Robert Bridge
Hypocritical to the core, the execution of false-flag events spare aggressive states the ignominy of appearing in public as the warmongering psychopaths they are, lest their subjects get the wrong idea as to exactly who is governing over them.
The last thing tyrannical rulers want, after all, are battles raging on two fronts, especially if one of those fronts just happens to be back in the Heartland. Psychopaths are mentally deranged, of course, but that does not mean they are necessarily stupid.
Thus, once again, the United States is flying its jolly tricolors from the Mediterranean Sea into the Persian Gulf led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, as well as nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and a Patriot missile battery on standby. But America's reputation as a rabble-rouser and hell raiser long preceded its entry into the Gulf, as did the frenetic rhetoric.
Just as the fleet was en route, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a warning that was so far beyond the pale of reality that it sounded as though it were scripted by a Hollywood film director with a penchant for embellishing American history.
"The response of the United States and our partners and allies has been clear: We do not seek war," the statement reads. "But Iran's forty years of killing American soldiers, attacking American facilities, and taking American hostages is a constant reminder that we must defend ourselves."
Forty years of killing Americans? Really? That comment brought to mind Pompeo's recent display of braggadocio as he reminisced over his former CIA days. "We lied, we cheated, we stole," he confessed with a hearty chuckle to an audience from Texas A&M University last month. "We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment."
Ah yes, the glory days. Next he'll be shooting off about how he enjoys shaving with napalm in the morning, or some such nonsense.
In any case, the prospect of America's leading diplomat who basically admits to being a bald-faced liar, and darn proud of it, delivering a fiery shot across the bow of the Iranian Republic at the same time a large US naval group is entering the Persian Gulf and Iran is struggling under severe sanctions does very little to instill much comfort or confidence.
One week before the US naval fleet turned up in Gulf waters, Pompeo was already laying the necessary groundwork for the buildup, saying that the US has observed "escalatory actions from the Iranians, and it is equally the case that we will hold the Iranians accountable for attacks on American interests," he said, without providing any details. "If these actions take place if they do by some third-party proxy, a militia group, Hezbollah we will hold the Iranian leadership directly accountable for that."
Now for anyone who followed the protracted Syrian crisis understands, that is exactly the sort of crazy talk that inspires friends and foes alike to pull off a false-flag attack that will force the United States to live up to its word and go after the villains, which will predictably be - as was the case following the chemical attacks against the Syrian rebels when the 'Assad regime' was duly blamed - the Islamic Republic of Iran.