CENTCOM commander Army Gen. Joseph Votel channeled his full Dr. Strangelove in front of the US House Armed Services Committee this past Wednesday.

"We need to look at opportunities where we can disrupt [Iran] through military means or other means."

As Orwellian as our times may be, this still ranks as a declaration of war. With the inbuilt consequence of smashing to bits the UN nuclear deal struck with Iran in the summer of 2015.

Joseph Strangelove did not bother to chainsaw his words.

Iran is one of the greatest threats to the US today (Pentagon official doctrine; number four after Russia, China and North Korea). Iran has increased its "destabilizing role" and poses "the greatest long-term threat to stability" in the entire Middle East.

Iran is sneaky; "I believe that Iran is operating in what I call a gray zone." And that’s "an area between normal competition between states — and it's just short of open conflict."

Iran is involved in "lethal aid facilitation"; the use of "surrogate forces"; plenty of "cyber activities."

The US has "not seen any improvement in Iran’s behavior." The naughty boy/country in question still poses "credible threats" through its "nuclear weapons potential" and "robust" ballistic missile program.

So this is it; we’re going to take them out. 

CENTCOM’s Endless Jihad

The easy way out would be to characterize this juvenile mobster-style outburst as brought to you by the House of Saud petrodollar fund.

Or to be reminded that Joseph Strangelove was addressing the very same crowd who despite acronym-laden 17 multibillion dollar intel agencies telling them over and over, via National Intelligence assessments, that Iran did not have, and was not planning to have, nuclear weapons, still mightily denounced Iran's "nuclear threat."

But reality always tops fiction. No one else than the Islamic State/Daesh released a video in Farsi – complete with a message to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei —   declaring war on Iran because they are apostate Shi’ites and because they "tolerate" Jews.

No, this is not a Monty Python sketch. In fact, we have been propelled to the curioser and curioser situation of a CENTCOM that invaded and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq; distributed death and destruction free of charge; provoked a myriad, monster refugee crisis; is back at war in Iraq; is still implicated in regime change by all means in Syria; and "leads from behind" the Saudi destruction of Yemen, is now de facto, on the record, allied with Daesh – which it let fester – to take out Iran.

Feel free to call it CENTCOM’s jihad.

Joseph Strangelove’s performance took place right on cue as the neocon/neoliberalcon axis hysterically peddling its Russophobia – and Iranophobia — across the Beltway and beyond was celebrating a tasty geopolitical candy: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in the magnificent Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow. Or, in neocon shorthand, “the mullahs” meet “Hitler”.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201703311052129206-pentagon-daesh-war...

But hold on a moment. Wasn’t Trump promising a new beginning when he was advertising himself for the presidency? A major part of his election campaign for the White House was based on denouncing his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton and his predecessor Barack Obama for disastrous overseas wars.

In his populist-sounding inauguration speech in January, Trump said the days of America imposing its power on other countries around the world were over. He vowed to “make America great again” by henceforth focusing its economy on rebuilding US infrastructure and on restoring “forgotten” impoverished American communities.

But as far as American militarism and foreign interventions are concerned it’s evidently a case of more of the same. For US imperialism, it’s not merely business-as-usual. Under Trump, the American war machine is ferociously going up a gear.

Trump was supposed to be the “Washington outsider” who would do things differently from previous US administrations. In particular, the tycoon-turned-politician said he would use his self-declared business acumen to put America on a new path of regeneration and international cooperation.

And one suspects that is how Trump defied the media pundits and got elected last November. American citizens were sick and tired of decades of warmongering. They voted for Trump because they wanted a government that would finally prioritize their needs for jobs and public services. That’s why many of them rejected Clinton and the American political establishment whose foreign policy was all too-often a byword for abusing countries with US military power.

read more :

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201703311052160100-trump-another-us-h...

Sputnik and RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said on Friday that the statement of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Mike Pompeo regarding Sputnik and RT's contribution to Russia's increased efficiency in its "soft power" is complimentary.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Pompeo said that Russia managed to increase effectiveness of its external influence due to its soft power instruments, including news outlets like RT and Sputnik. He added that it was a part of the alleged Russian doctrine seeking to "win wars without firing a single shot."

"The head of CIA complimented us for saving money of the Russian state. I'm serious," Simonyan said on Twitter.

This was not the first time the CIA focuses its attention on Russian media outlets. In May, CIA spokeswoman Heather Fritz Horniak told RT the involvement of Russian intelligence services in alleged hacking related to the US election was an "established fact," which media outlets like RT would "attempt to muddle." RT and Sputnik Editor-In-Chief Margarita Simonyan said that the claim lacks evidence and "no reputable news organization trusts the CIA. Now that is correct."

Russian media outlets broadcasting in Europe and the United States have been facing a barrage of accusations by Western officials about allegedly spreading fake news and attempting to influence public life.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/politics/201707211055754238-simonyan-rt-sputnik-...