Posted On: Tuesday - June 24th 2025 6:34PM MST
In Topics: History Trump The Neocons
I will admit that I got sucked into the NeoCon narrative of Trump's attack on Iran to some degree. Being generous here, I think it's possible President Trump did too. No, it's not another war, they want us to understand. It's just this one time, or, well, if the nukes are still there, a few more. We've got to save the world from rogue nations with nukes, no matter what it takes. These guys might just start Armageddon. That's the way I've been hearing it and reading it from people who are otherwise MAGA/America First types.
That all seems familiar to me. Oh yes, if we have any kind of memory and go back 22 years, we can recall months to years of talk about Iraq and THEIR dubya emm dee (WMD), those Weapons of Mass Destruction. I never did get the story on what exactly they were and how they were a threat to America. Being quite a bit younger then, I mistakenly assumed that Bush and his guys knew a lot more than I did about it. Additionally, how this was at all connected to 9/11 was a mystery I've never seen solved.
No, but we're just taking out the nukes this time with no big war planned. (That's a good idea, if it were really the plan, because Iran is a country of 90 million people, not all who are 3rd-World incompetents and the US military, well, that's a post to come shortly.) It's DIFFERENT this time. It doesn't feel different at all though. "Boots on the ground" or not, has Trump started another wasteful, destructive forever war? Another parallel is that people against this warmongering are being mocked. Another one is that there are already "alerts" out about new terrorism, likely with new "security" programs being planned to take away what's left of our freedoms. I don't like ANY of this, and no, it's not what I voted for
The BIG parallel though, being talked about more than it was 22 years ago, is that America has waged unprovoked war on behalf of Israel. This is not America First. What threat is Iran to America? Oh, right, they've been chanting "Death to America" on the streets for 45 years... so let me go back 2 more decades.
I'm going back to 1979 now. After the Shah of Iran had been deposed by the notorious Ayatollah (assholla) Khomeney*, 52 Americans were taken hostage and held at the (former by that time) US Embassy in Tehran for 444 days starting in November 1979. It might be beyond the memories of most Americans, but it was A BIG DEAL for those 444 days.
American tempers flared and anger was at a high level. It didn't help that most Americans, I along with them as a young kid, had not followed the history of the situation with the old Shah. (He had come to America to get treated for his cancer at some point before the Moslem fundamentalist coup.) We were pissed, and maybe we didn't want to know what brought this all on. The title of this post comes from the use of a then-not-so-old (14 y/o then vs. 60 now) Beach Boys'** song called Barbara Ann to rally anger against the country that had been holding 52 Americans. (I don't want to embed this happy and very catchy song here in this post.)
There was the Jimmy Carter-led military's failed rescue attempt in April of '80 that made America look even weaker. Most of another year went by, and this long-running event was very possibly the biggest factor in Ronald Reagan's election win at the end of the year (with perhaps,
Well, do you hold a grudge with people who are old and/or dead by now for those events of 1979-80 and that some people chant in the streets? Now there's another parallel with the warmongering in Iraq 22 years ago (and one could go back another 13 years from there too). The Bushes were at odds with Saddam Hussein. Not our problem. That was no reason to start a war that was in no way for the defense of America.
I don't know, perhaps Iran would/should (in some ways) think of 2025 America as "The Great Satan" due to our massive corrosive cultural influence anyway, but without our backing Israel so completely, I doubt we'd be so much their enemy. Israel has much more to worry about, as Big Islam does want them dead. Sorry, but still, starting wars and enacting "regime change" on behalf of Israel is simply not America First.*** That regime change thing goes back to the Shah and the 1950s, as this whole thing comes around full circle. (The rhyming of history for these particular political events is not quite on a century cycle.)
I'm not falling for that America-saving-the-world-from-destruction excuse this time, being older and wiser.
As is often the case, there is too much to write about on this subject for one post. The next one will be about Trump's bombing's effect on American politics.
* I realize it's not spelled this way, but since spell-check won't help me, I'll play along with Steve Sailer's deal on Moo-i-mar Cadaffey, and figure it has thousand of spellings. (I'm just covering for laziness here, honestly.)
As an aside, I was young then, but I have a hazy memory of seeing some interview on the B&W TV of that very Ayatollah, as he was living in France, before this crisis and before any regular American had heard of him. I thought later that I should have paid attention more to what some raghead had to say.
** They didn't write it. It had been written by one Fred Fassert and recorded by The Regents in '61.
*** Commenter "The Alarmist", AWOL for a while here but busy with his own blog, noted in the comments that perhaps this is part of some brilliant deal among Israel, AIPAC, and Trump - this deserves its own post.
Comments:
Moderator
Wednesday - June 25th 2025 8:32AM MST
PS: Good morning, SafeNow and Mr. Hail.
Is that "Bah, bah, bah, bah, hah, Bahrain"? Perfect.
I'd guess the water is a whole lot warmer off Bahrain than it is off of Southern Cal, so capsizing would not be quite as bad. How about Hawaii? And another thing "Mo don't sail!" Old "Apocalypse Now" reference there, SafeNow.
Is that "Bah, bah, bah, bah, hah, Bahrain"? Perfect.
I'd guess the water is a whole lot warmer off Bahrain than it is off of Southern Cal, so capsizing would not be quite as bad. How about Hawaii? And another thing "Mo don't sail!" Old "Apocalypse Now" reference there, SafeNow.
Hail
Tuesday - June 24th 2025 9:54PM MST
PS
I had always thought the "Barbara Ann" song amended to the words "Bomb Iran" was a John McCain invention around 2008.
I learn from this post that that it dates to 1979-80... and that therefore McCain would have remembered it from that time.
McCain was a war-fanatic, to an embarrassing degree. It's no coincidence that the cover of the magazine that ran Steve Sailer's "Invite the World, Invite the World" article had a caricatured, maniacal-looking McCain on the cover.
McCain was released from Vietnam in March 1973, at age 36. A short six years later, the man still in his prime, this Iran thing happened. McCain was able to transfer a portion of his war-pushing and war-cheerleading energies to Iran, given the retreat from Southeast Asia. He kept those energies on Iran till his dying day. If it hadn't been Iran, it'd have been something else. People like this are fundamentally unsuited to statesmanship, if you ask me. (I know our friend Adam Smith, being a principled opponent of Stupid-and-Forever Wars, agrees.)
When the AIPAC-aligned, pro-Israel "PNAS" people came out with their own sleek, glossy, Mid-East Forever War strategic plan, around 1998, they had willing idiots out there aplenty. Few more influential than John "Bomb Iran" McCain.
The "destabilize, topple, bomb, harass, or invade and 'regime-change' (the latter used as a verb by these people) seven Mid-East countries in the following five-plus years" plan came out in the early-mid 2000s, McCain was all for it. It's a (not-too-surprising) surprise that the guy who finally did it, bombed Iran, directly that is (beyond the realm of mafia-like assassinations previously used), was Donald Trump, a famously unprincipled man himself.
"Bomb, bomb, bomb, -- Bomb, bomb Iran" may well be McCain's tombstone epitaph (I haven't checked, but would find it fitting).
I had always thought the "Barbara Ann" song amended to the words "Bomb Iran" was a John McCain invention around 2008.
I learn from this post that that it dates to 1979-80... and that therefore McCain would have remembered it from that time.
McCain was a war-fanatic, to an embarrassing degree. It's no coincidence that the cover of the magazine that ran Steve Sailer's "Invite the World, Invite the World" article had a caricatured, maniacal-looking McCain on the cover.
McCain was released from Vietnam in March 1973, at age 36. A short six years later, the man still in his prime, this Iran thing happened. McCain was able to transfer a portion of his war-pushing and war-cheerleading energies to Iran, given the retreat from Southeast Asia. He kept those energies on Iran till his dying day. If it hadn't been Iran, it'd have been something else. People like this are fundamentally unsuited to statesmanship, if you ask me. (I know our friend Adam Smith, being a principled opponent of Stupid-and-Forever Wars, agrees.)
When the AIPAC-aligned, pro-Israel "PNAS" people came out with their own sleek, glossy, Mid-East Forever War strategic plan, around 1998, they had willing idiots out there aplenty. Few more influential than John "Bomb Iran" McCain.
The "destabilize, topple, bomb, harass, or invade and 'regime-change' (the latter used as a verb by these people) seven Mid-East countries in the following five-plus years" plan came out in the early-mid 2000s, McCain was all for it. It's a (not-too-surprising) surprise that the guy who finally did it, bombed Iran, directly that is (beyond the realm of mafia-like assassinations previously used), was Donald Trump, a famously unprincipled man himself.
"Bomb, bomb, bomb, -- Bomb, bomb Iran" may well be McCain's tombstone epitaph (I haven't checked, but would find it fitting).
SafeNow
Tuesday - June 24th 2025 9:06PM MST
PS
The opposite of bomb bomb bomb go away is stay stay stay withno goaway. The latter can be viewed as the more dangerous approach to US policy in the middle east. I refer to the USCG’s new “home port” …in…in…wait for it…Bahrain.
When the new Fast Response Cutters were allocated about a year ago, Bahrain got more FRCs than did S. Cal or Hawaii. If your sailboat is taking-on water and you (and the dog) are wondering, as you drown, where the fast response is, the answer might well be “in the middle east.”
,
The opposite of bomb bomb bomb go away is stay stay stay withno goaway. The latter can be viewed as the more dangerous approach to US policy in the middle east. I refer to the USCG’s new “home port” …in…in…wait for it…Bahrain.
When the new Fast Response Cutters were allocated about a year ago, Bahrain got more FRCs than did S. Cal or Hawaii. If your sailboat is taking-on water and you (and the dog) are wondering, as you drown, where the fast response is, the answer might well be “in the middle east.”
,
I very well remember the magazine cover on Steve Sailer's story with that caricature of McAmnesty, Mr. Hail. I think Mr. Sailer has used it on top of some of his blog posts over the years, I guess when they relate to his "invade-the-World/Invite-the-world" theme.
You are right that Donald Trump is no principled guy. He looks down on people with real principles and integrity, like Thomas Massie and MTG.