>> John Bolton, Donald Trump's National Security Adviser, is a warmonger, certainly a hawk
when it comes to foreign policy, and it appears that he's now provoking Iran.
And of course, there has been this push to engage in war with Iran, not just by the Israeli
government, but also certain members of the Trump administration.
Now of course, Donald Trump famously ripped up the nuclear deal that the Obama administration
had agreed to with Iran.
And now we're finding out that the US government is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier
Strike Group and a bomber task force to the US Central Command region to send a clear
and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on the US or US interest,
or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.
That is an exact quote from John Bolton.
Now, is Iran threatening us in any way?
>> No.
Is Iran serving as an imminent threat to the United States?
>> No.
So what the United States is doing right now is provoking Iran, plain and simple.
They have not taken any type of action against the United States.
Now, the deployment has been ordered as a deterrence [to what has been seen as potential
preparations by Iranian forces and its proxies that may indicate possible attacks on US forces
in the region.
And that's according to unnamed US official who spoke to Reuters.
However, the official speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was not
expecting any imminent Iranian attack.
>> It's important caveat there, a very important caveat.
John Bolden who looks like the father of Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,
or the grandpa, he's the grandpa, right?
Or like some sort of old train conductor.
He, along with a huge swath of the national security establishment in the United States
government has been aching for war with Iran for decades.
>> Absolutely.
>> Basically since 1980.
And it does feel like they're inching closer than ever.
And that should be a terrifying prospect for any of us, because war with Iran would be
very, very bad.
If you thought the Iraq war was bad, war with Iran would be really bad.
That is the country you do not want to mess with, they are real.
>> Well, there's a huge difference between Iran and Iraq and let's just be clear that-
>> Not just one letter.
>> That's true.
Iraq has been a complete and utter disaster, but Iran would be worse because its military
capability- >> Much stronger.
>> Is far more advanced and yes, stronger than that of Iraq's, so.
But here's the thing, I mean people like John Bolton, I would argue, love perpetual war.
>> Yeah.
>> So I don't think that the difficulty of conquering Iran is the bug, I think it's the
feature.
>> The feature, absolutely.
>> Well, I mean all these hawks, including Pompeo and Bolton, they are in favor of managed
disaster.
So that's what they get profits from in terms of contracts for industries, and also I mean
this is a clearly veiled advocacy for what Saudi Arabia wants.
But it's also something that we don't understand in the US in terms of what's happening with
the sanctions that are proposed in terms of the export of crude oil, and also in terms
of what Iran said it would do in response, which is to block the Strait of Hormuz.
>> That's what this is really about, so I'm gonna read you one more part of the Reuters
report that I think is super relevant.
And then Metha, I'd like you to jump into the oil issue, because that's really at the
heart of what's going on here.
>> Shocking.
>> Now, Reuters reports that Bolton cited no specific Iranian activities that have raised
new concerns.
So again, they don't serve as a threat.
They're not an imminent threat.
Bolton himself can't cite any type of threat coming from Iran, but as is the case with
Venezuela, oil is at play, especially when it comes to Iran.
SO Metha, jump in and give us some details.
>> Yeah and I believe I stated it incorrectly, Strait of Hormuz.
If we could throw up the map, because I think it's really great to break down the geopolitical
situation of the Middle East and where the strait is, so you could see also what the
interest for Saudi Arabia is.
So, these are images of the shipping of the oil, so 40% of global exports from the Arabian
Gulf flow out this way and flow to Asia.
So this would be putting China, India and other people who receive these exports in
jeopardy, basically and that's not good in terms of just war with Iran, but where the
US is in terms of its precarious position constantly with China.
Especially with the current president that we have.
But the other point which is important and why this map is up there, if you can see where
the strait is and this eastern part of Saudi Arabia, they call this the Shia Crescent.
Iraq, Bahrain, they are afraid of this blockade because they think that there could be an
inspired Shia revolt in Saudi Arabia on the eastern province where there is the most oil
reserves in Saudi Arabia.
So there is all this concern that's really never publicly discussed or acknowledged in
US politics.
And we should know about what we're gonna get ourselves into should this escalate.
>> And it's very similar to previous conflicts that the US has dragged the country into where
there's this facade of we need to spread democracy.
We care about human rights, we care about stopping terrorism, whatever excuse the government
will use to either invade a country or get involved or intervene in a conflict in a different
country and that's certainly the case with Iran.
The underlying issue here again is oil, and instead we're hearing these arguments.
Look, this is the reason why the Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear deal.
It wasn't because the nuclear deal was weak.
The nuclear deal was incredibly strong, especially if you juxtapose what Iran agreed to, which
included actual safeguards, people going in and reviewing the situation, making sure they
are following through.
You compare that and juxtapose that with what Trump thought was a victorious deal with the
United States and North Korea, which as we now know, wasn't a deal at all.
>> And also sanctions don't work.
Sanctions in Venezuela, sanctions in Iraq, sanctions in
>> Well they do work, they kill tons of people.
They kill tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people, it works like a charm.
>> Yeah, civilians who are starving to death in all these countries.
And so the plan is to up even more sanctions against Iran, so what is that supposed to
produce?
>> Yeah just more death and misery.
I mean, like you said, the Iran nuclear deal was perhaps in my opinion, perhaps Obama's
greatest single achievement as president.
And the possibility of peace between the United States and Iran, which has been sort of threatened
for 30, 40 years.
And it was just incredibly dispiriting to see the Trump administration unilaterally
pull out of the deal, to see the mainstream media largely kind of be silent about it.
>> It always goes back to US industries, what they want to do in terms of increasing their
profits, and how much they're willing to give these politicians in lobbying to encourage
them to push forward with these bipartisan resolutions or efforts or policies, when it
comes to foreign policy.
>> When you talk to people who know Washington well, like the inner workings of Washington,
they always tell you that money from the Gulf is just sloshing around Washington, all over
the place in quantities that you can't even imagine.
From Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, whatever, all these states are just pouring money into Washington
to influence politicians through lobbying and all kinds of other ways, think tanks and
all kinds of other ways.
And you see that this is the net product of that.
This is the end result of that effort.
And it's just.
>> And finally, I wanna just quickly mention that even though the United States did unilaterally
pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, the other countries that were involved, including Germany,
refused to do it.
And Iran, at that point, really had no incentive to follow through with the deal.
>> Of course.
>> But they continued to follow through with the deal, and I think that's important to
keep in mind as these politicians continue fear mongering about the danger that Iran
serves.