Iran is not Iraq; Iran is not North Korea

Teheran Photo by Hadi Yazdi on Unsplash

What is the Endgame with Iran?

Photo no longer claimed by anyone since digital alterations discovered — originally Iranian Government

Mr. Trump has surrounded himself with advisors that have survived by sticking a wet finger up to see which way the Trumpian hot air is blowing. The few exceptions — whatever you think of John Bolton’s foreign affairs views, he has hind legs — -have been rousing for a splendid little war with Iran for years.

It’s almost like how the neocons used their think tanks to rouse for the second Iraq war. They even got as formal a proposal as you can make from the outside in front of Bill Clinton, who put it in the round file where it belonged. But they kept after it and the quick march into Baghdad came true under Bush 43. We are still waiting for the flowers to be strewn in our path…maybe that’s why we still have troops there.

The first Iraq war was a police action by a broad coalition that needed to be undertaken unless the U.N. Security Council wished to dissolve itself for impotence. You don’t seize your neighbor’s real estate over a dispute of the kind the Permanent International Court of Justice handles every day. It was as if the U.S. had sought to end the Chamizal dispute by seizing Ciudad Juárez.