Don Quixote in White House

At this point, they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that there are on that plain, and as soon as Don Quixote saw them he said to his squire, 'Fortune is arranging matters for us better than we could have shaped our desires ourselves, for look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and with whose spoils we shall begin to make our fortunes; for this is righteous warfare, and it is God’s good service to sweep so evil a breed from off the face of the earth.”

“What giants?” said Sancho Panza.

“Those thou seest there,” answered his master, “with the long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long.”

“Look, your worship,” said Sancho; “what we see there are not giants, but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the sails that turned by the wind make the millstone go.”

“It is easy to see,” replied Don Quixote, “that thou art not used to this business of adventures; those are giants; and if thou art afraid, away with thee out of this and betake thyself to prayer while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat…” (An excerpt from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes; translated by John Ormsby)

My story's Don Quixote penned in the Washington Post in 2009 'Time for an Israeli Strike' on Iran, authored in the New York Times in 2015 'To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran', and said in an MKO meeting in 2017, “The declared policy of the United States should be to overthrow ... in Tehran … And that’s why, before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!”

In 2019, with his dream still a dream, it was written and read in the media that he had demanded the Pentagon to review the plans to attack Iran, which bewildered James Mattis, then the secretary of defense.

The knight of this tale is still sharpening his sword.

Now, John Bolton is famed as was Don Quixote; like him, Bolton considers himself the closest to justice, whereas, everyone, including his friends, even James Mattis 'the Mad Dog', counts him certifiably insane.

However, the two are slightly different: One, Bolton is the National Security Advisor of the United States. US President Donald Trump cannot digest his belligerent delusions but listens to him. Two, his cause is not to defend the suppressed; or maybe simply, his definition of the suppressed and the suppressor is different than Don Quixote's.

John Bolton's Pistol and Lindsey Graham's message

Politico, a Spanish website, wrote about the extremist neoconservative that Bolton is the biggest enemy of Iran and closest friend of Israel. He made a visit to Ankara and Tel Aviv; he intends to counter Iran with a solely military approach and undermine Turkey.

Soon after Bolton returned home from Turkey, Trump threatened that the US 'will devastate Turkey economically' if Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government doesn't comply with Washington's conditions about US-backed forces in Syria. However, Trump and Erdoğan phone call modified things a bit.

Perhaps, that’s why United States Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican like Bolton and Trump, tried in Turkey on Saturday to counter Bolton and his pugnacious approch using two different ways.

First, Graham tried to show how shameless Bolton and Trump's indifference was in dealing with the issue of Jamal Khashoggi, who was butchered by Saudi Arabia's blood-dripping hands.

Second, Graham supported Turkey's behavior in northern Syria.

He may have wanted to tell Bolton that one should not and cannot draw a pistol in every condition. Of course, taking into consideration the all-out pressure on Trump's administration, Graham's stances are quite understandable.

Countering Bolton, who backs Mohammad bin Salman, Graham said on Saturday, 'The relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia cannot move forward until Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is dealt with.'

His remarks are considered by many observers as a prelude to new pressures to be exerted on Trump's administration to make the Saudi crown prince abdicate. But his words also intended to convey the message to the US administration that Washington has so many Achilles' heels that it shouldn’t think about new crises, at least with allies like Turkey.

About Bolton's and Trump's threatening Turkey for the US-backed forces in Syria, Graham said he thought Ankara was right and that these groups are affiliated with PKK.

In fact, stances like those of Bolton and Trump had the Republican senator make a visit to Turkey to balance things, or, in other words, to mend what Bolton broke.

Bolton took his Zionist pals aback, too.

Politico quoted former Defense Minister of Israel Shaul Mofaz as saying, 'I know John Bolton from when he was the US ambassador to the UN. He tried to convince me that Israel needs to attack Iran,' and that the two-state solution is impossible.

Politico added that Bolton, as an extremist nationalist, considered Europe an enemy as well; he has repeatedly praised Brexit and strongly opposes Lisbon Treaty. It may sound unbelievable, but Bolton sees Europe as the root of all evil on earth, but in very good terms with the MKO, the very same organization that the US State Department has more than once put on the black list of terrorist groups.

*** Does Bolton know Western Asia?

The first issue in the US' was described by Zvi Bar'el in Haartz, the Zionist regime newspaper. He wrote, 'The flowchart for US policy against Iran in the Middle East requires it first to effect a reconciliation between the Arab states, then persuade Iraq to reduce its ties with Iran, push Lebanon to decide whether to make Hezbollah a partner in the government, see what can be done to end the war in Yemen and persuade Turkey to abandon its alliance with Iran. So far, each of these tasks has proven impossible, and accomplishing all of them would evidently require replacing all the Arab states’ leaders.'

He said that Trump's policy in West Asia is 'zigzagging' and added that it seems that 'anti-Iran show' is more 'an effort to maintain the anti-Iranian momentum, given that threats and pressure haven’t persuaded Iran either to reopen the nuclear deal or negotiate a separate deal on its ballistic missile program.'

He also said that the Arab countries trying to approach to Damascus to push the away from Tehran is an 'internal paradox'.

Regarding the US conditions not to reconstruct Syria before Iran's exit, he asked, 'If Riyadh helped Assad, would that stop the flow of money from Iran?'

'All these countries claim their moves are meant to bring Syria closer to the Arab world and thereby distance it from Iran. But if that argument holds water, why haven’t these countries resumed diplomatic relations with Qatar for the same holy purpose?'
Zvi added that there are definitely priorities in the region that are not in line with those of Washington's.

'Trump has only himself to blame if he discovers that his [Persian] Gulf allies haven’t forgotten the tweet in which he announced the withdrawal of US forces from Syria, or his subsequent statement that the Iranians 'can do what they want' in Syria.'

Bolton made his visit to West Asia in such a misty atmosphere.

The second issue is that Bolton sees different things in the sweltering mirage of the Middle East. From Don Quixote's point of view, the windmills that can rotate large stones with the power of a breeze and crushes the bones as well, are monsters 'with the long arms' that need to be fought with, and sees the US' shaky partners that have come to their knees in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Sudan as fresh soldiers of the new frontline, a war whose table has been long changed.

*Javad Ershadi writes in Persian on world affairs for the Islamic Republic News Agency

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