The Duran Podcast - Bolton calls for US strike against Iran and regime change

Episode Date: January 1, 2024

Bolton calls for US strike against Iran and regime change

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the potential conflict with Iran. The neocons are, as we have said in many videos in the past, the neocons are not going to let this opportunity go to waste. And they do feel, the neocons do feel like they have an opportunity with all the warships in place and the conflict going on in Israel. they feel like this is their best chance to finally get that war with Iran that they've probably ever had. And so they're fighting hard to get that war. Lindsay Graham, John Bolton. There was a statement from the U.S., France, the UK, and I believe Germany, which condemned

the uranium enrichment of Iran. timing for that statement to come out. Anyway, what are your thoughts with the apparent escalation once again for a possible conflict with Iran? You're absolutely correct. I mean, we have been warning about this for weeks now. We've been saying right from the start that the scale, the sheer scale of these American military deployments, two carrier task forces, an enormously powerful submarine, sent to the Middle East, brigade groups sent to the Middle East, this is not just to deter in order to get Israel to sort out whatever it wants to do in Gaza. It is clearly a force

that has been gathered for an offensive purpose. And what appears to have happened is that for a certain period of time, because of the strength of Arab opposition, the brakes were put on, And one gets the sense that Biden himself, some of the people close to him, thought that the Israelis would be able to wrap up the situation in Gaza fairly soon, fairly quickly. That hasn't yet happened. So far, Hamas is there, is fighting. It's not yet been defeated or clearly defeated, much less destroyed. So that has put the Biden administration in a difficult position. The global opinion is becoming, increasingly hostile. The president's own domestic ratings are continuing to fall in the United States. He's got this problem in the Middle East, but he's also still got all of these huge forces in the Middle East as well. So what's now happening is with the crisis in the Red Sea, which is a real one,

and with the intensifying fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, which is also intensifying, the neocons, as you correctly say, have seized their chance. And they're telling the president, and they're telling his key advisors, some of them, of course, are themselves neocons. Look, you're not going to achieve a quick victory in Gaza. What you've got to do is you've got to go against the head of the octopus, which is Iran itself. Don't waste your time fighting Hezbollah.

Israel wants us to fight Hezbollah. So let's go and fight Hezbollah. not the key. Don't waste too much time with the Houthis either. They're an elusive and difficult target by themselves. Go for the head. Go for Iran. And there's a long article today in the Daily Telegraph, which says exactly that. And Lindsay Graham, as he rightly said, is talking about this. And they're throwing in the fact that the Iranians are enriching uranium and doing all of those things. It's not illegal, by the way. The Iranians are no longer breaking any rules by enriching uranium because the JCPOA no longer exists.

So anyway, but nonetheless, they're doing all of these things. So this is the moment to launch that strike against Iran. And all of the assets are there to do it. And I think we are very close to the trigger point now. I think it's more than likely going to happen. Yeah, but how does, how do you square the circle. How do you put logic to the fact that the warships were afraid to go after Yemen? What are they thinking about now going after Iran? Well, you know, this is... I mean, it doesn't make sense, does it?

Yeah, no, it doesn't make any kind of sense at all. I mean, this is one of the most extraordinary things about the neocons. I was reading John Bolton's article in the telegraph very, very carefully. I mean, he is aching for a strike on Iran. But don't look there for any actual plan as to what he's going to do with that strike. He seems to think that if there's going to be a military strike on Iran, that in and of itself is going to precipitate a crisis in Iran leading to regime change. The article openly calls for regime change in Iran. But it doesn't actually provide us.

with any pathway to that point. For him, what he wants, it's just to launch a cup, lots and lots of missiles that Iran, and he seems to think that this in itself will be enough to achieve that. As I said, it is very odd. Does it?

I mean, I feel like we've been down this regime change path with Russia already. I mean, you know, 15,000 sanctions and we'll get regime change in Russia. I mean, why would it? I mean, you know, You can launch hundreds of missiles at a country. I mean, the Russians have launched hundreds of cruise missiles at Ukraine.

And they've never thought that that in itself would cause Ukraine to collapse. There's no reason to think that Iran are much more organized, much more tightly run, much more powerful country than Ukraine is, would reel in, you know, ahead of an American missile strike like that. So, I mean, it's not going to have that effect. But this is the thing about the near-cons. Always, invariably, without exception, they demand action. They demand the most belligerent and violent possible action. They never look beyond that. They never really plan for the consequences ahead.

And, of course, probably for the extent that they think about these at all, these things at all. They say to themselves, look, if we launch a strike against Iran, then it doesn't work, but the Iranians nonetheless have no real option but to counter strike. Well, that will create an even bigger crisis, which we can exploit even more in order to escalate even further. And that's, that's, I think, the way these people think, basically. Yeah, but can they escalate the United States? These countries involved in this little, in this coalition, they call it the allies. I think that's the words that they used in their communique with the Iranian, Iran's depleted uranium.

They said the allies, France, UK, Germany, the U.S., I mean, can they escalate? Because once again, Ukraine has proven, Project Ukraine has proven that they cannot escalate. And the Houthis have proven that they have different ways to hit at U.S. warships. They have a different approach using drones and other weapons. I mean, you know, I think everyone questions whether this. The war, if it would escalate, would turn out well for the United States. I don't think it will. Everybody, every rational person can see.

I would have thought so. I can see the enormous risks, the enormous dangers in this. And I want to repeat again, this is the consistent pattern of neocon projects. They start in a spectacular way. There's the big headlines, you know, blown up, excellent number of facilities in Iran, everybody cheers. The newspapers go into ecstasies about this

because they sort of love and hangker for this kind of thing. And then of course it all starts to go wrong and then it goes wrong quickly and then it ends disastrously. But the near cons always seem to be

always primarily obsessed with their first fix because as I said, I defy anybody to look at any of the statements that these people are making, Bolton, Lindsay Graham, any one of them, and find anything there that amounts to a plan. Because I don't see any plan. I didn't see any plan towards, any rational plan towards victory. You remember there was that article about Ukraine and the Ukrainian offensive. And it talked about magical thinking.

well this is what the neocons always indulge in, engage in, and they've just done the same. They're doing the same, it seems to me, with Iran. I would add that there is huge potential for things to go catastrophically wrong. When that Russian landing ship was blown up in Crimea the other day, the British media were in parts of it were in absolute, you know, ecstasies again. and claiming that it was a storm shadow missile that had destroyed the ship, which perhaps it wasn't, by the way, but that's putting it inside. And I have to say, it did strike me as a really reckless thing

to start doing when there are now British warships in the Middle East very much potentially in harm's way against the country, Iran and its allies, which is militarily powerful, and which is, of course, ultimately backed by China and Russia. But there we go. That's the way things think. And if a major Western warship is attacked and destroyed, which heaven forbid, by the way, I wouldn't want to see that at all.

But if it does happen, well, what then? I mean, yeah, I just wonder if the U.S. can manage another conflict, foreign policy disaster like Afghanistan, Ukraine. The conflict in Israel is not going well. No, I know. It's going terribly for the United States, for the collective, even for Israel. Well, indeed. Well, can I... At Iran now? Well, indeed. And can I just say something else? I mean, I think that this is the other thing that the neocons are underestimating. I mean, they talk all the time about resolve. But if they do finally want to get hundreds of thousands of people coming out onto the

streets in Washington and New York and London and wherever, it is by launching a tax on Iran. I think if they start going down that road, and especially this thing escalates, then they could very easily lose control of the political situation. I think people in the United States, Republicans definitely, a lot of Republicans, a lot of Democrats, young people, older people. I mean, they will be deeply opposed to this sort of thing. Another war, a forever war in the Middle East, this time against Iran. I mean, I think that would appall people. And I think the same is true in Britain.

And I think you would have a massive, huge, hot. response if they did that. But again, these things never factor in neocon calculations. If you go to John Bolton's piece, again, you will see that he doesn't show any interest in these things because he decides, he fights these things always bureaucratically. And for him, it is the arguments in the bureaucracy in the higher councils of the American government, where he tends to win, it's only there that it matters. That's the only place where he acknowledges that debate can happen. All right. Final question, how can this be de-escalated? How can it be de-escalated? How can we not get this conflict with Iran? Very simple.

It's not, it is not difficult at all. Contact the Iranians, contact the Israelis. Tell the Israelis, look, you've been trying now for several weeks to prevail in Gaza. You are not. succeeding. The situation there is becoming very bad. There is a serious risk that the entire Middle East is going to de-escalate. We insist now that this operation that you're carrying out in Gaza must be brought to an end. And then the United States talks to Iran and says to Iran, look, we've told the Israelis to stop. Get your various allies, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and all of those to stand down. We will pull back our warships, if you do,

and then we'll work with you and the others and the Arab states and the Muslim states on a Security Council resolution to chart a way forward towards stabilization for the Middle East. That will be one which will cover the events of 7th October, insist on investigation, demand the release of hostages, impose a ceasefire on Gaza, and set in train some kind of realistic political process,

which hopefully, just possibly, might be able to kickstart some real negotiations. It would precipitate a political crisis in Israel, Netanyaki himself and his supporters might oppose it, but it is the obvious and correct thing to do. Of course, Bolton opposes it, and he says so in this article. Because what he wants is war with Iran. And Bolton worries me. Bolton knows how to pull the strings in the U.S. government, yeah.

Even though he's not a part of it, he understands how to move things along. All right. We'll leave it there. The durand.com. We are on Rumble odyssey, bitchchew, telegram, rock fin, and Twitter X, and go to the Duran shop. 20% off. Use the code, Christmas 20.

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