20.01.2020 Author: Gordon Duff
Pompeo: New US Policy
Authorized Drones Strikes on Russian, Chinese Leaders
Column: Society
Region: USA in the World
President Trump, and not
obliquely, has put the assassination of Vladimir Putin “on the table” as part
of a new policy, one at direct odds with both American and international
law. This isn’t just a broad policy against those Washington deems enemies,
but Russia was specifically listed as a target for highest level assassinations
in order to achieve regime change.
US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo, during a policy address at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute on
January 13, 2020, outlined the new policy. The title of the speech was “The
Restoration of Deterrence, the Iranian Example.”
The Hoover institution has a
long history of CIA ties and receives secretive private funding from a variety
of “strange bedfellows:”
- The Bradley Foundation, cited by the Council of
Islamic American relations for Islamophobia and hate mongering.
- The Scaife Family Foundation, long run by now
deceased Richard Mellon Scaife, right wing extremist billionaire who
employed an army of private security operatives used to threaten members
of the press, including involvement in the death of Steve Kangas, founder
of America’s independent press.
- The Castle Rock Foundation, a front for Adolf
Coors, one of the largest funders of right-wing extremism and Russophobia
in the United States
- The Koch Foundation, largest funder for climate
denialism through profits from the coal industry
Former President Herbert
Hoover, long blamed for failing to address the needs of a starving nation
during the first 4 years of the great depression, for whom the Hoover
Institution is named, was a powerful advocate for allowing and possibly even
supporting Hitler in his war against Russia.
Only recently, after being
suppressed for 50 years, has Herbert Hoover’s World War II analysis, “Freedom
Betrayed,” been published, by the Hoover Institution. In that work, the
“betrayal” was entering the war against Hitler and fighting alongside Russia.
You see, TDC or “top dead
center” for American conservatives has always been the destruction of Russia
and the subjugation of the Russian people on behalf of the Deep State.
In his Hoover Institute
address Pompeo clearly stated that an attack on Russia, on its leadership and
even President Putin, was very much a part of the new American policy under his
leadership.
He further clarified, “The
importance of deterrence isn’t confined to Iran. In all cases, we must
defend freedom. That’s the whole point of President Trump’s work to make
our military the strongest it has ever been.”
This was, of course, before
Iranian missiles easily punched through America’s Patriot Missile defenses in a
humiliating attack with, according to Trump “no casualties.” On January
16, 2020, however, the Pentagon announced that 11 members of the US military
serving at the Assad Air Base had been evacuated to Landstuhl, Germany in order
to be treated for wounds.
Trump lied, but nothing
compared to the wild threats from Pompeo against a nation whose nuclear
strategic arsenal significantly overshadows that of the United States,
certainly qualitatively and in that area, overwhelmingly.
“The destruction of
Suleimani is an example of a new US strategy aimed at deterring its opponents.
This applies equally to Iran, China and Russia.
The states are now realizing
the possibilities of the strongest position that we have ever had with regard
to Iran. We are just holding it back for now. But in order to truly protect
freedom, it is important to restrain all enemies. That’s the whole point of
President Trump’s work. That’s why he is trying so hard to make our army the strongest
it has ever been.”
When Secretary of State
Pompeo, after months of planning, pushed through the drone assassination of
Iran’s General Soleimani, chief architect of the ground war against ISIS,
little did he expect Iran’s reaction.
When, only days later, Iran
obliterated America’s largest base in the Middle East with a devastating
ballistic missile attack, forcing the US to back down and seek more sanctions.
The real issue is how much
of the Pompeo rhetoric is real and to what extent Pompeo and Trump are
bluffing. One thing that has become clear, however, is that both Trump
and even Pompeo, a graduate of West Point’s infamous “Class of 1986,” a hot-bed
of Russophobic extremists called “the West Point
Mafia,” are not
schooled in the realities of warfare.
From the Daily Beast:
“An account of the meeting
in the upcoming book A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America
depicts Trump becoming increasingly angry as his generals tried to teach him
the fundamental basics of American post-war history.
The book states that the
meeting took place six months into Trump’s presidency after his generals became
concerned about ‘gaping holes’ in Trump’s knowledge of America’s key alliances.
The idea was to bring Trump to the Pentagon’s Situation Room, where military
leaders, so the plan went, would give him a crash course on who America’s
allies were, why they were worth keeping on side, and where on earth they were
located. (Trump didn’t know)
However, the meeting seems
to have descended into chaos almost immediately. Secretary of State Tillerson,
then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, and National Economic Council Director
Gary Cohn reportedly took turns trying to explain their points to Trump. But
Trump is said to have first appeared bored out of his mind before he got
increasingly angry.
Trump is then said to have
complained about President Obama’s Iranian nuclear deal, and the length of the
war in Afghanistan. Each time, his generals reportedly tried to gently explain
why his view of these complex geopolitical issues might not be entirely
accurate. It was reportedly during a conversation about Afghanistan that Trump
blew his top.
The president reportedly
called Afghanistan a “loser war,” and told his military leaders: “You’re all
losers… You don’t know how to win anymore… I want to win… We don’t win any wars
anymore… We spend $7 trillion, everybody else got the oil and we’re not winning
anymore.” It’s reported that Trump was so angry at this point that he wasn’t
breathing properly.
In his most incendiary
comment, Trump—a man who, remember, managed to get out of military duty in
Vietnam due to a supposed bone-spur problem—is said to have told the assembled
forces: ‘I wouldn’t go to war with you people… You’re a bunch of dopes and
babies.’
The comment reportedly left
the room dumbfounded. Tillerson was ‘visibly seething,’ and decided to speak
up. The secretary of state said: “No, that’s just wrong… Mr. President, you’re
totally wrong. None of that is true.’ When the meeting ended soon afterward,
Tillerson reportedly stood with a small group of confidants and said: ‘He’s a
(expletive deleted) moron.’”
Conclusion
Is Pompeo’s statement to the
Russia hating establishment, an open threat against a foreign leader,
carelessness, hubris or insanity?
Is President Trump ready to
back Pompeo, as he did with the disastrous Soleimani killing?
We then have to ask, how can such statements be made with no pushback
from congress or the media, not a single word? Has America become
suicidal?
Gordon Duff is a
Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War that has worked on veterans and POW
issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security
issues. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
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