A toxic coalition of chicken-hawks, warmongers, imperialists, Zionists, neocons, and other sundry miscreants are busily attempting to manufacture a pretext for war with Iran. Sophisticated gangsters like John Bolton have been fantasizing about such a war for years - they now appear poised to strike. One of the few voices of opposition and sanity is purported to be Trump's Secretary of Defense, former Marine general, James Mattis. Unlike Bolton-esque chicken-hawks, who do everything they can to avoid fighting in the wars they desire, Mattis has actually served in a war and seen the difficulties that arise in the course of waging it, which helps to explain his reticence for a repeat of the disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc. Incidentally, this desire to embroil America in an endless series of expensive, pointless, fruitless wars massively complicates our domestic political affairs. Every dollar we waste on such wars is one less dollar we have to spend on things like welfare, infrastructure, debt/deficit reduction, and tax relief. The next time you hear a politician making excuses for why there isn't enough funding for education or why they can't cut taxes, ask them about all the trillions of dollars they're wasting on maintaining a bloated military empire.
Will Mattis's opposition to war in Iran result in his ouster? Hard to say. But it would be a historic mistake on Trump's part.
