Play It Again, Donald

Before this article officially starts I would like to say the line “Play It Again, Sam” does not appear once in Casablanca. If you use it, I’m going to assume you have never seen Casablanca and just want to reference something.

Turns Out I Was Right (Again)

The day John Bolton was fired, many pundits on both sides argued this was going to change the foreign policy of the Trump Administration going forward.

Daily Wire writer Josh Hammer wrote the following:

Today is a sad day for those firm opponents of the genocidal brand of Islamist jihadism that has been in a state of war against the West for at least a century. Today will be remembered as a shattering blow struck in the years-long cold civil war on the foreign policy — that between those hawks (even if “non-interventionist” hawks) who soberly assess the threat of radical Islamism, and those whose quixotic predilections toward ideological isolationism at any and all costs leads them to effectively shill for Russia, China, Iran, Syria, and so many other of the world’s unabashedly despotic regimes.

But tell us how you really feel.

Even other anti-war commentators such as Former Representative Ron Paul stared to fall of this. “With Bolton Out,” he asked, “Will Trump open the door to Iran.”

Slightly less than a week ago, I wrote an article arguing that John Bolton’s firing should not be celebrated by anti-war activists. My main argument was that it was highly likely John Bolton was going to be replaced by another neo-con or hawk. After all, the infamous Syria strike was not done with John Bolton being in the administration.

My three points were the following:

1. The Man Who Appointed John Bolton Is Still President
2. Mike Pompeo, Elliott Abrams, And Tons Of Other Hawks Are Still In The Administration
3. We Do Not Know Who Trump Is Going To Replace Him With

My overall point, that Trump is the same as Bolton, was proven quite quickly. “ In fact, my views on Venezuela, and especially Cuba, were far stronger than those of John Bolton. He was holding me back!” the President tweeted shortly after Bolton's firing.

This was made worse after Trump announced he planned to use military actin against Iran over an attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil sites. “ Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed,” the President Tweeted.

While I’m not going to argue this will lead to full on war with Iran, I do believe what this will lead to will be quite close. The President can never do exactly what his largest critics predict, instead, he always makes sure to do one step less awful to declare them paranoid.

I Tried To Take The Passage Back To The Place I Was Before

Let’s take a minute and think about the Iran attack on Saudi Oil. The first thing it is impossible not to notice is how every claim made against Iran was also a claim once used to get us into previous wars.

Allow me to go down the list.

The Attack Was Done Already — And We Agreed It Was A False Flag

Just a couple of months ago, the administration claimed Iran had attacked a Saudi Oil Site, and we agreed it was a false flag operation. “the cia has publicly tripped over their own balls on like 4 or 5 false flag attempts in the past calendar year and they still think ppl will believe them if they just try one more time. bless their hearts,” Krang T. Nelson tweeted in response to this.

And that wasn’t even the first false claim they made against Iran that year. Earlier that year, the administration was claiming Iran had shot down a ship in the Gulf or Omar. This is helped by the fact that the original attack was quite similar to the Gulf of Tolken attack, which we now know was a false flag used to increase United States intervention into Vietnam.

“When Has The Government Ever Lied About Attacks On Ships In A Gulf Somewhere Just To Provoke War?” The satire website The Babylon Bee joked John Bolton had said. Due to the closeness of both attacks, many Americans easily connected that both were false flags.

However, now it has been a few months. As such, most Americans have already forgot about what happened with Iran, and now they may be able to get away with the same false flag they’ve used many times.

Other claims include:

• That Iran has WMD’s
• That Donald Trump really never wanted war and he’s just being pushed to it by Iran
• That The Saudi’s Are Our Trusted Ally Please Stop Laughing

Honestly, that third one is the most relevant to this situation.

Trump tweeted the following yesterday:

Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!

But don’t worry right-populists, Trump is fighting the real threat to our national sovereignty — twelve year old girls seeking asylum. (You know, I think I recall a presidential candidate calling out wars for Saudi Arabia when he was a Senator, while his name escapes me I do remember him being hated by the anti-war movement.)

I’ll also note that I find it weird that an attack on Saudi oil fields is an attack on all Americans. At least I would if I and other anti-war commentators hadn’t been calling out that Saudi oil controls our foreign policy and has controlled it for years.

Here’s a graph I like, this is the price of oil after John Bolton was fired:

Starting to think there may be a connection there.