John Bolton: sabotaging peace for three decades

North Korea, and many in the international community, have placed the blame for failure of the recent US, North Korea summit directly on National Security Adviser John Bolton. Negotiations up to the summit pointed to substantive agreements, possibly including formal end to 69 year old Korea War. But nothing was accomplished largely due to Bolton's demand North Korea give up its entire nuclear program and "everything associated with it" before any sanctions can be removed. Bolton even warned about adding more sanctions. North Korea's response was 'You're nuts' and walked away, not even scheduling new talks.

That's how John 'Bonkers' Bolton got his nickname, going off the rails to upend peace agreements and negotiations going on three decades. In 1998, he signed the Project For A New American Century, urging President Clinton to oust Iraq President Saddam Hussein. In 2001, Bolton led the effort to encourage President George W Bush to withdraw from the 1971 Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. A year later he urged the President to withdraw from the 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea, paving the way for their building their first nuclear weapons, which now number sixty. After 911, Bolton became a vociferous proponent of immoral, illegal and criminal war in Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands. He deserved being shunned by Obama as the moral monster he is. Alas, a clueless Trump installed him as National Security Adviser where he worked to ditch the 5 + 1 Nuclear Agreement with Iran, setting the stage for eventual regime change, possibly even war there. Then Trump gave him top billing at the North Korea summit in Hanoi where he, along with fellow hard liner, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, ensured a summit failure.

Of all the horrendous actions taken by an unfit president, bringing John 'Bonkers' Bolton back from foreign policy purgatory stands tall as the worst of all.

Friends don't let friends commit crimes against humanity

America's best pals in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Israel, are both perpetuating crimes against humanity which we aid and abet. The Saudi's have intervened in neighboring Yemen's civil war, bombing and blockading the hapless Yemenis, with mostly civilian deaths over 60,000. Their blockade is causing starvation and cholera, making Yemen one of the most sorrowful places on earth. The world is aghast except for Saudi Arabia's local Sunni allies, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait. But without US support of billions in Weapons of Civilian Destruction (WCD), refueling Saudi bombers, and intelligence, the Saudi war in Yemen would collapse.

Nearby, the two million Palestinians cooped up in Israel's decade long blockade of land, sea and water routes has caused the UN to warn Gaza may be uninhabitable withing several years. Three quarters of Gazans are food insecure; 40% unemployed and 80% rely on humanitarian aid to survive. Yet, every year Congress tosses $4 billion at Israel to buy our largest export...WCD. A UN Independent Commission of Inquiry reports Israel may have committed war crimes allowing soldiers to use live ammo which killed 189 unarmed Palestinians at border protests last year. An additional 6,000 were wounded.

The Palestinians plight, like the Yemenis', is a non story in US media and totally ignored by Congress and president after president. The Yemenis and Palestinians have no clout and no money to buy American votes and military hardware; so their pleas for relief are ignored. But any time we want to dispose a foreign ruler we don't like, such as Venezuela's Maduro, we assume the mantle of the world's protector, demanding immediate intervention to save his suffering people.

America may be the home of the brave and land of the free. But it's also the land of 330 million helping destroy those a lot more brave...and a lot less free.

TR grandson haunts US Iran policy for 66 years

Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. was the grandson of Teddy Roosevelt. Grandpa Teddy, the premier warmongering president in US history, would have been proud of Kermit, who, as a top CIA official, helped topple two Arab governments in two years. In 1952 he encouraged the Free Officers Movement which engineered a coup against Egyptian King Farouk. But a year later, he did more than encourage a coup. He essentially instigated the coup that deposed elected Iranian president Mossedegh, who threatened Britain's control of Iranian oil. Kermit used his contacts among Egyptian Anglophiles and pro Shah forces to get Mossedegh's removal started. But advance knowledge of the coup allowed Mossedegh to prevail, so much so, Roosevelt's CIA bosses demanded he leave Iran immediately. Instead, he conjured up the ghost of TR, inspiring him to instigate a second coup that was successful. It became the model for CIA backed coups, both successes and failures, throughout the Cold War. A year later Ike secretly gave Roosevelt a National Security Medal for keeping Iranian oil safe for the West. Apparently, Ike didn't want to go public with an illegal, immoral and criminal overthrow of a sovereign government. And 66 years on the Neocons of today foment war in the Roosevelt tradition to reclaim Iran for a new American sock puppet.

First Trump veto bad political theater; second will be horrendous

The First Trump veto Friday, voiding the Congressional resolution terminating Trump's declaring a national emergency to finish 'fencing' at the southern border, is simple political theater. Whether the veto is overturned or sustained is irrelevant to life in the US; indeed the world. Whatever defeats lie ahead for 'Fencing Donald' matter little compared to his need to keep fighting for an imaginary barrier to keep his base in line for next year's election.

What will gravely matter in America and abroad will be the second veto he'll use to overturn the upcoming Congressional resolution to end criminal US involvement in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. The Senate, with Republican support, passed their version Wednesday of the earlier House version to invoke the War Powers Act of 1973 giving Congress authority to end presidential war making. The House must now pass a 'clean' version of their resolution which has GOP sponsored 'poison pill' amendments attached which prevent a joint House-Senate resolution. That will happen soon.

Trump, a virulent war monger, will certainly veto any interference in waging criminal war. Instead of simply throwing the red meat of hate and fear to his base with Veto One, Trump will insure that the red blood of innocent civilians keeps flowing in Yemen with Veto Two.