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UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers discusses the ongoing military campaign in Iran with former National Security Advisor John Bolton who delivers a blunt critique of the current administration by arguing that sporadic strikes are a strategic mistake and that the United States must instead commit to a total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the ultimate goal of regime change to permanently neutralize the threat of a nuclear armed Tehran, while simultaneously delivering a scathing personal assessment of President Trump’s impulsive decision-making process.
Just when I thought Unherd had become an echo-echo-echo chamber-chamber-chamber…. Freddie delivers the goods.
If only they would stop blocking me I might re-subscribe
John Bolton is right.
Sadly correct.
Finish the job of destroying the U.S. geopolitical situation, and bringing down the entire world economy?
What a huge surprise…
Iran should finish the job
Even Democrats agree. They call Trump a chicken for not finishing the job against Iran.
At least Bolton consistent.
But he seems to badly under appreciate the political problems with delivering this objective if it means greater US deployments. Regime change been tried before and didn’t go so well. US electorate remember and POTUS promised never to repeat etc. Allies beyond Israel, aren’t going to help much and can’t deploy quickly enough anyway. If Trump wanted their help he needed to build that coalition. He’s done the opposite. Allies wouldn’t trust him to not enmesh them and then cut and run anyway.
If it could be done via espionage and funding insurgents then perhaps US could avoid some of the likely political and economic shocks, but no evidence US or Mossad developed that strategy sufficiently and it’s not instantaneous.
So Bolton is essentially reliant on greater direct US military involvement. One assumes he knows any ‘boots on the ground’ fraught with danger so he’d focus on further degrading Iran from the Air. But Iran regime gets a vote on that too and Hormuz stays closed and Gulf desalination plants hit etc in the meantime. If US has the time to absorb the politics that would come off this, then chance perhaps it might deliver. But US doesn’t have the time and especially this POTUS. He’s made that clear already despite some of his utterances.
And what exactly is the meaning of “finish the job” and who is supposed to pay for it? The US can’t even afford to replace the missiles it’s already wasted on Trump’s Folly let alone to finance the expedition force that would be needed to enforce any regime change.
The US has lost every war it’s been in since WW2 and that’s not a small number. When will it learn that the away team always faces long odds for one simple reason—the home team has nowhere to go. And as to 90% of Iranians who supposedly want a new regime, what have you been doing for 47 years? Waiting for Donald Trump? A man who went out of his way not to serve when it was his time and now—with his lunatic Secretary of Defense—talks of indiscriminately killing entire civilizations?
You really do have TDS. They never spoke about indiscriminately killing entire civilizations. They talked about eliminating the Mullah’s theocratic rule together with the IRGC. Very different and something that is supported by well over 80% of the Iranian population. Also remember that the Iranian regime just mowed down 40,000 of its people who were peacefully protesting. Think about that for a moment. Finally, in the ME you have to understand that anything short of a display of strength is regarded as weakness. The only reason that the Iranian regime is at the negotiating table is because of the sort of threat that Trump made. They know exactly who are the targets given that their entire top leadership has already been elminated.
FYI, I voted for him in 3 elections because he said he was against America entering new wars, he was for enforcing the border laws and he was for a smaller government. After nearly a year and a half, we’ve been involved in wars—either directly or indirectly—the entire time, he hasn’t even deported as many illegals as Obama did and DOGE was a complete bust and seems to have been completely forgotten. For the length of the war Trump has been boasting of all HIS accomplishments, while American soldiers die and while American’s pocketbooks are stretched, not to mention that every time he pulls his TACO routine some persons—who should have been arrested—have made fortunes. So forgive me for not buying his MAGA schtick any longer. Oh, and insofar as the ME is concerned, it’s not American taxpayers’ responsibility to protect the whole world. IMO most of the problems in the ME are derived from American gamesmanship (in Ukraine as well) and the people there would be better off without us.
And that, in a nutshell, is why he’s getting hammered in the MidTerms.
“he hasn’t even deported as many illegals as Obama did”
False. Obama manipulated definitions to make the ‘Return to Mexico’ actions count as deportations. Return to Mexico actions comprised sending Mexican nationals intercepted at the border back home on a bus without formal deportation hearings. Barack did this to look like he was tough on illegal immigration, when, in fact, he was part of the Dem conspiracy to swell the number of future blue voters. That so many people are still ignorant of this is astonishing.
“The US has lost every war”: what does this even mean?
The US wasn’t attacked on own soil. The US wasn’t crippled the way Iran Iraq Afghanistan or Vietnam were obliterated. The US didn’t collapse like the Russians. If US lost anything, then its adversaries lost a lot more.
I’m fine with Iran nukes – who goes up in smoke? DC? NY? LA? . . . bring it
I don’t see the point in interviewing this neocon warmonger. I refuse to watch this, but I’m hoping he faced some very pointed questions regarding his disastrous record. His enthusiasm for bombing and killing people is well-known as he appears on mainstream media outlets regularly. Was anything of note accomplished doing this interview aside from giving him yet another outlet for his noxious opinions?
Within this ‘melange’ what about some regime change in the US?
Loony