Will Trump regime war hawks attack Iran militarily?

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attends a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister in Sochi on May 14, 2019. (AFP photo)
By Stephen Lendman

Washington has been hostile toward Iran since its 1979 revolution, freeing the country from US imperial control.

Republicans and undemocratic Democrats want what was lost regained. Key is eliminating Israel’s main regional rival and gaining control over Iran’s vast oil and gas resources.

Will Trump regime hardliners pursue their objectives by attacking Iran militarily? Reportedly, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urges continued war by other means, wanting Iran’s economy strangled, its population suffocated, falsely believing economic, financial, and sanctions pressure can get its authorities to bend to Washington’s will.

It hasn’t happened for 40 years. Nor is it likely ahead. Wars by other means don’t work. They don’t arouse popular anger against sitting governments.

Just the opposite occurs, placing blame where it belongs. In the case of US hostility toward the Islamic Republic, Iranians blame the Trump regime.

National Security Advisor John Bolton openly supports war on the country. Trump reportedly wants it avoided. Other than Israel, the Saudis and the UAE, the world community strongly opposes war on the Islamic Republic, including close US allies and adversaries alike.

AIPAC exerts great influence over officials in Washington. Like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and like-minded Israeli extremists, it’s a lying machine.

It falsely calls Iran “the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism (sic),” adding it’s “Israel’s and America’s greatest long-term threat in the Middle East (sic).”

Iran threatens no other countries, not the US, Israel, or any others. It seeks cooperative relations with other nations — its agenda polar opposite how Washington, NATO, and Israel operate, together representing an unparalleled global menace.

AIPAC lied claiming Iran “flouted its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and sought a nuclear weapons capability to further its hegemonic aims.”

It turned truth on its head saying the Trump regime withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear deal to prevent “Iran from attaining this capability” — a bald-faced Big Lie.

Saying Iran must “never obtain a nuclear weapons capability” ignores its abhorrence of these weapons, wanting a nuclear-free Middle East — Israel the region’s only nuclear armed and dangerous regime, what AIPAC, the West and world community ignore.

No Iranian aggression is ongoing regionally or anywhere else, nor is any planned — what US-dominated NATO, Israel, and their rogue allies are involved in against multiple countries.

There’s no Iranian support for Daesh, al-Qaeda, or other terrorist groups — created and backed by the US. Its imperial partners support the scourge they pretend to oppose, especially Israel, aiding Daesh and other Takfiri terrorists wage war on Syria.

Last week, the Saudi-controlled broadsheet Arab News urged war on Iran, saying the country “must be hit hard,” calling for US-led “surgical strikes” on the Islamic Republic, adding:

“Riyadh has constantly warned world leaders of the dangers that Iran poses (sic).” There are none, a Big Lie claiming otherwise.

The broadsheet falsely blamed Iran for damage done to Saudi and UAE tankers, along with a reported attack on Saudi oil-pumping stations — incidents the Islamic Republic had nothing to do with.

In Brussels last week, UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt expressed concern “about the risk of a conflict (with Iran) happening by accident, with an escalation that is unintended really on either side,” adding:

“I would say to the Iranians: Do not underestimate the resolve on the US side.” According to the UK broadsheet the Sun, British special forces were deployed to the Middle East on a secret mission to counter the (nonexistent) threat of Iranian attacks on Persian Gulf merchant shipping.

Britain’s Defense Ministry declined to comment. Deployment of its forces follows the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group sent to the region, along with nuclear-capable B-52 bombers.

All of the above amount to saber rattling. As long as the US, the UK, and perhaps other NATO forces are within range of Iranian ballistic and cruise missiles, their presence is likely to be no more than provocative posturing.

The time to worry is if they’re in the Middle East or nearby waters beyond the range of Iran’s military capability, poised for possible aggression.

According to former State Department official for GOP and Dem regimes Aaron David Miller, the “(l)ast thing America should be doing is allowing the Saudis or for that matter the Israelis to drag us into a war with Iran. Our agendas aren’t identical.”

US actions toward Iran and Venezuela have been all about war by other means, along with heated rhetoric and provocative saber rattling.

In the run-up to US aggression against Iraq in 1991 and 2003, as well as the same thing against Libya and Syria in 2011, similar propaganda manipulated the public mind against these countries.

What happened earlier isn’t how I see things unfolding against Iran and Venezuela, neocon extremist John Bolton the lead instigator.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed him, calling the Bolton, Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and his UAE counterpart the anti-Iranian “B Team.”

They represent a lunatic fringe quartet, “hop(ing) to achieve what Alexander (the Great), Genghis (Kahn) & other aggressors failed to do,” adding:

US-led “economic terrorism (and) genocidal taunts (will not) end Iran.” He warned Trump to “never threaten an Iranian,” advising him to “try respect. It works,” he explained.

A final comment

In response to a request by Press TV to comment on possible Trump regime actions against Iran, I said the following:

Trump’s overriding objective is getting reelected in November 2020. If he thinks war on Iran or Venezuela will help him, he’ll likely support what cool heads in Washington and Pentagon commanders strongly oppose.

Polls show Americans are war-weary but not to the extent that they’ll vote a US president out of office for continuing to wage them because their minds are manipulated by US media propaganda and distracted by bread and circuses.

Television where most Americans get their so-called “news” reports little on geopolitical issues — other than bashing Iran and Venezuela at times, but focusing mostly on domestic issues, politics most of all, and what I call junk food news.

So most Americans know little or nothing about Iran and Venezuela. In my judgment, waging war on either country would be madness.

Both nations can hit back hard, in the case of Iran against US regional forces and facilities, along with being able to rein hellfire on Israeli cities, military sites, and nuclear facilities.

The last thing Trump wants is body bags returning to the US in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, media angrily reporting about it as happened in the months following the 2003 Iraq war.

I believe the US will not attack either country. At the same time, with extremists like Pompeo and Bolton running Trump’s geopolitical agenda, anything is possible, even the unthinkable.

Stephen Lendman, born in 1934 in Boston, started writing on major world and national issues began in summer 2005. In early 2007, radio hosting followed. Lendman now hosts the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network three times weekly. Distinguished guests are featured. Listen live or archived. Major world and national issues are discussed. Lendman is a 2008 Project Censored winner and 2011 Mexican Journalists Club international journalism award recipient.