It is déjà vu concerning the United States going to war against Iran. Back in a February of 2012 Republican presidential nomination race debate, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) was asked about if the US should go to war against Iran because of the same purported threat that President Donald Trump is now using to support movement toward war on Iran — that Iran may soon have a nuclear weapon.
Tag: Iran
Many people have been comparing President Donald Trump’s ongoing push for war on Iran to a similar course taken by President George W. Bush in regard to Iraq a little over twenty years ago. And there are definitely similarities including allegations against the targeted country related to weapons of mass destruction and the portraying of the targeted country’s political leadership as a major threat to Israel and even America.
Donald Trump ran for president presenting himself as the peace candidate. A little over two months into his presidency, Trump, however, appears to be establishing himself as a war president.
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Benjamin Netanyahu’s Lies
How can you tell when a politician is lying? His lips are moving.
That joke is apropos for the new English language video monologue that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released Thursday, and which Netanyahu said in his first words spoken is directed to the “people of Iran.” He managed to fit a bunch of lies in the under three minutes presentation.
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J.D. Vance, Israel Firster
Donald Trump likes to talk about how he puts America first. Last night, Trump’s presidential race running mate J.D. Vance made it clear that Vance has other priorities. In answer to the first question of the vice-presidential debate, Vance asserted that his allegiance is to Israel first. Indeed, he suggested that America does not even come in second.
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Will Israel Nuke Lebanon and Iran?
The Israel government won’t stop its decimating of Gaza. Plus, it keeps lashing out at other nations in the region. Doesn’t it worry that it will end up defeated by engaging in war too broadly? The worry may be small because the Israel government has a couple big weapons in its back pocket.
The days of congressional declarations of war are long gone, not passed for any of the many United States wars since World War II. In recent decades, Congress has passed authorizations for use of military force (AUMFs) to hand over to the executive branch discretion to choose to go to war against a certain county or to achieve a certain objective. AUMFs provide Congress members distance from the ensuing wars so they can duck responsibility or claim credit after reviewing measured public opinion.
Did the AUMF system reach a new low this week with the House of Representatives approving a resolution apparently authorizing the executive branch to go to war against Iran?
Some things changed in the United States House of Representatives after Republicans gained the majority in January. But, one thing that has remained the same as during the previous years of Democratic leadership is that the House is committed to handing over to the executive branch, even when the executive branch is under the control as now of a president of another party than the House majority, the power to impose more and more sanctions across the world.
Lawrence Wilkerson, a College of William & Mary professor who was chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powel in the George W. Bush administration, powerfully summed up the vile nature of the US national security state in a recent interview with host Amy Goodman at Democracy Now.
Last week there was much media coverage of the United Sates House of Representatives voting to approve a resolution (H. Con. Res. 83) commonly described as seeking to prevent the Trump administration from engaging in war against Iran. However, take a look at the wording of the resolution, says foreign intervention opponent and former House member Ron Paul, and you will find that most of the resolution is purposed “to build up animosity” toward Iran. Paul discussed the resolution in a new interview with host Anand Naidoo at the CGTN show The Heat.
Indeed, the resolution is chock-full of talking points in favor of war with Iran. It starts with declarations that Iran is “a leading state sponsor of terrorism and engages in a range of destabilizing activities across the Middle East” and that Iran General Qassim Suleimani, whose assassination was carried out upon President Donald Trump’s order, was “the lead architect of much of Iran’s destabilizing activities throughout the world.”