July 27, 2015

John Bolton strikes terror in those who watch and listen to him. He still has a strong desire to be President of the United States one day, but thankfully, he realizes that is highly impossible. But his warmonger persona comes through loud and clear in this week's Versus with Alan Comes on Foxnews.com. Alan Colmes attempts to draw out Bolton's secret desires with respect to U.S.-Iran policy.

First, let's recall the history from the mid-Twentieth Century. It shouldn't surprise anyone that this country suffered for decades due to our intervention when we deposed Mossadegh in 1953, is still viewed as sneaky and suspicious. Never did Iran attack our country, they only reacted to our support of the Shah by staging the 1979 hostage crisis because of our country's interventionist policies. Blowback is a bitch. Here's why they released the hostages the very same day Reagan was sworn in.

Ronald Reagan was sworn into office on January 20, 1981, just as Iran released 52 Americans held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for 444 days. The timing was deliberate. The young revolutionary regime did not want the hostages freed until after Jimmy Carter, who had supported the shah and allowed him into the United States, left office. At the same time, Tehran wanted to clear the slate in the face of a new Republican administration that had vowed to take a tougher stand on terrorism and hostage-taking. But Iran also had bigger problems. Four months earlier, on September 20, 1980, Iraq had invaded, and Iran was embroiled in a life-or-death struggle. For the first 18 months of the war, virtually all the fighting took place on Iranian territory.

Let's give credit where credit's due; Iran needed our military help, so they gave up the hostages in exchange for something that would mire the Reagan Administration with the scandalous reputation it so richly deserved: Iran-Contra. The problem with all this today, however, is the American people have a very, very short memory and have largely forgotten the events that occurred three decades ago. The only thing they remember is that Iran is one of the "Great Satan" countries and we should NEVER do anything to facilitate peace and prosperity in that country. Republicans are very much in favor of either not teaching history at all or simply rewriting it to suit their objectives.

Alan Colmes lets Bolton expound his opinion, which mirrors the rest of the far right: this agreement which is designed to prevent acquiring the sufficient uranium enrichment to make a bomb, is no good, no matter what. The reason? We can't trust Iran, ever. This is likely because the far-right fringe government of Israel no likey the Iranians, and never will.

The only two possible scenarios with Iran are either 1. they get a bomb or 2. we bomb their facilities and stop them. Iran can't make military grade uranium under the terms of this agreement, Alan reminds Bolton. Bolton is not having any of that, he is immune to facts. When Alan asks him if he'd support a bombing campaign, he said that he absolutely would. He also agreed that a Republican President, god forbid, would also support a strike on Iran and entangle us in another unpopular, costly war that would be unwinnable.

Colmes reminds Bolton that we've had an abhorrent history of regime change whereby Bolton disagreed. He cited the swiftness with which we ended Saddam Hussein's government, but Colmes reminded him of the abject failure of what followed. He explained to Bolton that regime change begets nation building, and this is something that has never worked for the U.S. in the Middle East.

It seems to be a winning formula for Versus, Alan gives the right-wing/GOP guest plenty of rope to hang themselves with and they always do. That's because guests like John Bolton have a very frightening way of thinking. War, war, war is the only thing they want, and that should terrify Americans!

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