Six Things I Think: Eve of Destruction Edition

NinaIllingworth May 15, 2019November 17, 2022 aluminum tubes, babies in incubators, Barack Obama, Bibi Netanyahu, Bill Clinton, Cater Doctrine, CIA, Donald Trump, DPRK, drone attacks, Elliot Abrams, Essays, false flag, genocide, George W Bush, GHW Bush, Gulf of Tonkin, Hassan Rouhani, Hillary Clinton, Houthi rebels, Imperialism, Iran, Iraq War, Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamic Revolutionary Guard, Israel, Jimmy Carter, John Bolton, Juan Guaido, lie, Mad Dog Mattis, manufacturing consent, Media, Middle East, Mike Pompeo, Moderate Syrian Rebels, Mohammad bin Salman, Monroe Doctrine, News, Nicolas Maduro, Nina Illingworth, North Korea, nuclear war, nuclear weapons, Observations from Outside the Death Star, oil, OODS, peace, pig empire, Propaganda, Rec Reads, Recommended Reading, Ronald Reagan, sabotoge, Saudi Arabia, Six Things I Think, South Korea, The New Old Forever War, UAE, Venezuela, war, war hawks, WD7, yellow cake from Niger, Yemen

Editor’s note: unfortunately, due to my most recent burnout sabbatical, we have a lot of ground to cover and almost no time to do it in. Readers who are interested in my earlier articles about Pig Empire imperialist aggression are encouraged to check out our “The New (Old) Forever War” page – which includes most of my previous essays that examine mounting US belligerence towards Iran, Venezuela and North Korea.

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Six Decades of Pig Empire Aggression Against Iran And Counting

The funny thing about being in the business of predicting awful disasters like the rise of Americanized fascism, a Pig Empire war against Iran and the impending heat death of all life on Earth, is that you spend the vast majority of your time hoping you aren’t right about any of it. As longtime readers are no doubt aware, I have spent much of the past two years and change tracking the Trump administration’s preparations for war with Iran; preparations that began mere weeks after the swine emperor took office and should have laid waste to any suggestion that Downmarket Mussolini was somehow working for Vladimir Putin. In the early winter of 2018, I wrote two source heavy articles discussing these preparations and ultimately predicting that Herr Donald would move to attack Iran as early as that summer; a maneuver for which Trump appeared to purposely reshuffle his cabinet in March of that year. By the time the swine emperor appointed death-worshiping bomb walrus John Bolton to be his national security advisor, it seemed utterly certain that the next Pig Empire forever war had already been carved in stone.

Unfortunately for Trump and Bolton, circumstances have refused to cooperate with their little war party for much of the past year. Between a predictable power struggle that pitted Bolton against former Secretary of Defense “Mad Dog” Mattis, ongoing Pig Empire attempts to bluff their way into control of Venezuela, the furor surrounding the endless “Russiagate” scandal and some cagey diplomacy by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, the Pork Reich briefly found its path to “regime change” in Iran thwarted. Now however, those obstacles have largely fallen by the wayside; Bolton (backed by Pompeo) is firmly in charge of Trump’s foreign policy, the coup plot in Venezuela has been temporarily sidelined, the air has come out of the Russiagate scandal and even Rouhani appears to be preparing Iran for imminent attack by the Pig Empire. The fuse has been lit, and all the while in the background, the swine emperor draws closer to a 2020 re-election fight he may well need an ongoing conflict, or three, to win. As Nitwit Napoleon’s allies work to manufacture evidence that will justify military action, while the Trump regime ignores anti-war critics on both the left and right – the Pig Empire stands just a shot away from a war that will make Iraq look like a Sunday picnic.

Despite the obvious political and economic motivations of the Trump administration however, it is important to understand that Pig Empire imperialism in Iran is a story more than sixty-six years in the making. It is a story of CIA-backed fascist coups, the Pig Empire’s endless thirst for oil and Iran’s opposition to the US-Israeli-Saudi Arabian imperial project in the greater Middle East. It is a story that stretches across every Presidency in US history since Carter, including Reagan, GHW Bush, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and even Barack Obama, who ultimately sidelined the hawks in his own administration and signed the vaunted Iran nuclear treaty, but only after engaging in cyber-attacks on Iran that the US itself would apparently consider an act of war. If indeed the swine emperor pulls the trigger on regime change in Iran, it will only be possible because decades of Pig Empire warmongering and a wholly complicit, pro-war corporate media have already loaded the gun for him.

Let’s look at the headlines:

White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War – I think it’s safe to say that unless Trump calls off the dogs immediately, John Bolton is finally going to get the war against Iran he’s been longing for all these years. While Secretary of State “Iron” Mike Pompeo lies about US intentions and the swine emperor himself falsely demurs about a conflict he’s clearly already given his approval for, the Witch King of Turtle Bay is methodically strangling Iran with unprecedented sanctions and attempting to lure President Rouhani into firing the “first” shot. Although not strictly necessary (see below), forcing Iran to act first in the face of US starvation tactics and belligerence would likely make it far easier to pull America’s skeptical Western European allies onside and present at least the veneer of “justified” regime change on behalf of Bolton’s favorite “opposition group” – the terrorist cult, MEK.

Warnings of ‘Gulf of Tonkin 2.0’ as Trump Officials Blame Iran for Oil Tanker Attacks – naturally, if Iran won’t cooperate by lashing out against Pig Empire aggression, it then becomes necessary to take matters into your own hands; or perhaps you can goad a proxy into attacking instead. I think that if you took the word of an anonymous American official that Iran or Iranian allies used explosives to randomly (but ineffectively) attack some Persian Gulf tankers that might or might not have been involved in shipping oil to the US, you’re probably the kind of credulous corpse-farming hack that works at the New York Times. Furthermore, I think it seems awfully convenient that a mere two days after the alleged tanker sabotage, two Saudi Arabian pumping stations were (once again, ineffectively) attacked by sophisticated drones, this time controlled by “Houthi rebels.” This is of course interesting because the Pig Empire (including its proxies) has long sought to justify the ongoing Saudi-lead genocide in Yemen by (falsely) claiming the Houthis are an Iranian puppet-proxy.

Scoop: Israel passed White House intelligence on possible Iran plot – speaking of convenient, I find it highly suspicious that even before the alleged sabotage incident, Israel apparently passed “Body Bag” Bolton a vague and cryptic warning about an Iranian plot against “a U.S. target in the Gulf or U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia or the UAE.” This in turn fortuitously allowed Bolton to deploy a carrier strike group and B-52 bombers to the Middle East, as a “deterrent” against a country the US has coincidentally been trying to start an open war with since ten minutes after Herr Donald’s coronation as swine emperor – have I mentioned that all of this was before the alleged sabotage and drone attack incidents? Furthermore, while I’m absolutely certain that the Netanyahu government still has a massive hard-on for destroying Iran, and I think it’s a little weird that nobody ever asks precisely why Trump seems singularly incapable of saying “no” to Israel, I also think it’s more than a touch daft to suggest that anyone is “leading” the swine emperor into a war he clearly wants anyways. The simple truth is that Trump, Bibi Netanyahu and Mohammad bin Salman all have their own interlocking reasons and motivations for attempting to topple the Iranian government and thus far, each of the three partners has primarily acted to help manufacture consent for a war with Iran across the entire alliance.

New concerns Trump administration may be laying legal groundwork for military action against Iran – of course, if manufacturing consent for a war with Iran doesn’t work, the swine emperor, his allies and his militant minions can always rely on a massive loophole in Pig Empire “law” to gain legal permission for regime change in Iran. To that end, I think the false naivety of a mainstream media that has encouraged the swine emperor’s aggression at every turn, and the feigned outrage of political opposition that has quietly supported Downmarket Mussolini’s quest for war in Iran even as they declared Trump a traitor, is merely political theater supported by institutional amnesia. I don’t think it’s an accident that in all the breathless “will he, or won’t he” coverage, the mainstream Pig Empire media never quite seems to find time to lay out the methodical steps the Trump administration has taken towards war with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Herr Donald’s belligerent campaign rhetoric, the administration’s declaration that Iran was the largest supporter of global terror, cancelling the Iran nuclear deal, the reinstatement of crippling sanctions and declaring the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (a part of Iran’s regular army) a terrorist organization are all obvious parts of an open Pig Empire plot to overthrow the government of Iran – but in the American media, it is only our “enemies” who plot for war. At this point, if all of this isn’t starting to remind you of babies in incubators, yellow cake from Niger stored in aluminum tubes and the US quest to support “moderate Syrian rebels” against Bashar al-Assad, then I think there’s a pretty good chance you’re an idiot.

Guaido seeks relations with US military in attempt to take power in Venezuela – turning towards Pig Empire ambitions in Latin America, I think that despite the abject failure of US puppet princeling Juan Guaido’s reactionary uprising, it would be a mistake to consider the US-backed coup in Venezuela “over.” This is at least in part because a credulous and complicit western media appears content to allow Downmarket Mussolini an infinite number of opportunities to turn the trick; as long as it pisses hated bugbear Russia off. I don’t think it’s an accident that corporate media in the Pig Empire keeps playing up Venezuela’s largely nonexistent “ties to Iran and Hezbollah” while simultaneously downplaying the Trump administration’s numerous prior attempts to overthrow elected President Nicolas Maduro and John Bolton’s own admission that the Pork Reich wants Venezuelan oil. Indeed, modern US regime change ambitions in Venezuela actually predate the Trump administration by decades; stretching back to at least George W. Bush’s attempted coup against then-Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Replacing a left wing government in Venezuela with a puppet regime more favorable to American corporate interests has long enjoyed largely bipartisan support in US politics and you can be sure that if Trump doesn’t get his re-election war with Iran, he’ll turn psychopaths like “bomb em all” Bolton, Elliott Abrams and Mike Pompeo loose in Venezuela.

North Korea says ship seizure by U.S. violates spirit of Trump-Kim summit – by contrast, I remain largely convinced that there is very little chance of open military hostilities breaking out between the Pig Empire and North Korea; despite the bloodthirsty machinations of the US media and John Bolton’s longstanding DPRK regime change fantasies. There are two primary reasons behind this; first, it will be largely impossible for the United States to manufacture international consent for war with the DPRK so long as South Korea refuses to cooperate and continues to pursue peace. The second, and far more important reason is that North Korea has “nuclear f*cking weapons” and it’s pretty hard to kick off a successful re-election campaign when you’ve goaded your “enemy” into turning the city of Los Angeles into glass. As I have written in the past, the calculus here is so simple even a myopic moron like Downmarket Mussolini can grasp it; Iran and Venezuela have oil and no nuclear weapons, while North Korea has nuclear weapons, but no oil. Unless that changes, it’s probably safe to assume that the Witch King of Turtle Bay’s maneuvers are more about wrecking a possible South Korean-DPRK peace plan and not about provoking an actual nuclear war.

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Even before his inauguration, Trump’s actions have produced a growing body of evidence that he wants to get into a war, any war, to secure his second term. As the clock runs out on the swine emperor’s current mandate, the only real question that remains is whether or not monstrous, malevolent minions like Bolton, Abrams and Pompeo can deliver the desired conflict. Although I have certainly never been much of a spiritual woman, tonight I will again pray for peace – and the world, will pray with me.