A popular Egyptian proverb goes like this:
The hungry dreams of bread. The saying is used to describe someone that covets
something tangible and cannot have it. It is also used to describe someone that
longs for something to happen but is not happening.
Of course, it is not unusual for human
beings to want something so badly, they dream of it in their sleep. It can also
happen that they'll dream of it when they are not asleep. This is called
daydreaming. But what might happen if in real life, someone that used to covet
something badly, almost saw it realized but then lost it at the last moment,
never to see it again? Well, we figure that the poor fellow must now be
inclined to fall into moments of nostalgic reverie.
This, in fact, is what's happening to
Clifford D. May who wrote about his condition in a column that came under the
title: “If John Bolton still had the president's ear, he'd counsel against
appeasing Iran,” and the subtitle: “Iran's rulers continue to attack and
threaten.” The column was published on September 17, 2019 in The Washington
Times.
When you read the Clifford May piece, you
get the sense that he is doing more than daydream. He feels that even if John
Bolton's presence in the White House has died, the man lives on as a ghost in
the afterlife, and that his spirit has taken possession of his own (Clifford
May's) body. Enchanted by the symbiotic relationship, May is allowing Bolton to
live through him, and continue to give advice to President Donald Trump.
So now that Clifford May has written a
piece for us to use as portal through which to enter his dream and share it
with him, we take a tour throughout his mental landscape and see what makes
this man tick.
We find that he thinks the world is made
of two kinds of people. They are the progressives who believe that America has
no enemies, and the conservatives who believe that if we leave those enemies
alone, they'll return the favor and leave us alone. But he, like John Bolton,
is wise enough to know this is nonsense, which is why he counsels that America
must be strong militarily as to daunt its enemies.
Unlike the recent past when people, like
himself, used to counsel that America adopt a Pax Americana policy, and spend
its energy and wealth planting Democracy everywhere on the planet where
Democracy did not exist, May has altered his thinking. Like John Bolton and
H.R. McMaster, he has converted to believe in the Americanist model. It means
America must not do nation-building abroad, but have a military presence
everywhere, to project power and daunt the enemies, thus ascertain the security
of America and its allies.
With regard to recent events, Clifford May
believes that Iran was behind the attack on the Saudi oil facilities, and John
Bolton isn't there to tell the President how to respond. But with or without
Bolton in the White House, he believes that the Iranians sense America will
respond in some fashion. For this reason, they warned that, “American bases and
their aircraft carriers in a distance of up to 2,000 kilometers are within the
range of our missiles … Iran has always been ready for a full-fledged war”.
And this is the moment when Clifford May
let the spirit of John Bolton take full possession of his faculties and give advice
to Donald Trump as if Bolton were still in the White House. He is counseling
that America must inflict pain on the theocratic regime. The wisdom behind this
advice being that “If we reward aggression, we'll get more of it,” one
consequence being that the Iranians might go ahead and “acquire nuclear
warheads and missiles that can deliver them anywhere on the planet,” according
to the May-Bolton symbiont.
May comes out his daydream for a brief
moment to explain that he'd “sleep better if Ambassador Bolton were still on
the job,” but realizes he is not. Still, Clifford May takes comfort in that
Mike Pompeo, Mark Esper and Gina Haspel are there in the White House
substituting for him.
He slips back into his state of reverie
and visualizes John Bolton being “the loudest and most vehement voice opposing
both appeasement and isolationism.” He can even hear Bolton's voice warn the
President that “America cannot become great again by submitting to Islamist
bullies”.
Finally, we are able to trace Clifford
May’s problems back to the time when in real life, John Bolton and H.R.
McMaster were in the White House. May almost saw the Jewish plan of using
America to deliver the Middle East to Israel, materialize then evaporate at
the last moment, never to be seen again.