In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US is considering “a full range of options” against Iran. Adding that during briefings to President Trump, “of course” military options were discussed.
“The President will consider everything we need to do to make sure, right?” Pompeo said, adding that Trump has “said very clearly he doesn’t want to go to war.” Yet all the consideration of war is clearly happening on the US side.
Pompeo has very much been the public face of this march to war, as the first high-ranking administration official to comment on the tanker explosions, blaming Iran, and trying to frame it as part of “40 years of Iranian aggression.”
During the course of these comments, Pompeo rattled off a list of US allegations against Iran, mostly as unproven as the current crisis. An outlier in this was a suicide bomb in Kabul, Afghanistan in May. Pompeo put it on the list of Iran incidents, even though the Taliban claimed credit for that immediately when it happened, and there had never been any suggestion that it wasn’t a Taliban attack.
Mentioning the Kabul incident in the context of Iran shocked many, suggesting it reflects an administration that is “itching for a fight with Iran” and is willing to make things up in the process.
Officials are still presenting this as a freedom of navigation issue. Pompeo emphasized that the US will guarantee free passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Yet clear, the narrow strait off the coast of Iran would be all but impossible to keep open during a war, Ironically, in selling the Strait as a reason for a war, Pompeo and others may be selling a war that would necessarily imperil navigation through the area for the duration of the conflict.
Pompeo has now put himself in the same position as Gen. Haig after he declared “I’m in charge” after Reagan was shot. He’s done so much damage to himself he must go, just for this.
All options? How about Pompeo resigning?
Him, and the Walrus with him.
Exactly, Solly. The best option of all is for Pompous Pompeo and Bonkers to resign .. But will they? I think DJT will have to fire them for what they’ve done to this country,
Is there any way to remove this porcine Jesus-freak?
Unfortunately our hands are tied.
Either the orange dotard fires him or our whoring sell-out Congress impeaches the SOS. Neither of course will happen since the Zionists totally control our political system from the top to the bottom.
Pompeo has very much been the public face of this march to war, as the first high-ranking administration official to comment on the tanker explosions, blaming Iran, and trying to frame it as part of “40 years of Iranian aggression.”
I’m wondering what we would call our actions of the last 40 years? Hyper aggression? Just compare the number of dead each country is responsible for. We’d have to include the rest of the world along with Iran to even approach our numbers.
These days the US stands for ‘freedom of navigation’ but not free trade, with dozens of countries subject to our economic punishments at a given moment and no country safe, historically or in the future. And with Iran, the fight being picked offers a cure infinitely worse than any conceivable disease.
I wish we had options on Pompeo,. Bolton and Trump .. I’d choose hanging myself.
Be clear if the US attacks Iran, the US will get a bloody nose, the Iranians are not the Iraqis, Iran has been preparing for this for decades. America WILL lose aircraft, it will lose ships and it will lose soldiers! The Taliban have fought for Seventeen years. I think that Iran will fight for longer! The Saudis will also lose big time, the Iranians WILL target Refineries with missile barrages, the Iranians will target US bases in Bahrain and elsewhere. The US will also have problems on US Soil, there are an awful lot of Iranians in the US.
Don’t forget that if Iran is attacked “the Iranians WILL target” Israel . . . as will Hezbollah and possibly Hamas. And Israel WILL take big losses. Hamas rocket fire can reach beyond Tel Aviv and Hezboah has every part of Israel within range of its rockets.
Of course – the Iranians are not stupid – they know that Pompous-ass is just another idiotic, Christian-Zionist. They also know who is calling the shots – and it isn’t the Saudis – the Saudis need Israel’s influence over America and they are only Israel’s trained dog.
Which is precisely why the US and Israel will attack Hezbollah first, before starting the Iran war (and less likely at the same time.) The US can supply ten or twenty thousand troops to assist Israeli troops in rooting out Hezbollah forces. And those B52s Trump sent can lay waste to Southern Lebanon and destroy Hezbollah bunkers and missile caches as they did in Vietnam.
These are the two things Israel needs to degrade Hezbollah and the US will supply them if Israel can convince Trump that Hezbollah is a threat to Israel by fomenting some border incident. And given Trump’s unwavering support of Israel, that shouldn’t be hard.
This is probably fodder for the 2020 voting base plus the large contingent of other Iran haters.
These failed war mongers think war with Iran can be won…when we have been in Afganistan almost 18 years with no clear victory…we really haven’t won a war since 1945. They are a danger to our nation. Time to impeach Pompeo, and Cadet Bonespurs.
It doesn’t matter if we “win” – except to Israel. What matters is that Iran gets “bombed into the Stone Age” – and the US taxpayer pays for the bombs. And if Iran gets damaged enough to not be an effective actor in the Middle East, Israel wins as well. Expect a war with Iran to become the new “Thirty Years War.” And everyone involved in starting it will profit as usual.
Iran would need to keep things clam until Sep 17 to deny Bubu to form an “emergency” government. So says Mr. Stewart.
Notice how Pompeo says Trump “doesn’t want to go to war”. That phrasing is the same as saying, “if we ‘have to’ go to war, we will.” And that actually means, “We’ll put the blame on Iran when we do go to war.” That’s exactly the same as Iraq. Before Iraq, Bush claimed all Iraq had to do to avoid war was give up “weapons of mass destruction” – that it didn’t have and he knew it didn’t.
It’s exactly the same now. They know Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program. They know Iran is not a major sponsor of terrorism. What they also know is that Israel wants Iran rendered a non-viable actor in the Middle East. But that little fact is never mentioned – as is the fact that Israel wanted the US to attack Iran after 9/11 and only came on board with attacking Iraq when the neocons told Israel Iran would be next after the “cakewalk” that Iraq was supposed to be (and wasn’t.)
But I believe they also know that Israel can’t afford a war with Iran until Hezbollah is degraded. But to “justify” attacking Lebanon, you need the excuse that Hezbollah is an “Iranian proxy”. And that means you have to “justify” an Iran war at the same time even if the Lebanon war has to come first. It’s a win-win – you get to brainwash the US public that an Iran war is justified, then use that justification to justify attacking a tiny country that just happens to have water and gas resources that Israel wants.
The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter what Trump “wants”. What the US actually wants is war on Lebanon, followed by war with Iran.
Anyone who thinks the US is “bluffing” about that is a fool. The same for anyone who thinks the economic cost to the US prevents war with Iran. It doesn’t. Someone’s economy always gets trashed in a war and it never prevents the war from starting – because someone always profits from war, either politically or economically. It’s just the rest of the taxpayers who get screwed, as well as the troops on the battlefield and the civilians who are the target. The people who start a war never pay for it – at least not the ones who win the war.
Of course, it’s possible that the US will start a war with Iran simultaneously with Israel starting a war on Lebanon, which the US will then join in assisting Israel in destroying Hezbollah. But that would be a bit riskier in my opinion. The US wouldn’t want to divide its air assets too much in taking on an air campaign over both countries at once, especially given Iran’s size.
So I expect an attack on Lebanon this summer or next summer. The Iran war itself probably won’t start until after the 2020 elections – regardless of who wins.
It also depends on how successful the US and Israel actually are in destroying or degrading Hezbollah. It is by no means clear that Hezbollah can actually be defeated sufficiently to satisfy Israel. All we know is that Israel needs this to happen and it needs the US to do it. Therefore we can predict that it will happen (absent some other geopolitical event derailing the plan.)
As the current US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo is merely continuing what he admitted doing at the CIA:
“We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”
“Officials are still presenting this as a freedom of navigation issue. Pompeo emphasized that the US will guarantee free passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Yet clear, the narrow strait off the coast of Iran would be all but impossible to keep open during a war, Ironically, in selling the Strait as a reason for a war, Pompeo and others may be selling a war that would necessarily imperil navigation through the area for the duration of the conflict.”
“Freedom of Navigation” is an Orwellian American NewSpeak phrase.
When the American Empire or its crime partners start running their mouths about “protecting freedom of navigation” what they really mean is the freedom for America to dominate and control navigation and dictate who can or cannot use strategic seaways.
This is fundamental to imperial American naval doctrine dating back to the days of Alfred Mahan, and it is essentially a continuation of the British Empire’s geopolitical naval doctrine.
In a richly ironic sense, the American Empire is merely the continuation of the British Empire, which it supposedly broke away from over 200 years ago.
And so-called “freedom” itself is merely the propaganda mask of this American Empire.
Considering all includes nuclear.
A tip off will be a warning to IAEA controllers: do not go into Iran. If you are in Iran leave now.
Including the “bloody expensive failure” option which for reasons that escape me our “elites” seem to favor.
The US government is a rogue and mendacious entity pushing its sick zealotry and weaponization of the dollar at every turn. When the dollar is no longer the reserve currency or is completely forced out of trade the US will have no choice but to pull back and either get along with the rest of the world, or implode. We are the most hated at this critical juncture in history. Trump has always been a “dotard” of monumental proportions. Period.