Understanding the Two Faces of Trump

With this epic battle for the world still raging, I — in spite of all the cancellations and hate mail — is not about to betray the dauntless man who saved us all from the unimaginable Hell-on-Earth apocalypse which the sainted Killary Clinton (who would now be 1-year into a second term) would have unleashed upon humanity. The game that Chess Master Trump is playing against the Deep State amounts to a ruse so clever that it’s even got many of his followers (er, “ex” followers) tricked.

Write him off as a con man or even a traitor if you insist; but before doing so, do consider some undeniable precedents of Trump being “two-faced” — for the sake of a strategy known as “optics.”

The pattern is unmistakable by now. In each of the following cases, Trump, in order to silence the ferocious media cannons firing at him, said something which deeply upset many of us — while continuing to quietly work against the Deep State Globalists and getting his way in the end.

1. (((They))) were so certain that the Satanic Witch was going to win. // 2. And when the demented child sex trafficking lesbian lost, the big guns of the Judenpresse, Academia, Hollyweird, the Fake Pope, the neo cons, organized sports, the fake “alt right,” the CEO class and the bosses of both political parties were all pointed at Trump. Working around such a handicap required patience and cunning on a level which even his supporters cannot grasp.

On the Clintons

Trump’s True Position: Lock her up!
The Media Attack: “Trump’s threats to arrest the Clintons smack of “Fascism!”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: After winning the election, he stated, on 60 Minutes: “The Clintons are good people. I don’t want to hurt them.”
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Trump’s not even in office yet and he has already broken his promise to have Hillary arrested!”
The End Result: Prosecutor John Durham — who was appointed by Trump! — is indeed investigating the dirty dealings of the Clinton Mafia. Patience on this one, boys and girls. The timing has got to be perfect for such a move as the arrest of such high-ranking players as the Clintons — who may actually already have been arrested and replaced by those “Deep Fakes” that the New York Slimes and Killary herself had warned about.

The Clintons // The Bait

The Switch

On the House Freedom Caucus

Trump’s True Position: Trump courts the true conservative bloc of anti-establishment “America First” Congressmen (Jim Jordan, Ron DeSantis, Mark Meadows etc). He sees this small group of fighters as his most important allies in the fight against the Deep State.
The Media Attack: “The Freedom Caucus is made up of far right extremists!”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He sided with Speaker Paul Ryan (who Trump actually hated all along) in criticizing and threatening the House Freedom Caucus for being too extreme.
The Sunshine Patriots: “Trump and Paul Ryan are attacking the finest members of Congress! Trump is a phony!”
The End Result: Trump engineered a situation in which the Freedom Caucus now controls the US Congress — and its members are positioned to carry out serious investigations into very serious matters.

House Freedom Caucus // The Bait

The Switch

On Climate Change

Trump’s True Position: The Climate Con is a hoax.
The Media Attack: “Trump is a climate denier! The world is in crisis.”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: While still President-Elect, he invited climate con artists Leonardo DiCaprio & Al Gore to Trump Tower to “open mindedly” hear what they had to say about the “crisis.”
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Stupid Trump is being controlled by libtarded Ivanka! He is a Global Warmist now!”
End Result: Trump pulled us out of the Paris Climate Scam, ramped up domestic energy production and defunded / fired a whole bunch of warmist scientists.

The Climate Con // The Bait

The Switch

On North Korea

Trump’s True Position: The dangerous Korean Cold War must end.
The Media Attack: “Trump is being soft on the evil dictator Kim Jong Un”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He called Kim “Rocket Man” and threatened to attack North Korea with “fire and fury.” Kim (also in on the game) responded by calling Trump a “frightened dog.”
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Trump is a neo-con warmonger!”
The End Result: Trump’s people had been in secret back-channel communication with Kim’s people all along. The Korean Cold War — which always had the potential of bringing the US and China into war with each other — is over.

North Korea // The Bait

The Switch

**The buffonish bluster was strategically necessary.**

***Trump used cunning to deactivate a Globalist time bomb once and for all.***

On Afghanistan

Trump’s True Position: Pull all US troops out of Afghanistan
The Media Attack: “Trump is negotiating with the terrorist Taliban!”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He publicly ended the talks with the Taliban and threatened to bomb them – as he privately maintained back-channel negotiations.
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Traitor Trump is going to keep us in Afghanistan!”
The End Result: The final US withdrawal (as planned by Trump) occurred under “Biden” in a way that made it seem as though “Biden” botched it!

Afghanistan // The Bait & The Switch — both described in the same headlines.

The End Result

On NATO

Trump’s True Position: Work with Putin to kill NATO and avoid World War III
The Media Attack: “Trump is leaving Europe vulnerable to Russian attack!”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He boasted about how he strengthened NATO.
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Trump is a pro-NATO Globalist!”
The End Result: NATO cannot counter Russia’s justified actions in Ukraine because Trump (not “Biden”) is the true Commander-in-Chief. The war-making alliance is dying right before our eyes.

NATO // The Bait & The Switch — both described in the same headlines.

The End Result

On Syria

Trump’s True Position: End the CIA-Mossad proxy war against Syria
The Media Attack: “Trump is being soft on the evil Bashir al Assad”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He called Assad “an animal” and — after telling Assad’s Russian ally in advance — launched a harmless missile attack on an empty field.
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Trump is an Israeli-owned warmonger!”
The End Result: After Trump defunded the CIA program propping up “the moderate rebels” (ISIS), Russia and Iran finished off the CIA-Mossad mercenaries on the ground. The Assad government was saved.

Syria // The Bait

The Switch

On Iran

Trump’s True Position: Maintain peace in the region
The Neo-Con Media Attack: “Trump is being too soft on Iran.”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He threatened to attack Iran.
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Trump is an Israeli-owned warmonger!”
The End Result: Iran, now free of Obama’s “Iran Nuclear Deal,” is free to pursue nuclear weapons to defend itself against Israel. Along with Russia, Iran is now an influential power in the region.

Iran // The Attack on Trump

The Bait

The Switch

On Gun Control

Trump’s True Position: Pro 2nd Amendment — 100%
The Media Attack: After the 2018 hoax shooting at Parkland High School in Florida, a deafening roar for “gun control” went forth from Fake News and prominent politicians of both parties.
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He publicly agreed that something had to be done.
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Trump is about to betray us on the 2nd Amendment!”
The End Result: After allowing the temporary furor over Parkland to fizzle out, Trump did nothing. Since Parkland, there has also been a noticeable decrease in these hoax shootings.

Gun Control // The Bait

The Switch

On Russia / Ukraine

Trump’s True Position: End the dangerous CIA-Mossad proxy war against pro-Russian east Ukraine and cripple NATO before it ignites a World War.
The Media Attack: “Trump is Putin’s bitch!”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He said a few nasty things about Putin and made a public show about the weapons he was selling to Ukraine.
The Sunshine Patriots: “Trump wants a war with Russia!”
The End Result: The military aid to Ukraine was delayed and came with the condition that they not use the new equipment! The Ukrainian warmongers were demoralized and the tension eased. The Ukraine “civil war” ended (update: February, 2022: Putin is cleaning up Ukraine while Trump pretends to condemn his actions).

Ukraine War // The Bait

The Switch

On Israel

Trump’s True Position: Peace in the broader Middle East and a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.
The Media Attack: In this case, there was no attack because Trump skillfully preempted the Israel First elements.
How Trump Silenced the Attack: Trump blocked any Jewish attack by pretending to kiss Satanyaoo’s ass and making the meaningless gesture of moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Trump is a Zionist puppet! Muh Jared Kushner!”
The End Result: Satanyahoo is out of power (as are Israel’s top blackmail agents, Jeffrey Epstein & Ghislane Maxwell) and the whole Middle East is quieter than it has ever been in 70 years. The US is out and Russia and Iran are now the regional powers. Said Trump recently of Satanyahoo: “Fuck him!“

Israel // The Bait

The Switch

Stupid 19 & The Vaccine

Trump’s True Position: Give the chicken-shit normies their magical vaccine in order to thwart the planned multi-year Scamdemic; block the Great Reset that was to come out of the deadly multi-year lock down; and launch the great counter punch of 2022.
The Media Attack: “Trump is being negligent! His supporters refuse to take the vaccine and he’s not saying anything to encourage them.”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He recently made his strongest public statements yet in favor of voluntary vaccination (knowing full well that it wasn’t going to change anyone’s mind on either side of the issue).
The Sunshine Patriots: “Trump is evil! Mike King is a shill!” (rolling eyes)
The End Result: (As we foresee it) In the eyes of the bewildered masses of Normiedom, Trump comes out of this manufactured controversy looking like “the adult in the room” — as the “Biden” administration and the Demonrats continue to implode. The international hysteria over Stupid-19 will end this Spring, soon after Trump’s “Truth Social” media giant (an absolutely critical element to all of this) comes online. Investigations into election fraud, human trafficking, the Russia hoax etc are continuing. The “Storm” will begin to hit (in the public eye) no later than this summer — intensifying in stages and finally culminating with a historic electoral rout — which even the media is already projecting — by America First Republicans in November.

Be patient, boys and girls. Understand that we are fighting an irregular war, with regular casualties, against an “invisible enemy” (more Trumpian code). Stop taking Trump literally.

Countdown to the New Iranian Nuclear Deal

The world is inching closer to restoring a deal to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb. The US is examining the Iranian response to a ‘final’ accord tabled by the EU in the latest round of negotiation for the restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (or JCPOA, as the deal between Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Germany and the European Union is known).

In mid-July, Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Al Jazeera,

“In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium. … Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one.”

Uranium enriched at 90% is considered weapons-grade.

Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace recently told CNN that Iran does not want to build a nuclear bomb, but instead they want the capability to build one. There’s a world of difference.

According to US intelligence agencies, US allies, and IAEA inspectors, by 2003 Iran had abandoned its military nuclear program.

In October 2003, Khamenei issued an oral fatwa, or religious edict, that forbade the production and using any form of weapon of mass destruction. Two years later, in August 2005, the fatwa was cited in an official statement by the Iranian government at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

“We do not need nuclear bombs. We have no intention of using a nuclear bomb,” Khamenei said in a November 2006 speech, according to a transcript from his office. “We do not claim to dominate the world, like the Americans, we do not want to dominate the world by force and need a nuclear bomb. Our nuclear bomb and explosive power is our faith.”

How many countries have nuclear bombs?

Nuclear weapons analysts estimate that the world’s nine nuclear states—China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—have around 13,000 nuclear warheads in total, according to the Arms Control Association.

Iran’s nuclear power station and compared to others

The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant is the only nuclear power reactor in Iran, with a total of 42 199 million kilowatts of electricity generated from March 2011 to March 2020, which provided 1.84% of national electricity production in 2019.

According to Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atom Energy Organization of Iran, the country has less than two percent of the global nuclear capacity but is subject to 25 percent of all inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Eslami feels that western powers use the threat of Iran’s nuclear program as a pretext to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear technology, which has nothing to do with atomic bombs but enables scientific achievements.

Currently, Iran does not possess weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and is a signatory to treaties repudiating the possession of WMDs including the Biological Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN

Israel views Iran as their enemy. Iran is part of a global resistance movement against the occupation of Palestine. The resistance movement, in its many forms, demands that the five million Palestinians, who are Christians and Muslims, be given their human rights and a homeland that guarantees their freedom and dignity.

In September 2012, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly and used a hand-drawn caricature of a bomb to illustrate the threat of Iran developing a nuclear bomb. His theatrical stunt was effective, and it got the attention of at least Donald Trump.

Why did Trump break the 2015 deal?

Iran reached its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which saw it receive economic sanctions relief while it drastically curtailed its nuclear program. Under the deal, Tehran could enrich uranium to 3.67%, while maintaining a stockpile of uranium of 300 kilograms (660 pounds) under the constant scrutiny of IAEA surveillance cameras and inspectors.

The 2015 deal was seen as an achievement of President Obama. During the political campaign of Donald Trump in 2016, he promised he would break the Iran deal if elected to office. Many of his campaign promises were directed at anti-Obama goals.

In 2018 Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord, saying he’d negotiate a stronger deal, but he never delivered on his promise.

Iran now enriches uranium up to 60% purity, which is a level it never reached before Trump broke the deal, and that is a short, technical step away from 90%, which is a level that can produce a bomb.

Trump broke the 2015 deal in 2018 to appease voters who were steadfast supporters of Israel. While in office, Trump took more actions to support Israel than any previous US President. Netanyahu urged Trump to break the deal, only to find that the Iranian nuclear program was greatly increased because of the break.

Who is the winner if a new deal is done?

China and India have remained loyal customers of Iranian crude, but if a new deal is signed, Iran’s crude oil production and exports could surge.

EU nations are still importing about 1.2 million barrels a day of Russian crude oil, which is two-thirds of the amount before the Ukrainian crisis. In December, sanctions will stop that flow, and Iran is expected to fill that gap.

In 2016, Iran boosted its output to 3.8 million barrels a day within a year of restrictions being eased. The onshore tanks stored huge volumes of crude oil and ships off Iran’s coast were quickly ready to sail as buyers placed orders.

According to Julian Lee, an oil strategist for Bloomberg First Word, and formerly a senior analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies, Iran may reach a new deal that will allow Iran to fill in the sanctioned Russian crude oil for European nations soon.

How to Decode The “Two Faces” of Donald Trump

With this epic battle for the world still raging, the RHC — in spite of all the cancellations and hate mail — is not about to betray the dauntless man who saved us all from the unimaginable Hell-on-Earth apocalypse which the sainted Killary Clinton(who would now be 1-year into a second term) would have unleashed upon humanity. The game that Chess Master Trump is playing against the Deep State amounts to a ruse so clever that it’s even got many of his followers (er, “ex” followers) tricked.

Write him off as a con man or even a traitor if you insist; but before doing so, do consider some undeniable precedents of Trump being “two-faced” — for the sake of strategy. The pattern is unmistakable by now. In each of the following cases, Trump, in order to silence the ferocious media cannons firing at him, said something which deeply upset many of us — while continuing to quietly work against the Deep State Globalists and getting his way in the end.

On the Clintons

Trump’s True Position: Lock her up!
The Media Attack: “Trump’s threats to arrest the Clintons smack of “Fascism!”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: After winning the election, he stated, on 60 Minutes: “The Clintons are good people. I don’t want to hurt them.”
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Trump’s not even in office yet and he has already broken his promise to have Hillary arrested!”
The End Result: Prosecutor John Durham — who was appointed by Trump! — is indeed investigating the dirty dealings of the Clinton Mafia. Patience on this one, boys and girls. The timing has got to be perfect for such a move as the arrest of such high-ranking players as the Clintons — who may actually already have been arrested and replaced by those “Deep Fakes” that the New York Times and Killary herself had warned about.

On Climate Change

Trump’s True Position: The Climate Con is a hoax.
The Media Attack: “Trump is a climate denier! The world is in crisis.”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: While still President-Elect, he invited climate con artists Leonardo DiCaprio & Al Gore to Trump Tower to “open mindedly” hear what they had to say about the “crisis.”
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Stupid Trump is being controlled by libtarded Ivanka! He is a Global Warmist now!”
End Result: Trump pulled us out of the Paris Climate Scam, ramped up domestic energy production and defunded / fired a whole bunch of warmist scientists.

On North Korea

Trump’s True Position: The dangerous Korean Cold War must end.
The Media Attack: “Trump is being soft on the evil dictator Kim Jong Un”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He called Kim “Rocket Man” and threatened to attack North Korea with “fire and fury.” Kim (also in on the game) responded by calling Trump a “frightened dog.”
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Trump is a neo-con warmonger!”
The End Result: Trump’s people had been in secret back-channel communication with Kim’s people all along. The Korean Cold War — which always had the potential of bringing the US and China into war with each other — is over.

On Afghanistan

Trump’s True Position: Pull all US troops out of Afghanistan
The Media Attack: “Trump is negotiating with the terrorist Taliban!”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He publicly ended the talks with the Taliban and threatened to bomb them – as he privately maintained back-channel negotiations.
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Traitor Trump is going to keep us in Afghanistan!”
The End Result: The final US withdrawal (as planned by Trump) occurred under “Biden” in a way that made it seem as though “Biden” botched it!

On NATO

Trump’s True Position: Work with Putin to kill NATO and avoid World War III
The Media Attack: “Trump is leaving Europe vulnerable to Russian attack!”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He boasted about how he strengthened NATO.
The Sunshine Patriots: “Oh no! Trump is a pro-NATO Globalist!”
The End Result: NATO cannot counter Russia’s justified actions in Ukraine because Trump (not “Biden”) is the true Commander-in-Chief. The war-making alliance is dying right before our eyes.

On Syria

On Iran

On Gun Control

On Russia / Ukraine

On Israel

Stupid 19 & The Vaccine

Be patient, boys and girls. Understand that we are fighting an irregular war, with regular casualties, against an “invisible enemy” (more Trumpian code). Stop taking Trump literally.

The “Two Faces” of Donald Trump

**(((They))) were so certain that the Satanic Witch was going to win.**

And when the demented child sex trafficking lesbian lost, the big guns of the Judenpresse, Academia, Hollyweird, the Fake Pope, the neo cons, organized sports, the fake “alt right,” the CEO class and the bosses of both political parties were all pointed at Trump. Working around such a handicap required patience and cunning on a level which even his supporters cannot grasp.

On the Clintons…

The Clintons // The Bait…

The Switch…

On Climate Change…

The Climate Con // The Bait…

The Switch…

On North Korea…

North Korea // The Bait…

The Switch…

On Syria

Syria // The Bait…

The Switch…

NY Times

On Iran…

Iran // The Attack on Trump…

The Bait…

The Switch…

On Gun Control…

Gun Control // The Bait…

The Switch…

On Russia / Ukraine…

Trump’s True Position: End the dangerous CIA-Mossad proxy war against pro-Russian east Ukraine before NATO can get dragged in and ignite a World War.
The Media Attack: “Trump is Putin’s bitch!”
How Trump Silenced the Attack: He said a few nasty things about Putin and made a public show about the weapons he was selling to Ukraine..
The Sunshine Patriots: “Trump is going to get us into a war with Russia!”
The End Result: The military aid to Ukraine was delayed and came with the condition that they not use the new equipment! The Ukrainian warmongers were demoralized and the tension eased. The Ukraine “civil war” ended.

Ukraine War // The Bait..

The Switch…

On Israel…

Israel // The Bait…

The Switch…

Stupid 19 & The Vaccine

Be patient, boys and girls. Understand that we are fighting an irregular war, with regular casualties, against an “invisible enemy” (more Trumpian code). Stop taking Trump literally.

***Before you abandon him (and RHC), understand the magnitude of what he has been up against, and why he MUST so often play the part of the fool***

Social vs. Physical Distancing: Why It Matters

Psychology Today

By Amy Banks, MD

To protect ourselves, our families, and our communities from the devastation of the coronavirus health experts are strongly encouraging everyone to “socially distance” — to stay 6-10 feet away from other people.

I am concerned — not by the strategy but by the way people are enacting it. The few times I have ventured out to a grocery store or for a walk around my neighborhood, I’ve seen people not only keeping distant from one another but also seeming afraid. They pass each other on the street or in a store without looking at each other or exchanging greetings.

It’s as if we were each locked in a personal bubble that no one can enter. The threat of COVID-19 and the stress it induces can understandably cause individuals to become terrified and myopic — to turn inward in an attempt to stay safe. While a week of that may be more stressful to some than others, months of this type of social isolation is dangerous. Research clearly shows us that our physical and emotional health and well-being are dependent on loving relationships and physical touch. To weather this pandemic, we need one another.

Weeks ago, my colleague and friend, Roseann Adams, LCSW, recognized that the national strategy of social distancing was a double-edged sword. She identified that social distancing can be a threat to all of us as it leads some people to socially isolate potentially causing further stress and, over the long haul, impairing our bodies’ immune system. In fact, strict social distancing may set us up for other illnesses.

Within the first few days, she was encouraging people to physically distance with social connection. Differentiating physical distance from social distance acknowledges the virus’s malignant ability to be transmitted from person to person but also acknowledges that the virus has no power over our ability to support and nurture one another in this time of extraordinary threat.

Think about the power of social isolation in society. Solitary confinement is considered the worst punishment a human can receive. In fact, most civilized communities consider it a form of torture. The physical and emotional toll it takes over time includes a worsening of mental health issues, an increase in self-injurious behavior and even suicide.

Isolating individuals is perhaps the most common first step domestic abusers use to gain power and control over their victims. He or she begins to control who you can see, where you can go, what you can wear. When a person violates the rules set by the perpetrator the punishment is harsh and swift.

Social distancing, as it has been presented, can feel like that. In fact, in my work with trauma survivors during this time, I have heard people describe feeling trapped and threatened again. That is not sustainable. Becoming socially isolated may keep the majority of us alive, but not well.

By naming the national strategy as physical distancing rather than social distancing and emphasizing the need for human connection we can stay safe from the virus but also hold onto the heightened need we all have for one another right now. Each of us needs an extra dose of being seen and held within our connections during this extraordinary time. Perhaps now more than ever we must be intentional about giving our neural pathways for connection a workout.

In fact, we need to go out of our way to make eye contact, wave, move, or loudly say “hello” from behind the mask. This gives our smart vagus nerve and our mirror neurons a workout. Literally, the sound of a friendly voice and seeing the eyebrows of another person raise in greeting stimulates your social engagement system, which in turn sends a signal to your stress response system to stand down. Those moments of interaction may make the difference in the long run as to how we, as a society, survive the pandemic.

The human nervous system is amazingly adaptive. Our brains will adapt to social isolation over time, but the burden of stress the isolation causes will lead to long-term health problems. As a society we will not be well at the end of all of this — not because of COVID-19 but because of the message we take in that being with others can be dangerous.

That is why each of us must do our part to not only stay physically six feet apart and to wear masks but also to go out of our way on the street, in the grocery store, through FaceTime, Zoom, or whatever platform you can use to reach out to one another. We all must know that nurturing the relationships we have and reaching out to others who may be isolated is as essential to surviving the pandemic as physical distancing.

Let’s add another important directive to our national policy of containing the coronavirus — to reach out each day to three other people — to check in on them, simply hear their voice, or share the pain or joy of the day. This is a wider strategy to not only survive the pandemic but to keep our humanity alive.

Lies About Iran Killing US Troops in Iraq Are a Ploy to Justify War?

The assassination of General Soleimani a few days ago with the excuse that this guy was responsible for killing US Soldiers in Iraq (about 600) during the Iraqi war and an American Citizen (Mercenary) a few weeks back, its a complete lie. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty sure this charming fellow is no angel (just look at his face).

But lets dissect this and go back in time to see where all this propaganda campain comes from…

One of the many myths that have been used to justify the push for war with Iran led by National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is that Tehran is responsible for the killing of more than 600 U.S. troops during the Iraq War.

Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, whose job is to round up international support for the Trump administration’s campaign of “maximum pressure” on Iran, presented the charge at a State Department press briefing on April 2. “I can announce today, based on declassified U.S. military reports,” Hook said, “that Iran is responsible for the deaths of 608 American service members. This accounts for 17 percent of all deaths of U.S. personnel in Iraq from 2003 to 2011.”

Navy Commander Sean Robertson followed up with an email to media outlets pushing that same line. When this writer asked Robertson for further clarification of the origins of that figure, however, he acknowledged that the Pentagon doesn’t have any study, documentation, or data to provide journalists that would support such a figure.

In fact, the myth that Tehran is responsible for killing over 600 U.S. troops in the Iraq War is merely a new variant of a propaganda line that former Vice President Dick Cheney used to attempt to justify a war against Iran more than a decade ago. Reviewing the history of that earlier effort is necessary to understand why the new myth is a palpable lie.

Myths About Iran Providing Shiite Militias With Bombs

The history of the myth begins with Vice President Dick Cheney’s determination to attack Iran sometime before the end of the George W. Bush administration. Cheney had contemplated a campaign of U.S. airstrikes on Iran, to be justified by charging that Iran was trying to produce a nuclear weapon. But that rationale for a U.S. military strike on Iran was unanimously rejected by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a December 13, 2006, meeting with Cheney and President George W. Bush, according to a report by political columnist Joe Klein in TIME magazine.

After that rebuff, Cheney began to focus on another rationale for war on Iran: the alleged Iranian role in killing U.S. troops in Iraq. On January 10, 2007, President George W. Bush gave a speech that included language accusing Iran of “providing material support for attacks on American troops.” Although Bush did not threaten in that speech to retaliate against Iran, his words established a legal and political basis for a possible future attack, according to Hillary Mann Leverett, former National Security Council staff director for the Persian Gulf, in an interview with me in 2008.

After Gen. David Petraeus took over as commander of coalition forces in Iraq in January 2007, the command went all out to support Cheney’s strategy. Its main argument was that Iran was providing Shiite militias with the powerful roadside bombs called Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs) that were causing increasing number of U.S. casualties in Iraq.

But the evidence proved otherwise. Hezbollah — not Iran — had been well known as the world’s most knowledgeable designer and user of EFPs. Michael Knights, who had been following the role of EFPs in Iraq for nearly three years for a private security company in London, told me in an exclusive interview in January 2007 that it was Hezbollah that had transferred EFPs and components for manufacture to Palestinian militants after the second intifada began in 2000. He also observed in a detailed account in Jane’s Intelligence Review in 2006 that the first EFPs to appear in Iraq in 2004 were believed to have come from Hezbollah.

When officials of the Trump administration claim that Iran is responsible for U.S. deaths in Iraq, they are following Dick Cheney’s playbook.

Newsday had reported on August 12, 2005, moreover, that Shiite militiamen had begun copying Hezbollah techniques for building as well as using EFPs, based on Lebanese and Iraqi official sources.

The U.S. military intelligence chief in Iraq had claimed in September 2006 that the C-4 explosive used in EFPs in Iraq bore the same batch number as the C-4 found on a Hezbollah ship said by Israeli officials to be bound for Palestinian fighters in 2003. But Knights observed this statement showed that Iran wasn’t shipping the materials for EFPs to Shiites in Iraq. If Iran had been shipping the C-4 to Iraq the previous year, he pointed out, the batch number would have been different from the one given to Hezbollah at least four years earlier.

The command’s effort to push its line about Iran and EFPs encountered one embarrassing revelation after another. In February 2007 a U.S. command briefing asserted that the EFPs had “characteristics unique to being manufactured in Iran.” However, after NBC correspondent Jane Arraf confronted the deputy commander of coalition troops, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, with the fact that a senior military official had acknowledged to her that U.S. troops had been discovering many sites manufacturing EFPs in Iraq, Odierno was forced to admit that it was true.

Then in late February 2007, U.S. troops found another cache of parts and explosives for EFPs near Baghdad, which included shipments of PVC tubes for the canisters that contradicted its claims. They had come not from factories in Iran, but from factories in the UAE and other Arab countries, including Iraq itself. That evidence clearly suggested that the Shiites were procuring EFP parts on the commercial market rather than getting them from Iran.

Although the military briefing by the command in February 2007 pointed to cross-border weapons smuggling, it actually confirmed in one of its slides that it was being handled by “Iraqi extremist group members” rather than by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). And as Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the U.S. commander for southern Iraq, admitted in a July 6 press briefing, his troops had not “captured anybody that we can directly tie back to Iran.”

Airmen from the 821st Contingency Response Group at Qayyarah West Airfield, Iraq, on November 19, 2016. Propaganda floated by former Vice President Dick Cheney over a decade ago to justify his push for war against Iran has been revived by the Trump administration.

Blaming Iran for Casualties From U.S. Attacks

The centerpiece of the Petraeus campaign was an effort to argue that Iran was responsible for U.S. casualties, primarily in Baghdad, because of its sponsorship of Shiite militias. In August 2007, Lt. Gen. Odierno asserted that 73 percent of all attacks that had killed or wounded U.S. forces in Baghdad during July were by Shiite militias linked to Iran. That charge generated the New York Times headline, “U.S. Says Iran-Supplied Bomb Kills More Troops.”

In fact, however, the increase in U.S. deaths was the direct result of Petraeus’s decision to target Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in the hope of weakening it. Beginning in late April 2007, the U.S. launched dozens of military operations aimed solely at capturing or killing Mahdi Army officers, and the Mahdi Army was strongly resisting those raids and imposing more casualties on U.S. troops.

In his September 2007 congressional testimony, Petraeus introduced a new propaganda line that Iran had turned Sadr’s militia into a “Hezbollah-like force” in order to “fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq.” But there was no evidence that those Shiite forces resisting the U.S. military’s offensive had broken away from Sadr and were now responsive to Iran.

The Iraqi Shiite figure said to have been the leader of supposed Iranian-backed breakaway “Special Groups,” Qais al-Khazali, was interrogated by the U.S. military for weeks after his arrest in March 2007. Reports of dozens of those interrogations have recently been declassified, and a review of the reports reveals that Khazali portrayed the “Special Groups” as an integral part of the Sadrist movement. He recalled that a large meeting of the “Sadrist Trend” — the political and military forces aligned with Sadr — made the decision to organize “Special Groups” as early as 2004. And he pointed out that Iranian financial support did not go directly to those groups, but went through the same Sadr channel that supported the rest of the Mahdi Army.

The bitter irony of the Petraeus propaganda campaign against the Mahdi Army is that Muqtada al-Sadr had stubbornly maintained his Iraqi nationalist stance completely independent from Iranian policy in Iraq since 2003. Meanwhile, rival Iraqi Shiite organizations, the Badr Organization and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), having fled to Iran years earlier, had followed strict orders from their Iranian patrons to collaborate closely with the U.S. military and civilian authorities to establish and consolidate a Shiite-dominated regime in Iraq. The Shiite groups loyal to Iran and Sadr’s armed followers were always in bitter conflict, and in 2008 they fought in the streets of Basra and Baghdad.

Propaganda Supporting Cheney’s Strike Plan

In a July 2, 2007, press briefing Petraeus’s spokesman, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner implied that Iran’s Qods Force had helped a Shiite militia carry out a January 2007 attack in Karbala, Iraq, that killed five Americans. Bergner offered no evidence of any such Iranian role in the attack, however, only the suggestion that the Qods Force leadership was informed about the planning of the operation by a Hezbollah official in Iraq.

The New York Times, Associated Press, and other outlets released stories claiming that Bergner had said Iranian agents helped plan the Karbala attack. Within hours, Sen. Joe Lieberman issued a press release saying that the Iranian government had “declared war on us.” Bergner’s comments and Lieberman’s statement set the stage for the unanimous passage the following week of a Senate resolution that the murder of American military personnel by Iran was “an intolerable act of hostility against the United States.”

Around the time Lieberman was introducing that resolution (in partnership with four Republican senators), Cheney proposed in a meeting with other senior officials if the United States obtained hard evidence of Iranian support for Shiite militias killing U.S. forces in Iraq, such as fighters or weapons crossing into Iraq from an IRGC base in Iran linked to that assistance, it should carry out a retaliatory attack on an IRGC base in Iran.

Defense Department officials quashed the proposal, however, by demanding that Cheney’s staff explain how this military escalation would unfold, and how it would end, according to J. Scott Carpenter former deputy assistant secretary of state, in a 2008 interview with this writer. Cheney’s staff couldn’t provide satisfactory answers.

When officials of the Trump administration claim that Iran is responsible for U.S. deaths in Iraq, they are following Dick Cheney’s playbook. As the Bolton-Pompeo team tries to steer the U.S. toward attacking Iran, it is important to draw that parallel to Cheney’s strategy, and understand the history behind this push for war.

By the way,

are we going to believe people like Mike Pompeo Ex CIA Director and currently The Secretary of State when he says statements like this?