Mike Pompeo is ‘all in for war’ with Iran — recalling Cheney and Rumsfeld before 2003 Iraq ‘debacle’: national affairs correspondent

As tensions between the United States and Iran continue to escalate following the drone attack that killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, one of the most visible cheerleaders of that escalation is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Journalist Joan Walsh, in a January 7 article for The Nation, notes the troubling parallels between Pompeo beating the war drum in 2020 and members of the Bush Administration pushing for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“The secretary of state is normally in charge of diplomacy,” Walsh asserts, “but Pompeo seems all in for war, and he’s peddling it with the same mix of mendacity and recklessness the George W. Bush crew used to justify their 2003 Iraq debacle.”

Walsh notes that on Friday, January 3, Pompeo claimed, “I saw last night, there was dancing in the streets in parts of Iraq. We have every expectation that people not only in Iraq, but in Iran, will view the American action last night as giving them freedom.” Continue reading.