War with Iran would be ‘like Christmas’ for John Bolton – Tucker Carlson

(left) © AFP / Yuri Kadobnov; (top right) © Reuters/Adam Ploessl; (bottom right) © Reuters / US Navy / Grant G. Grady

Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted National Security Advisor John Bolton for his apparent love of violent global conflict, saying that for him war with Iran would be like “Christmas, Thanksgiving and his birthday” in one.

“Mercifully John Bolton doesn’t command the military,” Carlson said bitingly – however, the question of how strong his influence on President Donald Trump’s foreign policy remains.

video 4:37

Bolton has been consistent in his drive to push the US into a violent conflict with the Islamic Republic, even penning a rather blunt op-ed in the New York Times entitled ‘To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran’ in 2015. Although President Trump was elected in part based on his turn-away from the traditional neo-con interventionist (read: Deep State) outlook, his national security advisor pick has been as hawkish (read: Deep Stateish) as ever since assuming office last year.

“How is a war with Iran in America’s interests in any way?” Carlson asked, a pertinent question given a NYT report recently claimed Bolton ordered a plan to send 120,000 troops to the Middle East in order to “check” Iran’s influence. While Trump has since refuted the report, calling it “fake news,” he added that if it came to such a plan, “we’d send a hell of a lot more troops than that.” He did say that, “hopefully,” this will not be needed.

How is any war in America's interests? Because America's economy is largely dependent on the research, manufacturing, and sale of weapons of war. After WWI, global merchants realized they got filthy rich during the war and decided that war was very good for their financial interests. 

That thousands of young people die or are severely injured, or that millions of women and children are raped and murdered in wars, seems to not have occurred to them, or were dismissed from their apparent lack of conscience. War is good for the American economy! Especially wars you cannot win - it really keeps the inventory moving. This is Deep State!

Tucker on Tuesday was joined by retired army colonel Douglas Macgregor, who called the situation a “manufactured crisis,” noting that Iran actually serves as an ally in the main regional conflict against Islamic State.

Despite both sides having managed to avoid any direct confrontation for years, Macgregor asserts that Iran almost certainly wants to avoid conflict with the US “under any and all circumstances.”

Syrian Patriarch: The West Abandoned Christians for Oil

The Patriarch of Antioch accused Western countries

of hypocrisy in their fight against Islamist extremism

by caring about oil more than refugees.

BY ELLIOT FRIEDLAND Sun,


An oil truck. (Photo: © Creative Commons/Brett Jordan)

A senior Syrian priest accused Western countries of abandoning their principles and allowing Islamist extremists to massacre Christians in the Middle East because they are blinded by their lust for oil, according to the Christian media outlet Crossmap.

Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan of the Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch made the remarks to a meeting of the Knights of Columbus in Toronto.

"We have to understand that totalitarianism based on Islamic creed is the worst among all systems of government. Yes, my friends, the very survival of Christians in the cradle of Christianity is quite in danger," the patriarch said.

"Why shall we wonder at the rise of the Islamic State or its new 'Caliphate,' when these 'allied rich countries' - with among the most retrograde systems of government - continue to channel funding and weapons to terrorists spreading hatred and committing barbaric atrocities in the name of a religion?" he asked, referring to Saudi Arabia.

He directly attacked the West's funding of Syrian rebel militia groups saying, "We, the Church pastors, kept warning Westerners who pretended to have the right to interfere in Syria in the name of democracy, that fomenting violence would surely lead to terrible sectarian war because of the complex religious and ethnic diversity in Syria. We knew innocent people, primarily Christians and minorities, would suffer most."

He also blasted Western support of Saudi Arabia, quoting New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof, who said,"For decades, Saudi Arabia has recklessly financed and promoted a harsh and intolerant Wahhabi version of Islam around the world in a way that is, quite predictably, producing terrorists."

"You can't be allied with regimes that discriminate or do not accept the religious freedom of non-Muslims" he asserted. "It's not honest or sincere to be allied to such a regime, and [then] to say we have an annual report about religious freedom."

Saudi Arabia does not allow any non-Muslim to enter the Muslim holy city of Mecca. Churches are forbidden and leaving Islam is punishable by death. Women are not allowed to drive or perform a host of other basic tasks without the permission of their male guardian, their father, husband, brother or occasionally son.

Also, we should note that Saudi Arabia is funding the construction of many, many mosques all over the west.

The Patriarch is right to attack the West for supporting regimes that promote Islamist extremism while it attempts to cope with that very same problem. Without directly tackling the Saudi regime, which funds its totalitarian vision of Wahhabist Islam worldwide, measures to address radical Islam will be addressing the symptoms rather than the cause.