Donald Trump is the “King of Pretexts” in a country where 10 of our wars since 1900 have been justified with pretexts. Recently in Venezuela, the pretexts of “Democracy Concern” and “narco-terrorism” have worn thin, as President Trump nakedly displayed his actual motive — a desire to control Venezuela’s oil.

Pivot to Iran, where sanctions, a falling Iranian currency, and infiltration, have led to large public protests. Trump has a history of selectively repeating the now cynical-sounding “Democracy Concern,” along with Iraq-style fears of nuclear WMD, coupled with “Concern for Women” as a pretext for the actual motive — Israel’s long-standing desire for “regime change” and interest in breaking Iran apart.

Let’s not forget that in June you had Israeli officials actually saying Iran is too big. We need to split it up.

The White House repeats the narrative of Iranian nuclear WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) to justify further military action against Iran, deliberately conflating the concept of nuclear “Breakout”, which involves the production of sufficient nuclear fuel to make a bomb, with “Weaponization” — the building of a deliverable bomb. One can analogize this distinction to the difference between having enough gasoline to fuel a roadtrip, verses building the car that will carry out that trip. On June 17, Trump was asked about his assessment of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s report that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.  Trump replied: I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one, disavowing both his DNI and the Intelligence Committee whose view she represents, and favoring Israeli “Intelligence” over his own US Intelligence Community’s assessment.

A History of Phony Justifications

They took the babies out of incubators took the incubators and left the children to die on a cold floor

Since 1900, U.S. leaders have misled the public into conflicts at least ten times. From the munitions hidden on the RMS Lusitania in 1915 to the fabricated “incubator babies” testimony that swayed the 1991 Gulf War vote, and the non-existent WMDs in 2003, propaganda has consistently been used to sell unpopular or unsuccessful wars.  (Read longer article)

Iranian Missile Deterrence?

In theory, the risk of a regional or world war should be precluded by Iran’s large conventional missile deterrent; Iran demonstrated its conventional missiles are capable of breaching Israel’s Iron Dome last June. Perhaps Israel thinks it has the ability to disable Iran’s thousands of missiles electronically, or more likely, Israel believed it had a way to escalate its attempt to overthrow the Iranian government without provoking Iranian retaliation using missiles.  This “round-about” way is likely something Iran will factor into its defensive plans for next time (and reports are that the US & Israel will likely try again).

by Tim Langeman  | Homepage | Substack |  YouTube