Tommy Vietor, left, former National Security Council spokesman, and Ben Rhodes, deputy National Security Adviser. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The relationship between former Obama lackey Ben Rhodes and the media is fascinating to me. He essentially called them idiots a few years back, admitting that he lied and mislead them to their face to push the disastrous Iran deal. How did the media respond? By saying “yes please, can I have another” and letting him wrote op-eds as an authority on Iran.
In reality, Ben Rhodes is a know-nothing. He has zero expertise in foreign policy and worked as a failed author before Obama elevated him to one of the most important postilions in the administration. He has an incredibly weird affinity for the Mullahs and other Islamists, choosing to consistently push their interests over those of the United States. This is also a guy who was initially denied a security clearance until Obama gave him one (I’m told that’s something the media and Democrats care deeply about now).
Despite his track record of abject failure, The Washington Post decided to give him a platform to lecture us on just how terrible Trump’s Iran policy is.
Since then, Trump’s administration has made every effort to manufacture a crisis with Iran. To the dismay of our closest European allies, the administration has repeatedly imposed new sanctions; officially designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization; announced an “Iran Action Group” in the same week as the 65th anniversary of a U.S.-backed coup in Iran; threatened, via a tweeted-out video message from national security adviser John Bolton, that the Iranian regime wouldn’t “have many more anniversaries to enjoy”; and hinted that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force against al-Qaeda and associated forces could be applied to war with Iran.
This is nonsense.
It’s Iran who’s continually propagated a crisis by their aggression in the Persian Gulf, their funding of terrorism throughout the Middle East, and their proxy war in Syria. They’ve also done everything they can to attack Israel by funding Hama’s efforts to fire rockets into civilian populations. That’s not even bringing into account their nuclear ambitions, something Obama’s Iran deal, which Rhodes was the chief architect of, did nothing to stop.
By what logic is it now the U.S.’s fault for reacting to all this bad behavior by adding sanctions?
The State Department has drawn down some of our personnel in nearby Baghdad, again citing unspecified threats from Iran.
Our allies have contradicted this view: Speaking at the Pentagon this week, a British major general stated, “There’s been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria.”
This is also false. Shortly after that general said that (who made him the authority over U.S. intelligence?), multiple other countries, including Germany, also pulled personnel citing recently discovered threats. There’s also the fact that Iran has already lashed out in the past few months, attacking tankers in the Persian Gulf and helping to fund terrorist plots on American interests.
The idea that it’s the U.S. that’s trying to bait Iran is ridiculously dishonest. It also ignores Iran’s own responsibility for the situation. No one is forcing them to attack ships and organize terrorist actions. They could, you know, just not do those things?
You know, the Iranians could always choose *not* to attack tankers, crash drones into oil rigs, and put terror campaigns into motion. *Not* doing those things is in fact an option they have. https://t.co/Jf0veKEVxs
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) May 16, 2019
Rhodes ends with this.
We don’t know what he’ll do. But we know Trump is averse to truth, addicted to lies, and that what he says about Iran should be treated with tremendous skepticism. The consequences of a war with Iran — a much larger, more determined and more sophisticated adversary than Saddam Hussein’s Iraq — should be urgently aired. And Congress, the branch of government empowered to declare war, should make clear that military action against Iran is not authorized.
The irony here? Trump is actually actively pushing back against the idea of war with Iran. It’s a complete fantasy that the President wants to attack Iran or get into another war. Yet, Rhodes presents it as fact because he’s a hack who feels he needs to constantly do the bidding of the Iranian regime. What’s the real connection there? I’m not sure, but it obviously exists.
At what point does Ben have to register as lobbyist for a foreign government? Does Iran technically have to pay him first? https://t.co/uMwlDC4A6N
— RBe (@RBPundit) May 16, 2019
Ben Rhodes should sit this one out. He’s already done enough damage while serving under Barack Obama. It should be noted that said damage does not end with Iran. He was also the driving force behind the “Arab Spring” and handing Egypt over to the Muslim Brotherhood.
He’s the last person who should be giving advice on our foreign policy toward any nation. The fact that the media still treat him as some kind of expert, even after he personally slammed them as gullible morons, says a lot of about just how pervasive their biases are.
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