Bolton’s zero option

Barack Obama and his foreign policy team led us into an upside down world in which friends were treated as enemies and enemies treated as friends. President Trump has led the great undoing of Obama administration policies on the home front. Senior Trump administration officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton are instrumental to the great undoing of Obamaian foreign policy.

When it came to Iran, Obama chose to get in bed with the mullahs. Nothing was allowed to stand in the way of the consummation represented by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to place Iran on the path to a nuclear weapon and fund its international wrongdoing. In the annals of misguided international diplomacy, the JCPOA takes pride of place over the Munich Agreement. Not even Neville Chamberlain thought to fund the realization of Hitler’s dreams for Europe.

Following the adoption of the JCPOA, Secretary of State John Kerry hit the road to build up foreign investment in Iran. He sought to reward the Iranian regime for its deigning to take the cash and do the deal. No greater fool has ever served in that high office.

Bolton is abroad this week in furtherance of the great undoing. See, for example, Caroline Glick’s Jerusalem Post column drawing on her interview with Bolton in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

The impeachment hysteria at home has virtually drowned out the news of Bolton’s trip. In the foreign press, however, the Guardian is paying attention. The Guardian quotes Bolton in the opening of the linked story: “The US is prepared to use sanctions to drive Iranian oil exports down to zero[.]” He explained: “Regime change in Iran is not American policy, but what we want is massive change in the regime’s behavior.” It’s an idea so crazy it just might work.

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