U.S. policy: Bomb first, justify later
To the editor:
Once again President Trump has rejected the assessments of his intelligence community and gone with his gut, starting a war with Iran. Despite conclusions claiming there was no imminent threat from Iran to the U.S., Trump launched the missiles, claiming he believed Iran was about to attack us. What? Trump only recently said we “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capability in a previous, limited strike. Or is Trump Benjamin Netanyahu’s hand puppet? Israel is the only ally Trump seems to trust. He hates Europe and would like to take us out of NATO; his goal seems to be a new world order dominated by the American Empire, and any government that defies American interests is fair game for regime change. Cuba is probably next.
Military might has replaced moral authority; chaos has replaced diplomacy. Previous presidents got us into unnecessary wars but didn’t campaign for office on platforms of America First and specifically staying OUT of such wars, especially in the Middle East. A cynic might suggest that Trump went to war to get the Jeffrey Epstein files off the front pages. In fact, in those files there is a statement by Epstein himself in which he predicts that when Trump got in a jam, he would start a war as a distraction.
Since World War II, the U.S. has been involved in more than 30 regime changes, and we can’t point to a single one in which a functioning democracy for the people was the result. In 1959 the CIA was behind the military coup that ousted the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Mosadedeq because of his plans to nationalize the oil industry. His ouster paved the way for a brutal authoritarian regime headed by Shah Reza Pahlavi. The Iranian people rose up, deposed the Shah in 1979 and the Islamic Republic of Iran was created, headed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, chosen as Supreme Leader. He died in 1989 and Ali Khamenei was chosen as the new Supreme Leader; he was killed on Feb. 28, along with other Iranian leaders when U.S. forces bombed his compound.
There are corrupt, thuggish, authoritarian regimes all over the world, some of them receiving backing and financial aid from the USA. Trump is banking on populist uprisings occurring in Venezuela and Iran to establish democratic governments supportive of U.S. interests, proving he was right. If those nations descend into chaos, there’s no question of some sort of U.S. occupation. We tried such a thing in Iraq and failed miserably. At least in the run-up to that war President Bush spent weeks, months, attempting to create a narrative supporting the war to sell to the American people. Trump’s policy is to bomb first and justify later. Congress is irrelevant; the will of the people is irrelevant; trusting his gut is what’s important. Bush made up the lies before the war; Trump gives us the lies after.
Ray Clasen
Fort Myers