I analyze the build up for the War on Iran and how it will blow up the pretense of peace with Russia and Syria.

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I have predicted in previous articles that the first important foreign policy initiative of the Trump administration would be to find a pretext to tear up the Iran Nuclear Deal and start up a shooting war. Today (Feb 2), Trump has said that the ballistic missiles tests by Iran are "hostile actions" and that military action is "not off the table." This is even less pretext for war than the Bush lies about WMD's and ties to terrorism.

Kerry and Lavrov sign the Iranian Nuclear Deal.

Russia, which is Iran's miitary ally said of the US threats of military action: "

""Such actions, if they took place, do not breach the resolution," Sergei Ryabkov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, told Interfax news agency, saying demands for UN talks were aimed at "heating up the situation."

If the US attacks Iran, Russia, China, Iraq, and Syria will be obliged to defend Iran. So much for the peace overtures and the end of the neo-con war mongering.

Of course, since Iran, according to the CIA and Mossad, had no nukes and no nuclear weapons program, the name of the deal is a propaganda ploy, but I think that worked to the advantage of Iran, since even tho intelligence of its two most paranoid enemies, the US and Israel, knew they had no nuclear program, the illusion of such a threat, fed by right wing politicians in both nations, was used by Iran to cut a deal to get its seized assets back and to resume normal trading operations on a global scale. They gave up a threat they did not have: that was the price of the right wing lies about Iran being a nuclear threat

The Deal: Iran gives up its non-existent nuclear program and gets its frozen financial assets back.

But now we have a new President who has made several comments to reveal his intent towards Iran, including the threat of bombing Iran. This comes through his advisor John Bolton, who has written op-eds urging the US to bomb Iran. When asked a few months back, during the campaign, when the US should bomb Iran, he said "Yesterday."

Bolton has been the lead on the neo con Bomb Iran campaign.

Of Bolton, whom Trump considered as Secy of State but backed off because of GOP opposition, Trump said: "He's a good man...he has good ideas."

Here is what Trump said about the Iran Nuclear Deal in Sept of 2015: " Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Friday that he'd try to work with what he called a "disastrous" nuclear deal with Iran to turn it around and that there will be "hell to pay" if Iran violates the terms."

With many Republicans urging immediately tearing up the Deal, and Bolton providing the extreme view that urges immediate bombing, Trump has made it clear that he is looking for a pretext to shred the Deal and challenge Iran militarily. This is extremely dangerous because it throws all his other foreign policy initiatives, including peace and co-operation with Russia and detente with the Assad regime, into a crisis.

The reason is simple: Iran's military allies include Russia, China, Iraq, and Syria. If Trump attacks Iran, he will destroy any cooperation with these nations and risk a war involving 2 other nuclear powers. This is the reason, in a previous article, I called the peace initiative with Russia "fake." That was further confirmed when Trump challenged Putin to a nuclear arms race. But the main reason the peace overture is fake is that Trump clearly stated his desire to confront Iran and was looking for a justification to act.

Now he thinks he has found it. But not before he rearranged the National Security Council in an unprecedented way.

Atlantic.com reports: " For the first time in history, a president's chief political strategist will be invited to attend any meeting of the National Security Council and will be a regular member of the highly-influential Principals Committee (PC). To place a purely political operative on the NSC--alongside actual Cabinet members with national-security responsibilities or expertise--is an unprecedented move with profound implications for how national-security policies are developed and executed. To be clear, that concern is not confined to Steve Bannon. This would be the case no matter who it was."

Goldman-Sachs alumni and leader of the white nationalist movement, Bannon is now on the National Security Council. Here is the thinking of Trump's strategist and voice in the NSC: ""We're going to war in the South China Sea in five to 10 years," he said in March 2016. "There's no doubt about that." (guardian.com)

And: ""You have an expansionist Islam and you have an expansionist China. Right? They are motivated. They're arrogant. They're on the march. And they think the Judeo-Christian west is on the retreat," Bannon said during a February 2016 radio show.

Personnel is policy: Trump is hell-bent on war, and as he said, "
There will be hell to pay."

The Atlantic article continues: "Some of the most sensitive and sacrosanct decisions by the president are made in meetings of the National Security Council. One only has to ask: What precise expertise does Bannon, or any chief strategist, have to contribute to those meetings, if not to ensure that policy is shaped by political implications or considerations? It may be likely that Trump would consult Steve Bannon regardless, but giving him a formal seat at the NSC sends a chilling message to men and women in uniform, to diplomats and intelligence professionals--that Bannon's political advice matters as much as theirs.

" The director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff no longer get automatic seats at the adults' table--also known as the Principals Committee. Below the NSC, the Principals Committee is the most senior interagency body of the national security process. It's the last stop before taking a major national-security decision to the president. It's chaired by the national security adviser, and usually contains at least the secretary of state, the secretary of defense and until recently, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and director of national intelligence. "

This move was made to consolidate Trump's power over foreign affairs, and as predicted, the first major move is today's denunciation of Iran for "breaking the deal" by testing a ballistic missile.

Was the test a violation of the treaty? National Security Advisor Flynn, who has called Islam as a whole as a cancer, said the tests violated the UN resolution banning Iran from testing missiles "designed to carry nuclear warheads." Of course, Iran has no nuclear warheads and the US has little information about the design of the missiles.

The NYTimes reports: "The Iranian missile traveled about 600 miles, but its re-entry vehicle reportedly exploded before the flight was complete. It is unclear whether that was accidental or a deliberate detonation.

Israel's United Nations ambassador, Danny Danon, accused Iran of violating a Security Council resolution passed in 2015, shortly after the nuclear accord was reached in Vienna. "

But since Iran, in compliance with the Nuclear Deal, got rid of its plutonium plant, most of its centrifuges, and 97% of its 20% grade uranium (weapons grade is 90%), the question of whether its missiles are designed to carry nuclear warheads seems moot since they don't have any or the means to build any.

But that is not the point, any more than Saddam's alleged ("solid evidence") nuclear program was the reason to invade Iraq. The point is to exploit this Iranian test (which politically is also a test of will) in order to escalate the attack on Iran.

So Flynn, the Islam hater, has come out strong, as a direct representative not of the National Security apparatus but of Trump, and said that Iran was "officially on notice." Trump spokesmen, when asked what that meant, refused to clarify, stating it was deliberately "confusing." This confirm the suspicion that the chaos of Trump's first weeks is not incompetene so much as a form of shock and awe to create the state of confusion in which radical changes can take place with little notice. See Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine.

This is the opening salvo in the War on Iran, which Trump advisors like Woolsey (now departed) and Bolton said was part of the PNAC plan for world domination thru 7 Middle East wars, starting with Iraq and ending with Iran. Trump's neo-con designs have now become apparent after a fake departure from neo-con policies with the fake peace overtures to Putin and Assad. Iran is being set up, just as Iraq was, to justify US military intervention......and since Iran has no nukes, no nuke program, the claim that its missiles violate the UN resolution because they are "designed to carry nuclear warheads" is clearly a pretext to use the threat of military action. The repudiation of neo-con war mongering has now been revealed to be sleight of hand. The war on Iran is the keystone of the PNAC plan for US hegemony, and let us be clear: it would destroy any friendship with Russia or Syria, both military allies of Iran, not to mention China and Iraq.

The plan is being executed as designed. The plan is world domination, a recipe for endless war.

And Flynn's Islamophobia on steroids, as when he said, "We are facing another 'ism,' just like we faced Nazism, and fascism, and imperialism and communism," Flynn said. "This is Islamism, it is vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people on this planet and it has to be excised."

He is clearly evoking the threat of war to "excise" this cancer of Islamism, which he has in the past shortened to "Islam."

So here is the setup: get everyone preoccupied with the Muslim ban while rearranging the National Security Council as a political body dominated by Flynn and Bannon, both untouched by Congressional oversight. Then exploit the first Iranian test of US will to begin rattling sabers. Since, with Russia, China, Iraq, and Syria on its side, it is unlikely to cave into Trump's bullying, the threat of a military confrontation is very real.

Trump has said just last September after a US warship entered Iranian territory, "With Iran,when they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats, and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn't be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water."

This week, A US bombing killed an 8 yr old girl, part of Trump's tactic of killing the children of suspected terrorists.

I have predicted in previous articles that the first important foreign policy initiative of the Trump administration would be to find a pretext to tear up the Iran Nuclear Deal and start up a shooting war.

Conclusion: Trump has both signaled his attempt to trash the Iran Deal and find a pretext for a War on Iran. He has recalibrated the National Security Council to thwart its role as a check on reckless behavior and put his political strategist in the middle of the action, along with the hell-bent Islamophobe Flynn.

We are on our way to war......and only a massive protest by the American people can stop it (as it did not when Bush rushed to war on Iraq). Trump will seek to divert public attention with lesser outrages and so we must be on our guard not to be distracted from the master plan of world domination, in utter betrayal of Trump's pretend rejection of neo-con war mongering.

When the US begins to attack Iran, we will confront Russia, China, Iraq, and Syria...and all the fake peace overtures will melt into air. Only We the People can stop this from happening. As I have written many times, history teaches us that those who rule without consent of the governed, without the tailwind of popular support (Hitler, Mussolini, Bush II) must rule by violence, intimidation, and lies.

The lies create the pretext for war, and the war gives the President enhanced powers. This is the old logic of imperialism, masquerading as a provocation that justifies military actions. It is clear Trump is itching to blow some of those Iranian boats out of the water. Only We the People can stop him by showing such a force of opposition that even "alternative facts" will not carry the day. War is the standard model of rallying support for unpopular leaders and providing a big payday for the banks, energy corporations, and military/industrial/intelligence complex, which is the public face of the Deep State, the fascist underbelly of America's fake democracy.

(Article changed on February 4, 2017 at 18:28)

Authors Bio:

retired, working radical egalitarian/libertarian socialist old school independent, vegan, survivor