H O W A R D S B E N D

DATELINE – DECEMBER 2019 – HOUSE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL

John – Nancy, you are calling me on my phone.  I am shocked.

Nancy – John, how many books do you really expect to sell.  You know the Democrats hate you and and would never buy your book and the few Republicans that can read despise you and also will never buy your book. So how many books are you really going to sell?  I got a plan that will put your book on top of the charts.  You game.

John –   I believe in free enterprise.  Lay it on me.

Nancy –  If we subpoena you to testify in one of the House’s investigating committees, the President will exert executive privilege and block you from testifying.  We can challenge this in court which will take many months and when we win the President’s team will appeal the decision and that will take months and finally the case will make it to the Supreme Court which will take many more months to decide and by then the 2020 election will have come and gone and your book will be irrelevant and you will have only sold a handful of copies.

John – Not too promising.  I admit.

Nancy – However, we can withdraw subpoena and end the impeachment trial without your testimony.  We have enough evidence to impeach the President now.  Now comes the fun part for you as the trail moves to the Senate.  The Republican Senators have already concluded that they do not need witnesses.  Case closed!!  Witnesses are irrelevant.  However, you begin to leak several passages from your book as Republicans make their opening arguments  .You leak to the NY Times and the Washington Post the sections of your book that show the President had direct involvement with the blocking of funds designated for Ukraine.  All of the sudden everyone’s ear perk-up.

John – I like where this is going.

Nancy – The TV media picks up on these leaked passages and promote them on prime-time TV new coverage.  Reporters begin asking all Republican Senators on prime-time  TV if they would like to hear from John Bolton.  Democrats keep insisting that we must hear from John Bolton.  Joe and Mika demand that Republicans hear your testimony.  Rachel Maddow, Chris Cuomo and even Chris Wallace are referencing your book.  All of the sudden you name is all over the news.  You become Rock Star.  People will clamor for your book.  You will sell millions of copies.

John – I like they way you think.

Nancy – You give us the first-hand facts that incriminate the President and will get Mike Bloomberg and Tom Steyer to commit to buy another one million copies each.

John – Who says that there is no money in the truth?

Many Americans believe that Trump is beholden to Vladimir Putin and that many of his actions as President better serve Russian foreign policy than they do our own American interests.  QUITE HONESTLY, I SUBSCRIBE TO THAT SCHOOL.  Just to give a few examples (without much detail here),: we have witnessed Trump shake the foundations of the NATO alliance which has been the bedrock of our foreign policy for 75 years; we have seen Trump walk from the INF Agreement which will allow Russia to grow its nuclear arsenal; we have seen Trump withhold military support from the Ukraine which is in a battle with Russia on its eastern border; we have watched Trump pull troops out of Syria abandoning the Kurds and strengthening Syria, the Russia proxy in the Middle East.  All these moves benefit Russia.

Therefore, I have to ask: Why did Putin want Soleimani eliminated?  I do NOT believe that Trump would take such an action without the prodding of Putin,  Putin is establishing himself as the kingmaker in the Middle East, first with its support of Syria in its civil war struggles.  Russia has been establishing economic relationships with Iran as both are subject to oppressive sanctions and Russia is selling arms both to Iran and Turkey.  Trump would NOT make such a brazen and provocative move that jeopardizes the new established Putin order in the Middle East.

So why did Putin want Soleimani eliminated.  I can only speculate, but here are a couple of theories.  First, Russia has a population of over 20 million Muslims within its borders and  has a series of Muslim states including Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, etc on its southern border.  Russia has not seen any unrest or resistance from its Muslim minority in many years and is developing strong economic relationships with many of these Muslim countries.  Soleimani is a militant revolutionary and was spreading his militarism.  He was establishing many militant Muslim cells throughout the Middle East and was looking to expand this pattern of establishing cells to a broader geographical area.  Putin possibly did not want to see this militarism spread to his home turf and upset the stability that has existed for the past many years.  He needed this man eliminated.

Russia has been courting Iran for several years now.  Iran especially needs Russian economic and military support since the US has pulled out of the nuclear treaty and has imposed harsh sanctions.  Did Putin have Soleimani killed by the US to further demonize the US and to strengthen the ties between Iran and Russia?  This killing of Soleimani draws both the Iranian leadership and populous closer to its new Russian ally.

Russia is an oil and natural gas economy.  Any conflicts in the Middle East sends the price of oil soaring.  Of course, Russia greatly benefits from this steep increase in the price of oil.  Could this assassination be a way to give the Russian economy a needed boost?

I know this sounds like a ridiculous conspiracy theory.  The right feasts on conspiracy theories, so I feel like I am entitled to my own indulgences.  And I still think that Putin is calling the shots for our president, so I have to ask and to speculate as to why Putin wanted Soleimani eliminated.