Trump's trash talk takes turn, tacks back

By Daniel Patrick Welch

US President Donald Trump’s aborted attack on Iran reveals a few things about the state of the empire. In the first place, it is still an act of war, as was the spy drone Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) shot down last week.

The thing is, both parties want this war and Trump’s ego actually saved him from a huge mistake. He’s probably trying to have it both ways, as is his style. He doesn’t want to be responsible for starting (expanding, really) yet another war; but he wants to use the bullying tools in the empire’s kit.

I mean think about the logic. First, on trying to split hairs about a US spy plane collecting sensitive data 8000 miles from home, and now saying that the empire is showing ‘restraint’ by not launching air strikes. It’s like the schoolyard bully saying ‘I almost punched you for refusing to give me your lunch money, but I didn't.  It's your lucky day.’

And the Democrats, the fake domestic ‘resistance’ to the Trump regime, attack him for everything except the wars. On that they are in lockstep, except for a few marginal voices the corporate media and party machine are working overtime to silence and exclude.

It is shocking (though I suppose it shouldn’t be) that the US’s toadying vassals and allies still buy into obviously ridiculous narratives like the suggestion that Iran blew up a Japanese oil tanker while the PM was in country for a state visit. These vassals are like the domestic loyal opposition. They hate Trump because he is a boorish, Ugly American (Orange Man Bad) while completely backing all the wars and lies of empire.

This version of alternate reality, collectively referred to as the West, or, laughably, the International Community, is extremely powerful and still sits atop the pile of wealth they have plundered from the rest of the world. But outside this bubble, and in the lower ranks of its own populations, nobody is buying the bullshit. Japan doesn’t even believe it. Certainly no one with a mind independent of the propaganda matrix gives a second thought to what has become the Gulf of Tonkin du jour.

No lie can live forever, though the US and its willing exponents of global white supremacy sure are giving this trope a run for its money.  And they will fight to the bitter end to keep the truth from upending their centuries’ long reign of terror.

PressTV-US strike would have killed 150 Iranians: Trump

Trump said a US strike on 3 different Iranian sites would have killed 150 people but he cancelled it 10 minutes before the attack was going to be launched.

*Daniel Patrick Welch is an American writer and political commentator based in Boston, Massachusetts. He has traveled widely, speaks five languages and studied Russian History and Literature at Harvard University. Welch has also appeared as a guest on several TV and radio channels to speak on topics of foreign affairs and political analysis. He wrote this commentary for Press TV website.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

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