “regional destruction” while giving Saudi Arabia a
big wet kiss. “Countries increasingly understand that
we must confront the ayatollahs, not coddle them,” he
declared. Pompeo then told <a
href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-pompeo-announces-international-summit-on-iran">Fox
News</a>, before leaving Cairo, that the United
States would be hosting an international summit on
Iran in Poland next month.</p>
<p>So how do these hawks plan to get their war with
Tehran? Bolton, in particular, seems keen on two lines
of attack. The first relates to the nuclear issue. “We
have little doubt that Iran’s leadership is still
strategically committed to achieving deliverable
nuclear weapons,” the national security adviser <a
href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/06/john-bolton-israel-syria-withdrawal-1083303?_embed=true&maxwidth=622&_format=_frame">told</a>
fellow Iran-hater, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, in Jerusalem earlier this month. There is,
however, not a shred of evidence for Bolton’s claim —
in fact, the U.S. intelligence community has flatly
and repeatedly rejected it. “We do not know whether
Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons,”
said Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, in
his 2017 <a
href="https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Newsroom/Testimonies/SSCI%20Unclassified%20SFR%20-%20Final.pdf">“Worldwide
Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community.”</a></p>
<p>The second line of attack relates to the activities
of Tehran-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
According to the <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/13/us/politics/bolton-iran-pentagon.html">Times</a>,
Bolton’s request for military options against Iran
“came after Iranian-backed militants fired three
mortars or rockets into an empty lot on the grounds of
the United States Embassy in Baghdad in September.” To
be clear: No one was killed or injured in this attack.</p>
<p>Also: How far does this retaliatory logic extend? The
United States has been <a
href="https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0405/p99s01-duts.html">accused</a>
of supporting extremist, anti-government groups in
Iran, as well as <a
href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/benjamin-netanyahu-admits-israel-to-blame-for-damascus-strikes-1.812590">Israeli
strikes</a> on Iranian positions in Syria – does
this mean the Iranians have a right to launch
retaliatory air strikes on U.S. soil? Do the Cubans
have the right to bomb Miami, where a number of <a
href="https://www.salon.com/2008/01/14/cuba_2/">U.S.-supported
anti-Castro groups</a> reside and operate?</p>
<p>Logic, however, has never been Bolton’s strong suit.
He is an ideologue. “It is a big mistake,” he once <a
href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/03/21/boltonism">declaimed</a>,
“for us to grant any validity to international law
even when it may seem in our short-term interest to do
so—because, over the long term, the goal of those who
think that international law really means anything are
those who want to constrict the United States.”</p>
<p>To hell with <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=w0y2gYoqOnA">international
law</a>. And the <a
href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45474864">International
Criminal Court</a>. And <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/11/19/civilian-casualties-us-war-on-terror/">civilian
lives</a>. The bellicose Bolton is going to spend
much of 2019 making the case, both in public and in
private, for war with Iran; a war that would make the
invasion of Iraq look like a walk in the park. This is
what makes the mustachioed national security adviser,
with an office down the hallway from Trump, the most
dangerous member of this reckless administration.</p>
<p>Devil incarnate? Perhaps that was an understatement.</p>
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