Desert

Bolton is gone from the Administration, reportedly because he was too belligerent, i.e., too ready to go to war with Iran.  The list of defects of Trump and his administration is long, but he has not yet take the US into a new war.  So grant him that, as Robert Paul Wolff says.  Trump has not actually ended US involvement in any wars either, so he is a kind of half dove.  More or less Obama, as both promised to end at least one war for the US and did not, and both, I think, raised US involvement a bit.  

A refinery in Saudi Arabia has been bombed, apparently by drone attack.  Iran denies involvement.  The US accuses Iran of involvement.  The Houthi in Yemen claim involvement.  Houthi rely on Iran for various forms of support.  The US supports Saudi Arabia in many ways.  Do any of them tell the truth?  I can say I do not believe Iran about much of anything, and, about that part of the world, believe some but not a lot of what the US says, and nothing much of what Saudia Arabia says, or the Houth.  But now the US is making its case, with an eye on military action.  

First of all, we have several wars in the area and have no need of another.  Saudia Arabia has a big military: the US sells SA high value armaments and an advanced air force.  So far it seems mostly used to whack residents of the country and to bomb wedding parties in Yemen.  Why then not defend their own oil facilities?  Is the point of the weapons sales to SA just to provide income to US companies?