{"id":188738,"date":"2019-05-23T06:37:14","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T06:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=188738"},"modified":"2019-05-26T08:19:46","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T08:19:46","slug":"all-the-times-john-bolton-called-for-war-with-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=188738","title":{"rendered":"All the Times John Bolton Called for War with Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darius Shahtahmasbi \u2013 via Global Research May 21, 2019<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

This article was originally published in 2018<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>T<\/em>he fact that <\/em>Donald Trump<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s recent hawkish stance on the Syrian government coincided with <\/em>John Bolton<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s first day as national security advisor is most likely no accident. Syria and Iran have been bound by a mutual defense treaty<\/strong><\/span><\/a> for some time, and there are a significant number of Iranian military advisors and Iranian-supported militia on the ground in Syria for that very reason.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

People like Bolton know this all too well, which is why Syria was targeted so heavily for regime change in the first place. This is from the Hillary Clinton email archive<\/strong><\/span>s<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIran\u2019s nuclear program and Syria\u2019s civil war may seem unconnected, but they are. For Israeli leaders, the real threat from a nuclear-armed Iran is not the prospect of an insane Iranian leader launching an unprovoked Iranian nuclear attack on Israel that would lead to the annihilation of both countries. <\/em>What Israeli military leaders really worry about \u2014 but cannot talk about \u2014 is losing their nuclear monopoly\u2026Bringing down Assad<\/em><\/strong> would not only be a massive boon to Israel\u2019s security, <\/em>it would also ease Israel\u2019s understandable fear of losing its nuclear monopoly.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> [emphasis added]<\/span><\/p>\n

Bolton, who can boast<\/strong><\/span><\/a> on his illustrious political CV his overwhelming support<\/strong><\/span><\/a> for the invasion of Iraq, wants to see done to Iran what he proudly advocated for in Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2015,\u00a0Bolton wrote a\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0op-ed\u00a0entitled \u201cTo Stop Iran\u2019s Bomb, Bomb Iran.\u201d In this article, Bolton makes it quite clear that \u201conly military action\u201d could accomplish what is required to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Never mind that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) formed in 2015 has been working to curb any international fears of an Iranian nuclear program. Both the Trump administration<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and the International Atomic Energy Agency<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>(IAEA) have found that Iran has been compliant with the terms of the agreement. According to these assessments, Iran has dismantled thousands of its centrifuges and moved as far away from building a nuclear weapon as is possible, yet people like Bolton are still not content.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reportedly, in October last year, Bolton spoke to Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>, a very powerful pro-Israel casino magnate with ties to Trump to get Trump\u2019s ear regarding his stance on the JCPOA. Bolton was then able to speak to Trump by phone after meeting with Adelson<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. According to Politico<\/em>, Bolton advised Trump prior to delivering an anti-Iranian speech in October to include a line that Trump reserved the right to scrap the JCPOA entirely, despite chief of staff John Kelly limiting Bolton\u2019s contact with Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Untold Story of John Bolton\u2019s Campaign for War with Iran<\/h2>\n

In January 2017, Bolton went<\/strong><\/span><\/a> on Fox News to denounce the nuclear deal stating that it was a \u201cstrategic mistake.\u201d In July 2017, speaking at the National Council of Resistance of Iran\u2019s \u201cFree Iran Gathering\u201d in Paris, he also called<\/strong><\/span><\/a> for regime change as the only viable solution and that this should be America\u2019s \u201cdeclared policy\u201d, alleging that Iranian President Hasan Rowhani cannot be trusted. In doing so, Bolton was heavily supporting<\/a><\/strong><\/span> the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a group that not too long ago was actually designated<\/a><\/strong><\/span> as a terrorist entity by the United States. The MEK is even believed to be behind the deaths of American civilians in Iran in the infamous 1980 U.S. embassy siege.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the Intercept<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a>, the Iranian expatriate journalist Bahman Kalbasi noted that Bolton concluded his address to the MEK exiles by stating: \u201cAnd that\u2019s why, before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In October 2017, he again went on Fox News<\/em> to lambast<\/a><\/strong><\/span> the JCPOA, claiming that Iran is violating the Non-Proliferation Treaty. At around the same time, he also wrote an op-ed<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>for the Hill<\/em> in which he claimed \u201cthe real issue is how much worse Iran\u2019s behaviour will be once it gets deliverable nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

When protests rocked Iran shortly after the heralding of the 2018 new year, Bolton went on Fox News and openly<\/a><\/strong><\/span> called for America\u2019s goal to be regime change in Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an\u00a0op-ed\u00a0for the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em> at the beginning of this year, Bolton condemned the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran as a \u201cmassive strategic blunder\u201d before making one of his most disturbing announcements.<\/span><\/p>\n

America\u2019s foreign policy \u201cshould be ending Iran\u2019s 1979 Islamic Revolution before its fortieth anniversary,\u201d<\/em> being next February, he wrote. \u201cRecognizing a new Iranian regime in 2019 would reverse the shame of once seeing our diplomats held hostage for four hundred and forty-four days. The former hostages can cut the ribbon to open the new U.S. Embassy in Tehran.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

During his tenure as the Bush administration\u2019s policymaker on Iran from 2002 through 2004 Bolton actively established the political conditions required to carry the United States into a war with Iran. As investigative reporter Gareth Porter explained<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, Bolton began laying the ground work for a war with Iran by using Vice President Dick Cheney\u2019s backing to make a series of trips to Israel in 2003 and 2004 without the required clearance from the State Department.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Bolton reportedly\u00a0told\u00a0Israeli officials that once Hussein was removed from power, it would then be necessary to deal with Syria, Iran, and North Korea afterwards (a common theme in Bolton\u2019s discourse ever since).<\/span><\/p>\n

Bolton even met<\/a><\/strong><\/span> with the head of Mossad at the time, Meir Dagan, without the required reporting cable to the secretary of state. The Mossad, as we know, has a very anti-Iranian stance, having openly conducted<\/strong><\/span><\/a> assassinations on Iranian soil.<\/span><\/p>\n

At around this time, Bolton began openly accusing Tehran of developing a nuclear weapons program. As he outlines in his 2007 memoir<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, his goal was to ensure that the Iranian nuclear issue would not take place under the guise of the IAEA but instead move to the U.N. Security Council instead. According to Porter:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBolton\u2019s strategy was based on the claim that Iran was hiding its military nuclear program from the IAEA, and in early 2004, he came up with a dramatic propaganda ploy: <\/em>he sent a set of satellite images to the IAEA showing sites at the Iranian military reservation at Parchin that he claimed were being used for tests to simulate nuclear weapons.<\/em><\/strong> Bolton demanded that the IAEA request access to inspect those sites and leaked his demand to the Associated Press in September 2004. In fact, <\/em>the satellite images showed nothing more than bunkers and buildings for conventional explosives testing.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> [emphasis added]<\/span><\/p>\n

Bolton and his impressive career as a prolific warmongering liar makes him no ordinary war-hawk. In fact, for the reasons explained above, Bolton is a man so dangerously hawkish that at the time of his announced appointment, this development received open warnings from even pro-war outlets including The<\/em>\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>, The<\/em>\u00a0New York Times<\/em>, The<\/em>\u00a0Huffington Post<\/em>, The<\/em>\u00a0Guardian<\/em>,\u00a0Vice News<\/em>,\u00a0Vox<\/em>, and\u00a0Foreign Policy\u00a0<\/em>magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, we now understand why.<\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/p>\n

Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Darius Shahtahmasebi<\/em><\/strong> has completed a Double Degree in Law and Japanese from the University of Otago, with an interest in human rights, international law and journalism.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Featured image is from\u00a0The Transnational<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The original source of this article is The Iranian April 13, 2018<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 Darius Shahtahmasebi<\/a>, The Iranian<\/a>, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bolton and his impressive career as a prolific warmongering liar makes him no ordinary war-hawk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":188740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,41,51,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Inside_the_White_House_and_Washingtons_Beltway","category-Iran","category-syria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=188738"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188742,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188738\/revisions\/188742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=188738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=188738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=188738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}