Which gets us to the problem of President-elect Trump naming retired Generals Mattis and Flynn to top national security posts. Was their Iran-bashing heartfelt, i.e., do they really believe this propaganda is true, or were they simply protecting their Official Washington "credibility" by saying something they knew to be false but also knew was a required password to enter the domain of the political elite?
The question is not an idle one because if President Trump is to achieve anything meaningful in the Middle East, he must begin by leveling with the American people about what the U.S. government really knows and then acting on the reality that Saudi Arabia -- with its sponsorship of Al Qaeda, Islamic State and the Taliban -- can no longer be coddled.
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