Trump: war president?
Why Trump’s hawks and Israel banging the war drums should worry all of us
Now that Trump has violated the Iran nuclear agreement, prospects of another devastating war in the Middle East loom large. Within hours of Trump’s announcement, Israel was already bombing Iranian positions within Syria.
Trump and Israel have repeatedly insisted on Iran’s connections to international terrorism. Saudi Arabia has been all too keen to join in this chorus of condemnation. Their murderous campaign in the Yemen is allegedly aimed at Iran. A few weeks ago, Israeli leader Netanyahu provided the world with ‘proof’ that Iran is secretly producing nuclear weapons and thus violating international agreements. The ‘evidence’ he presented was several years old and preceded the Iranian nuclear deal. Are we fools, by any chance? Netanyahu hadn’t made much more effort than Colin Powell in 2003 or Tony Blair, who copy-pasted ‘intelligence’ from a student’s essay about Saddam Hussein’s capability to strike London.
The lies are obvious. The aims are too.
The grotesque absurdity is that Israel is widely known to possess a secret nuclear programme and has violated an infinite number of international agreements. As we speak, Israeli snipers are slaughtering children in Gaza and now they are certainly making the most of the vain, inarticulate, ignorant group of men currently running American foreign policy. Trump’s complete detachment from reality, as well as his obsession with enriching his fellow kleptocrats might finally give Netanyahu the war he has wanted for so long; he can strike at Iran, Syria and Lebanon, while America will be dragged into a quagmire of sectarian conflict which will continue far longer than the Trump regime itself. Apart from undermining America’s international position, the violation of the Iran-deal also fails on its own terms; it will put pressure on Iran to build nuclear weapons and strengthen reactionary elements within Iran itself. Perhaps that is the whole point? I often wonder whether Trump’s stupidity is calculated. Or maybe the man himself is just an erratic instrument in the hands of more radical elements around him.
John Bolton, Trump’s national ‘security’ adviser, is one of those experienced war-mongers, now happily banging those war drums. He immediately threatened European businesses in Iran with heavy sanctions if they continue their operations there. Can isolating Iran simply be a business venture to take out international competitors? Do we need to consider oil, Russia, China and other geopolitical factors? It is cute, but typical, how eagerly Trump praised the virtues of the Iranian people last night.
It almost seems a given that Western leaders driven by aggression profess their love for the people whose countries they are about to destroy.
Robert Fisk has compared Trump to Gaddaffi, who seemed similarly detached from the real world. If we cannot somehow stop this slide to war, Trump might prove far more dangerous than some of our planet’s most brutal dictators. I suppose all we can do is give this windbag the reception he deserves when he visits the UK this summer. As in 2003, we must make it very clear that the greed and ignorance of American foreign policy is conducted ‘NOT IN OUR NAME.’ We might witness some of the biggest protests in Britain’s history in July. Let’s hope that by then the bloodshed in the Middle East has not escalated further. We should worry.
