John Bolton's Musings on Iran

Updated May 2019

Now that John Bolton, as National Security Advisor and co-chief warmonger, has a direct line to Donald Trump, his agenda for a world of war is coming to fruition, one step at a time.  In this short posting, I want to look at John Bolton's comments on Iran and the direction that he feels the United States should take against Iran's theocratic government, a government that is largely a result of American meddling in Iranian affairs back in 1953.  For this posting, I am only selecting a few of his comments prior to taking office in the Trump Administration so you can get a sense of why the current administration has moved to cancel its participation in the nuclear deal with Iran and why its sabre-rattling against Iran continues unabated.

Let's start with Mr. Bolton's Twitter feed prior to his taking office, starting with the latest tweets first:

Here he is in mid-March 2018 with a double hit on both North Korea and Iran:

Here he is in early March 2018:

  

Here he is in late January 2018:

Here he is twice in mid-January 2018:

Here are two tweets from early 2018:

Lastly, let's skip a few months since his tweets on Iran are rather repetitive and look at a tweet from July 2017 regarding the JCPOA:

In looking through his Twitter feed, two things become apparent; he hates both Iran and North Korea.  When not criticizing one of two aforementioned nations, he tweets frequently about Syria and Bashar al-Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons.

Now, let's look at two of John Bolton's many appearances on Fox News starting with this one from October 13, 2017:

Here he is in early January 2018 where he states that the goal for the United States should be regime change in Iran (4 minute and 15 second mark):

You will note his comment about Iraq and Saddam Hussein and how, in 1991, the United States failed by not removing him from power.  He neglects to mention the sectarian chaos that ensued in Iraq after the U.S.-led coalition removed Saddam Hussein from power in 2003 which led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens.

Lastly, let's look at John Bolton speaking in Paris, France in July 2017 to members of the Iranian exile group known as the Mujahadeen Khalq or People's Mujahadeen at the Free Iran Gathering:

Note that Mr. Bolton unequivocally states that Iran's regime change will take place before February 2019, the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution which saw America's puppet, the Shah of Iran, removed from power (2 minute 40 second mark and again at the 4 minute 30 second mark).  That said, according to recent polls taken in Iran, 75 percent of respondents believed that it was important for Iran to develop its nuclear program and only 11.6 percent of Iranians believed that the United States would live up to its obligations under the JCPOA.

As has been the case in Washington's other nation-building exercises in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, the welfare of the nation's civilians is never taken into account and, after the hostilities die down, a power vacuum forms which, in the case of Iraq and Libya was filled by Islamic groups that are unpalatable to the United States.  John Bolton's trigger-happen reputation is well-earned and well-deserved, unless of course it means that he physically has to carry a gun and pull the trigger as nearly happened during the Vietnam War.  I'm wondering if Mr. Bolton would feel any different about war/regime change in Iran if he was put on the front line of the conflict?