‘Trump threatens Iran with a catastrophic war’, wsws.org, 24 July 2018, a few paragraphs:
(Just a quickie, as I’m on a different mission for Gawd, so to speak, nope: no hints or klews…)
“US President Donald Trump issued a bloodcurdling threat of all-out war against Iran late Sunday night.
Using language akin to that he previously employed in threatening North Korea, a state of 25 million people, with annihilation, the US commander-in-chief tweeted that Iran would “SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED, if it “EVER” dared to “THREATEN” Washington “AGAIN.”
Trump’s all in-caps tweet was no idle bluster. His administration is pursuing a provocative and reckless drive for regime change in Iran that threatens to ignite a catastrophic war that would set the entire Middle East ablaze, and potentially trigger a head-on clash between the US and other great powers.
In May, Washington blew up the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and relaunched full-scale economic warfare against Iran—an illegal act tantamount to war. Next month sanctions will “snap back” on Iran’s auto sector and trade in gold and other metals. In November, sanctions targeting Iran’s energy, shipping and insurance sectors and the transactions of its central bank are to take effect.
Yesterday, John Bolton, Trump’s national security advisor and a longstanding proponent of a US attack on Iran, gleefully reiterated Trump’s threat, saying the president had told him, “if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before.”
Trump cast his ominous Sunday tweet as a response to a warning from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that if the US persisted in seeking to destroy Iran’s economy and impose a pro-US government in Tehran, it risked unleashing “the mother of all wars.”
Earlier this month, Rouhani—unnerved by his failure to win a commitment from the European powers that they would not bow to US pressure and renege on their obligations under the Iran nuclear accord—said that were Iran denied the right to export its oil it might close the Strait of Hormuz.
Within hours, the Pentagon issued a statement vowing to ensure “freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce” through the strait, which is the conduit for one-fifth of all world oil exports.
Trump’s claims that Iran threatens the US are preposterous.
Trump’s eagerness to provoke a confrontation with Iran is bound up with his calculation that China must be confronted sooner rather than later. The re-subjugation of Iran would give the US a stranglehold over the oil resources of the Middle East, which are vital to sustaining China’s economy, as well as eliminate an important link in China’s One Belt, One Road strategy to deepen the integration of Eurasia.”
Not to mention that Iran was on the Cheney/Rumsfeld hit list: ‘Seven countries in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia and Sudan and Iran.”
‘As the drumbeats for war on Iran grow more thunderous, ‘education is key’, café babylon, May 18, 2018: a Storify by Nyusha on Twitter, a fascinating compendium with art and historical photos
‘U.S. launches campaign to erode support for Iran’s leaders’, July 21, 2018, reuters.com
“The Trump administration has launched an offensive of speeches and online communications meant to foment unrest and help pressure Iran to end its nuclear program and its support of militant groups, U.S. officials familiar with the matter said.
More than half a dozen current and former officials said the campaign, supported by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, is meant to work in concert with U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to economically throttle Iran by re-imposing tough sanctions. The drive has intensified since Trump withdrew on May 8 from a 2015 seven-nation deal to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
A senior Iranian official dismissed the campaign, saying the United States had sought in vain to undermine the government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
A review of the State Department’s Farsi-language Twitter account and its ShareAmerica website – which describes itself as a platform to spark debate on democracy and other issues – shows a number of posts critical of Tehran over the last month.
On June 21, Pompeo tweeted out graphics headlined: “Protests in Iran are growing,” “Iranian people deserve respect for their human rights,” and “Iran’s revolutionary guard gets rich while Iranian families struggle.” The tweets were translated into Farsi and posted on the ShareAmerica website.”
[The bolds are utter rubbish, of course, but it’s been reified as: The Truth; the rest? yes, why not? on the soldiers, dunno about ‘diplomats’]
“Washington has long called Iran the world’s leading “state sponsor of terrorism” because Tehran arms and funds proxy militant groups like Lebanese Hezbollah. Iranian leaders urge the destruction of the United States and Israel, and Iranian proxies have killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers and diplomats since the Islamic Revolution.”
‘Tweet of Mass Destruction’ ratchets up tension on Iran; The Trump administration’s ultimate goal is regime change in Tehran, but was this just a distraction from the ‘treason’ in Helsinki as US Mid-Term elections loom? Or did he just want to destabilize the Eurasian giants and their New Silk Roads?’, pepe escobar, atimes.com (some longish outtakes)
“Rouhani, as his record attests, has always behaved as the epitome of cool diplomacy. Contrary to predictable US media spin, he never “threatened” to attack the US. His premise was that Tehran was pleased to offer Washington the “mother of all peace.” But if Trump instead decided to attack Iran, then (italics mine) that would open the way to the Mother of all Wars.
Ultimate goal: Regime change
Anyone claiming Tehran will capitulate shows an utter ignorance of the overall mood of defiance and scorn among the Iranian people, even as they are faced with massive economic hardship. And anyone stating there will be regime change in Tehran basically parrots a US “policy” that is just wishful thinking.
But, in the Middle East, at the moment there are three characters who are singin’ and dancin’ like everything is going according to plan: Saudi Arabia’s Mohamed Bin Salman (MBS), his mentor, the United Arab Emirates’ Mohamed bin Zayed, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Surely they are not heeding the expert advice of former Mossad head Meir Dagan, who stated that a military attack on Iran was “the stupidest thing I have ever heard.”
“Back to reality, the stark options would come down to either Iran becoming a US satellite or closing the Strait of Hormuz – something that for all practical purposes would collapse the global economy.
I have been assured that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has the technological means to block the Strait and would not flinch to go for it rather than yield, if the going gets tough. President Rouhani cannot resist the IRGC. The Trump administration has, in fact, forced Rouhani to show his cards. All branches of the Iranian government are now united.
War hysteria, already on, is extremely irresponsible. In the worst Strait of Hormuz scenario, the US Navy would be impotent, as Russian-made SS-N-22 Sunburn missiles could wreak havoc. Washington could only bomb from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar or Incirlik in Turkey. Neither Qatar nor Turkey is inclined to antagonize Iran.”,and a more wide-ranging discussio.)
https://twitter.com/inartic/status/1021634248795537409
(cross-posted at caucus99percent.com)
café babylon 
Well, wendye, Trump’s capitalization twitter as you point out is very like the pre-detente with North Korea situation, so perhaps we may expect similar outcome? Sound and fury — and then hugs and bonhomie all the way around?
One thing such efforts have done for Russia is consolidate that state like nobody’s business, so I’m not sure who the sanctions are actually aimed at, since what will happen is just going to isolate the US even more, and surely that is known. Getting Eurasia to stand on its own two feet, perhaps?
Plus as MoA points out, you cannot take what Israel says to the bank, no way. I am thinking Netanyahu is on verry shaky ground, and he has to pretend the US is bowing to his will, Russia also. When it ain’t necessarily so.
It is clear Trump does a kind of dosie do (haven’t the faintest Idea how that is spelled) with his ‘friends’ here at ‘home’ and will no doubt have made a different arrangement in Helsinki where Putin really does understand the crazy US mindset and how badly it goes when all press bodies and political ones as well unite in an operatic chorus, which would be beautiful if staged properly, but really only the first time – it has gotten awfully, awfully stale — and out of tune! And the more we realize that, the more actual support for less war more peace there will be in this country.
I mean, give us a break! It’s summer; it’s hot as hades, and the arroyos are running full spate like never before. (Not that we didn’t want rain – we did; but maybe the pueblo dances were a bit too intense this year?)
I think of his tweets now as carefully staged upset the applecart thematic orchestration, while that frenzied chorus repeats and repeats, thunder and lightning upstaging the baritones and the sopranos until they are hoarsely shouting their same old same old accusations…believe us, believe us, believe… oh what the heck.
As a good friend of my mother’s used to say, “You just have to laugh.” It’s opera season after all, open air up in Santa Fe somewhat —and who ever timed that in yesteryear must have been splitting his sides at the timing thereof.
i’m not sure what will or is developing further along these war on iran lines, neither within the cia nor the trump/bolton axis, but the orange one had sure signaled his intentions by pulling out of the jcpoa, ad apparently the EU nations are having second thoughts about supporting still, at least according to the commentariat at c99%.
but yes, iranians hatred of the great satan/babylon helps citizens band together even with privations, as it has been in russia similarly. but yes to the west being further isolated as it wanks and screams incoherently as it faces the dying light of a unipolar world, and neither side of the duopoly in this country can decide whether to wind their butts or scratch their watches about it from one day to the next.
so many competing forces! even concerning the obeisance to israeli likud zionism. i did read b’s new one calling BS on the ‘russians are selling syria out to israel’; that is everywhere of course, and i’d even seen it a wsws, for cripessake. it’s what b had said on that creepy thread of marcy wheeler’s, remember: ‘putting the face (mine)…etc.’
glad you had rain, but after drought the earth needs a female rain to open soil to the moisture so it won’t run off in rivulets and into to the arroyos. we had some rain, an inch , last week that started gently, then turned to hail and wind; the garden, needless to say…didn’t care for it much.
but two monarchs visited! one small, one large, and how thrilling to see them again. oddly, a small owl has been hooting out yonder, but in the early evening for three days now. solitary hoots, but he/she will answer me back.
your mum was right about just having to laugh some days. it’s all so past absurd, isn’t it? and as putin and lavrov have said: it just didn’t have to be this way.
nice to see you, ww. dunno about where and on whom the sanction bullets are aimed.
I guess I should have properly said “I’m not sure at whom the sanctions are actually aimed” – dangling something or other there. Ah well, the rain hath departed, doing a nice job of my evening watering for me and cooling torrid temps, so thank you, heavens.
what is the music of hell? i’m not sure but I think if Ol’ Scratch shat some of it up here it’d go a little something like this:
that’s a real nice clip of HRC there.
odd bodkins; wordpress hadn’t sent me an email of your comments, but had sent juliania’s. what kind weird backspin ball do you pitch? only reason i knew to come here was that mr wd had clicked it.
never knew thats where ‘johnny getcher gun’ had originated, but i dunno who ‘ol scratch’ is either. but yeah on the red queen clip; mightta been on wikileaks twit account i’d scored it. i might have to answer our other one in the morning.
but for juliania, a quickie: ‘Why Russia Wouldn’t Offer Iran to Israel & the US’, journal neo.org
https://journal-neo.org/2018/07/26/why-russia-wouldn-t-offer-iran-to-israel-the-us/
g’ night to all two of you. ;-)
Ol’ Scratch? the behooved one? el diablo?
Yankee Doodle Dandy: one of those movies that’s hard to watch cuz it’s so sickeningly nationalistic but Cagney’s performance, in my mind, is just jaw-dropping. from this little clip you can get a feel. that’s where I know that song from. nice touch w/the black servants at the Honkey House at the end, eh? Yankee doodle’s not for everyone, amirite?
…and negro statues outside as hitchin’ posts, darkies inside as hatracks, yeah, i know. nowadays they sell them things as ‘niggerabilia’, srsy. aunt jemima cookie jars, steppin’ fetchit soft-shoe music boxes… thanks for the awesome clip.
Thanks for the link, wendye. This I would agree with (not that I’m any expert):
“…While Iran’s absence has been seen in the West as a prelude to its possible ‘exit’ from Russia [think they mean Syria] and a result of some Russia-Israel deal, these misconceptions were effectively set aside when Alexander Lavrentiev, President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Syria, traveled to Tehran on July 18 and assured the Iranians of long-term cooperation in Syria. In fact, the meeting also succeeded in highlighting that the latest arrangements and achievements in southern Syria were not part of any deal between Israel and Russia, but were much in line with political process and policy framework of Astana and Sochi talks, which involves Turkey as well.”
https://journal-neo.org/2018/07/26/why-russia-wouldn-t-offer-iran-to-israel-the-us/
It is not consistent, (though a lot of folk would like to say it’s what’s happening)for Russia to be siding with Israel, or with any nation, against another nation as they are committed to the multipolarity concept and to brokering deals between nations. Good article, wendye.
it rang close to the truth, if nuanced differently than many. glad you read it and found it worthy. of course, southern syria IS the key, and ‘israel’ (?) calling the white helmets home, asking for safe passage, lol. oh, my, are there eighty versions of that afoot!