Category Archives: Iran

How President Trump Normalized Neoconservatism

Bush, Democracy, Donald Trump, Intelligence, Iran, Neoconservatism, Old Right, Terrorism

THE NEW COLUMN, “How President Trump Normalized Neoconservatism,” is now on WND.com. An excerpt:

It’s fact: Neoconservatives are pleased with President Trump’s foreign policy.

A couple of months back, Bloomberg’s Eli Lake let it know he was in neoconservative nirvana:

“… for Venezuela, [Donald Trump] came very close to calling for regime change. ‘The United States has taken important steps to hold the regime accountable,’ Trump said. ‘We are prepared to take further action if the government of Venezuela persists on its path to impose authoritarian rule on the Venezuelan people.'”

“For a moment,” swooned Lake, “I closed my eyes and thought I was listening to a Weekly Standard editorial meeting.”

Onward to Venezuela!

Mr. Lake, a neoconservative, was loving every moment. In error, he and his kind confuse an expansionist foreign policy with “American exceptionalism.”

It’s not.

As it happens, neocons are in luck. Most Americans know little of the ideas that animated their country’s founding. They’re more likely to hold ideas in opposition to the classical-liberal philosophy of the Founders, and, hence, wish to see the aggrandizement of the coercive, colossal, Warfare State.

That’s just the way things are.

So, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have enlisted the West in “a proxy Sunni-Shia religious war,” Riyadh’s ultimate aim. Donald Trump has been perfectly willing to partake.

After a campaign of “America First,” the president sided with Sunni Islam while demonizing Iran. Iranians have killed zero Americans in terrorist attacks in the US between 1975-2015; Saudi Arabians murdered 2369!

Iranians recently reelected a reformer. Pray tell who elected the Gulf petrostate sheiks?

Moderates danced in the streets of Tehran when President Hassan Rouhani was reelected. Curiously, they’re currently rioting.

If past is prologue, Ron Paul is probably right when he says the CIA is likely meddling in Iranian politics. For the Left and the pseudo-Right, this is a look-away issue. As the left-liberal establishment lectures daily, to question the Central Intelligence Agency—its spooks are also agitating against all vestiges of President Trump’s original “America First” plank—is to “undermine American democracy.”

Besides, “good” Americans know that only the Russians “meddle.” …

… READ THE REST.  “How President Trump Normalized Neoconservatism” is now on WND.com.

AND REMEMBER: John Quincy Adams (July 4, 1821) counseled detachment in foreign policy. America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher of freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. … She might become the dictatress of the world: she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.”

UPDATE (1/5/018):

Let Iranians figure out their own destiny. Wild guess: They want TRADE, not sanctions.

2: How Do You Know You’re A Neocon? You Won’t Hogtie Nikki Haley To Save The World

Iran, Neoconservatism, War, WMD

The Global Village Idiot, neoconservative Nikki Haley, doesn’t want sovereign states to talk behind her back. Even if it’s to avert a nuclear holocaust. Via the Ron Paul Institute:

North and South Korea have agreed to hold high-level talks, to re-establish a direct communication link, and to participate in the coming winter Olympic games. Taken together, it appears a significant step toward reducing tensions on the peninsula and reducing the risk of catastrophic war. You would think the US would be pleased at the developments and hopeful that diplomacy might take over from saber-rattling. But you would be wrong. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has poured cold water on the developments, screeching that North Korea must first give up its nuclear program before talks can even take place.

* Haley is also Yankee supremacist who, as South Carolina’s governor, did away with Southern heroes and history. That’s very neoconservative.

* With the same oblivion she’s showing the two Koreas, Haley declared that “removing Assad from power was one of a number of priorities for the US.” Hers is Jacobin interventionism. It’s not American and it’s never “America First.”

* Congenital idiots like Haley and her neocon cohort truly believe North Koreans, upon invasion, will come to love her and hate their chubby leader. Not at all. Most people do not wish to be told how to live by foreign busybodies like Haley. And even if North Koreans wanted Americans to subsidize their freedoms with America blood, the duty of an American leader is to Americans First.

RECOMMENDED: “Classical Liberalism and State Schemes” (2005).

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“1: How Do You Know You’re A Neocon? Hint: It Has To Do With How You See US History.”

Israel Maintains An Oil Pipeline With Iran, While Urging The US To Aggress Against The Islamic Republic

Foreign Policy, Iran, Israel, Neoconservatism, Trade

My-my. Israel maintains an oil pipeline with Iran. It is alleged that “Iranian oil no longer flows through the pipeline.” What’s not in dispute is that Israel urges the US to aggress against Iran, while it keeps its options open.

Trade is excellent always. It forestalls war (something that makes neocons like Mad Max Boot a very sad boy). Israel should trade with regional powers. It should just refrain from hypocrisy—getting the US to fight battles Israel itself is trying to admirably avert via trade.

There is great secrecy, not least a gag order, involved in the dealings of the Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Co (EAPC) a joint venture with Iran, set up in 1968.

Israel, worried about national security, maintains tight control over EAPC, to the extent that articles about its business dealings must pass through the military censor.

Instead of renewing EAPC’s concession, which came up this year, Israel formed a new company with the same initials, the Europe Asia Pipeline Co, owned by the government. It will take over the original EAPC’s responsibilities by September, with an option to extend the handover period an additional six months.

Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said in a statement on Sunday that it had extended the gag order on EAPC for five more years and broadened it to include the new company, known as EAPC-B, as well.

MORE.

UPDATED (11/13): Apparently It’s The Saudi-Israeli-American Axis Of Angels

Iran, Islam, Israel, Middle East, War

In Saudi Arabia, a new, more dangerous regime is consolidating regional power, plotting to destabilize Lebanon and blame Iran. Almost overnight has the kingdom shifted from rule by family/dynasty to a more authoritarian style of one-man rule.

Yemenis have dared defend themselves meekly against the Saudi-US coalition of obliteration. So Saudis are now threatening war with/on Iran. Meanwhile, Israel is urging its diplomats to push for international support for the Saudi assaults against Yemen’s Houthi. (Yes, I read the Hebrew.)

The Kushner-Trump Administration will likely appreciate Israel’s attempts at an international, diplomatic putsch. Trump has already endorsed the Saudi crackdown to ostensibly “neutralize Iran.” The president now stands with the Clintons and the Bushes along the Saudi-Israeli-American Axis Of Angels, as far as foreign policy goes.  But not everyone in the Old Right, America-First, anti-dumb-wars camp IS THAT PLEASED.

UPDATE (11/13):