For a person who claims to be a deal maker and business guru, President Trump is getting rolled by John Bolton and Bolton's long-standing regime change and war agenda, which runs in opposition to what Trump may have envisioned when he appointed Bolton as his national security adviser.
For decades, Bolton has railed against Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Cuba and now Venezuela. He was a major voice for the disastrous invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush One administration.
Now, almost two decades after leading President Bush down the war path, Bolton has become the voice of President Trump on very important and dangerous issues. Bolton, not Trump, is seen more and more on international networks on issues of Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.
Most recently, Bolton preempted Trump on announcing the U.S. is sending an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf "to defend U.S. interests and its allies." Trump might wish to double check Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's statements on the threat coming from Iran's actions against interests of the U.S. and its allies. Even the Special Envoy for Iran Brian Hooks on CNN May 9, 2019 said that "the U.S. defensive actions of deploying an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf area is for actions of Iran from 2009 to 2016." When challenged by the CNN anchor Becky Anderson, Hooks was unable to name any threats from Iran for the past three years from 2016-2019, instead repeating Bolton's talking points for the day that there were "threats that U.S. must defend itself against."
However, should the U.S. or its proxy Israel attack Iran, the U.S. installations in Iran's region that Iran could target in retaliation are many:
-Twenty major U.S. military installations and a large U.S. Embassy compound in neighboring Afghanistan;
-The enormous Green Zone that contains the largest U.S. Embassy complex in the world in neighboring Iraq;
-17 U.S. military installations in the northern part of neighboring Syria.
There are U.S. targets for Iran in every country along the Persian Gulf:
-The forward headquarters of the U.S. Central Command located in Qatar:
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