President Trump, and not obliquely, has put the assassination of Vladimir Putin “on the table” as part of a new policy, one at direct odds with both American and international law. This isn’t just a broad policy against those Washington deems enemies, but Russia was specifically listed as a target for highest level assassinations in order to achieve regime change.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during a policy address at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute on January 13, 2020, outlined the new policy. The title of the speech was “The Restoration of Deterrence, the Iranian Example.”
The Hoover institution has a long history of CIA ties and receives secretive private funding from a variety of “strange bedfellows:”
- The Bradley Foundation, cited by the Council of Islamic American relations for Islamophobia and hate mongering.
- The Scaife Family Foundation, long run by now deceased Richard Mellon Scaife, right wing extremist billionaire who employed an army of private security operatives used to threaten members of the press, including involvement in the death of Steve Kangas, founder of America’s independent press.
- The Castle Rock Foundation, a front for Adolf Coors, one of the largest funders of right-wing extremism and Russophobia in the United States
- The Koch Foundation, largest funder for climate denialism through profits from the coal industry
Former President Herbert Hoover, long blamed for failing to address the needs of a starving nation during the first 4 years of the great depression, for whom the Hoover Institution is named, was a powerful advocate for allowing and possibly even supporting Hitler in his war against Russia.
Only recently, after being suppressed for 50 years, has Herbert Hoover’s World War II analysis, “Freedom Betrayed,” been published, by the Hoover Institution. In that work, the “betrayal” was entering the war against Hitler and fighting alongside Russia.
You see, TDC or “top dead center” for American conservatives has always been the destruction of Russia and the subjugation of the Russian people on behalf of the Deep State.
In his Hoover Institute address Pompeo clearly stated that an attack on Russia, on its leadership and even President Putin, was very much a part of the new American policy under his leadership.
He further clarified, “The importance of deterrence isn’t confined to Iran. In all cases, we must defend freedom. That’s the whole point of President Trump’s work to make our military the strongest it has ever been.”
This was, of course, before Iranian missiles easily punched through America’s Patriot Missile defenses in a humiliating attack with, according to Trump “no casualties.” On January 16, 2020, however, the Pentagon announced that 11 members of the US military serving at the Assad Air Base had been evacuated to Landstuhl, Germany in order to be treated for wounds.
Trump lied, but nothing compared to the wild threats from Pompeo against a nation whose nuclear strategic arsenal significantly overshadows that of the United States, certainly qualitatively and in that area, overwhelmingly.
“The destruction of Suleimani is an example of a new US strategy aimed at deterring its opponents. This applies equally to Iran, China and Russia.
The states are now realizing the possibilities of the strongest position that we have ever had with regard to Iran. We are just holding it back for now. But in order to truly protect freedom, it is important to restrain all enemies. That’s the whole point of President Trump’s work. That’s why he is trying so hard to make our army the strongest it has ever been.”
When Secretary of State Pompeo, after months of planning, pushed through the drone assassination of Iran’s General Soleimani, chief architect of the ground war against ISIS, little did he expect Iran’s reaction.
When, only days later, Iran obliterated America’s largest base in the Middle East with a devastating ballistic missile attack, forcing the US to back down and seek more sanctions.
The real issue is how much of the Pompeo rhetoric is real and to what extent Pompeo and Trump are bluffing. One thing that has become clear, however, is that both Trump and even Pompeo, a graduate of West Point’s infamous “Class of 1986,” a hot-bed of Russophobic extremists called “the West Point Mafia,” are not schooled in the realities of warfare.
From the Daily Beast:
“An account of the meeting in the upcoming book A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America depicts Trump becoming increasingly angry as his generals tried to teach him the fundamental basics of American post-war history.
The book states that the meeting took place six months into Trump’s presidency after his generals became concerned about ‘gaping holes’ in Trump’s knowledge of America’s key alliances. The idea was to bring Trump to the Pentagon’s Situation Room, where military leaders, so the plan went, would give him a crash course on who America’s allies were, why they were worth keeping on side, and where on earth they were located. (Trump didn’t know)
However, the meeting seems to have descended into chaos almost immediately. Secretary of State Tillerson, then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn reportedly took turns trying to explain their points to Trump. But Trump is said to have first appeared bored out of his mind before he got increasingly angry.
Trump is then said to have complained about President Obama’s Iranian nuclear deal, and the length of the war in Afghanistan. Each time, his generals reportedly tried to gently explain why his view of these complex geopolitical issues might not be entirely accurate. It was reportedly during a conversation about Afghanistan that Trump blew his top.
The president reportedly called Afghanistan a “loser war,” and told his military leaders: “You’re all losers… You don’t know how to win anymore… I want to win… We don’t win any wars anymore… We spend $7 trillion, everybody else got the oil and we’re not winning anymore.” It’s reported that Trump was so angry at this point that he wasn’t breathing properly.
In his most incendiary comment, Trump—a man who, remember, managed to get out of military duty in Vietnam due to a supposed bone-spur problem—is said to have told the assembled forces: ‘I wouldn’t go to war with you people… You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.’
The comment reportedly left the room dumbfounded. Tillerson was ‘visibly seething,’ and decided to speak up. The secretary of state said: “No, that’s just wrong… Mr. President, you’re totally wrong. None of that is true.’ When the meeting ended soon afterward, Tillerson reportedly stood with a small group of confidants and said: ‘He’s a (expletive deleted) moron.’”
Conclusion
Is Pompeo’s statement to the Russia hating establishment, an open threat against a foreign leader, carelessness, hubris or insanity?
Is President Trump ready to back Pompeo, as he did with the disastrous Soleimani killing?
We then have to ask, how can such statements be made with no pushback from congress or the media, not a single word? Has America become suicidal?
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War that has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security issues. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”