Stephen LENDMAN

Bipartisan lunatics infesting Washington want all sovereign independent nations eliminated, replaced by pro-Western puppet regimes.

It’s why US imperial wars are waged, not because of national security threats, humanitarian intentions or other fabricated reasons.

Iran is a prime target. Neocons in Washington urge stiffer sanctions, renunciation of the JCPOA nuclear deal, and military confrontation – eliminating Israel’s main rival, giving Big Oil control over the country’s vast oil and gas reserves.

In 2008, then presidential candidate John McCain advocated bombing Iran. “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,” he sang on his “Straight Talk” tour – to the tune of a popular Beach Boys song.

Then presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton was just as abhorrent. Even twice defeated for the nation’s highest office, she remains a deplorable profile of imperial arrogance and lawlessness.

During her 2008 presidential campaign, she raged against Iran, threatening mass slaughter and destruction, saying:

“I want the Iranians to know that if I’m president, we will attack Iran.”

“In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.”

Iranophobe Dick Cheney wants war on the Islamic Republic, his alternative to the nuclear deal. He urged aggression as vice president. He still does, favoring cruise missile diplomacy.

Neocons consider Russia America’s top threat, solely for its sovereign independence and opposition to US imperial wars on humanity.

During the Cold War, extremists in Washington urged war on Soviet Russia, ludicrously believing it could be won at a small price to America.

WW II General Curtis LeMay believed nuclear war with the Soviet Union was inevitable. In 1961, he urged launching thousands of missiles preemptively to destroy its nuclear capability – despite knowing retaliatory strikes on US cities would follow.

He believed America should strike while it had a clear military advantage, rather than wait for Soviet Russia to become a more powerful adversary.

At the time, General Lyman Lemnitzer urged a surprise nuclear attack during a National Security Council meeting. In disgust, Jack Kennedy walked out.

He rejected calls for nuclear war. So did Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. Later extremists urged the same thing.

On July 12, former Clinton advisor/political consultant Paul Begala disgracefully lied, saying America is “under attack by a hostile power.”

“(W)e should be debating how many sanctions we should place on Russia or whether we should blow up the KGB, GSU, or GRU (its armed forces’ foreign intelligence agency).”

“We should be retaliating massively” – for its nonexistent US election hacking, the phony accusation refusing to fade away and die.

“By the way,” Begala added, “if I were a Trump supporter, I would want to retaliate massively because it tainted his victory” – only because dark forces opposing him use the Big Lie for this purpose.

America’s bipartisan lunatic fringe makes the unthinkable possible. Their rage for endless wars may end up killing us all.

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