For many years, Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton has earned the reputation of being a war hawk. Bolton’s long history of promoting conflict with anyone who would not listen, prompted former Republican Congressman and conservative TV host Joe Scarborough, to label him a ‘massive neocon on steroids.’ It had been rumored, before his appointment to the Trump White House, that even the most conservative members of the Party were leery of Bolton being so close to the nuclear football. Well, like a lot of his hires and out of the blue, Mr. Trump employed Bolton whose ideas are anathema to the position.
Last night during my eight-year avoidance of the Game of Thrones, Bolton told the world that the United States was deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group supported by a bomber task force to the Middle East. Pardon the visual, but I am sure Mr. Bolton had to change his moistened PJ's a few times overnight at the prospect of missile launches on the Iranian capital. I am not sure what is more frightening, an avowed war hawk or his boss who could not find Iran on a map with an arrow pointing out you are here if he was standing in Tehran.
As with Bolton’s support of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, following what we now know was faulty and phony intelligence, we are asked to believe an even lesser President’s decision. In a story written by Karen DeYoung and Missy Ryan of the Washington Post they wrote, “But neither Bolton nor the Defense Department identified what actions Iran may have taken that would prompt an increased U.S. military presence in the region.”
A lot have speculated that Trump would start a war to distract from his past, impending and future illegalities. I believe, because like most bullies Trump is an innate coward, he will back down in the face of real danger. As he has done with Putin and election interference, and former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, whom he practically begged to say he was not rejecting his promise to the American people to pay for his border wall, Trump faces confrontation with a wink and lie. The fear is that he can be manipulated because he will not admit to his lack of knowledge, on any subject, or seek advice from those who know more.
We have proof positive that the President will ignore advice, consent and the Constitutionality of Congressional power. Trump will not be the first or last president to increase his war power authority but he will be the first to do it from the dark recesses of his own arrogance. Let us not forget that this President declared with a great flourish that “ I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me.” This portion of his declamation came in the midst of a screed in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 2015. Quoting journalist Chris Cillizza, “it’s the sort of juvenile score-settling that one associates more with junior high school than a campaign for President of the United States.”
Vote in 2020 for Change.
