A 'Bolt' (ton) From the Past | Philip A. Farruggio

Philip A. FarruggioPhilip A. Farruggio -- World News Trust

April 2, 2018

As most people now know, Trump picked John Bolton to be his new National Security Advisor.

Many progressive and libertarian outlets have already lambasted Bolton for his Neo Con credentials and agenda. With that nasty smirk on his face, Bolton publically has come out for the pre-emptive attacking of both Iran and North Korea... going on years now.

This writer wants to focus on another aspect of this "Make believe tough guy" as Billy Bats in the film Goodfellas referred to the Joe Pesci character Tommy DeVito. And Bolton is just that, as was Junior Bush, Cheney and a host of others from that administration. The following is right out of Wikipedia:

During the 1969 Vietnam War draft lottery, Bolton drew number 185. (Draft numbers corresponded to birth dates.) As a result of the Johnson and Nixon administrations' decisions to rely largely on the draft rather than on the reserve forces, joining a Guard or Reserve unit became a way to avoid service in the Vietnam War. Bolton enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard in 1970 rather than wait to find out if his draft number would be called. (The highest number called to military service was 195.) After serving in the National Guard for four years, he served in the United States Army Reserve until the end of his enlistment two years later. He wrote in his Yale 25th reunion book "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost."[ In an interview, Bolton discussed his comment in the reunion book, explaining that he decided to avoid service in Vietnam because "by the time I was about to graduate in 1970, it was clear to me that opponents of the Vietnam War had made it certain we could not prevail, and that I had no great interest in going there to have Teddy Kennedy give it back to the people I might die to take it away from."

What a load of horseshit! Oh yeah John, you would have enlisted in the real army and not the "Guaranteed to never be sent to the Nam National Guard" if you felt the (so-called) war was winnablein 1970. Guess what John, I got this nice bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

In Yale, you know you were "gung ho" to kill those Commies and stop the spread of Asian style Bolshevism." You know that! Just like Junior Bush, two years your elder, who felt the same way and took a similar route ( thanks to his dad ) in the Texas Air National Guard. One wonders if you were a few years older and around DC politics in 1961, if you would have agreed with the unanimous suggestion by the Joints Chiefs to do a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the Soviet Union; or in fall of ' 62 to ditto that upon Cuba.

It seems you love WAR John, so long as it's not YOU doing the fighting! Oh yes, and what about Trump, your new boss? He too must have banged the bongos for our (so-called) Vietnam War... so long as he remained safe in his college deferment.

Folks, you all out there who decided to support and vote for either Trump or Clinton in 2016, sure did your homework. She being the classic war mongerer, and he the phony demagogue populist. Either way, we get the Neo Cons running our government as the rest of we working stiffs go down the drain.

PA Farruggio

April 2nd 2018

Philip A Farruggio is a son and grandson of Brooklyn, New York, longshoremen. He has been a freelance columnist since 2001, with more than 300 of his essays posted on sites like Consortium News, Information Clearing House,  Global Research, Nation of Change, World News Trust, Op-Ed News, Dissident Voice, Counterpunch, Activist Post, Sleuth Journal, Truthout and many others. His blog can be read in full on World News Trust., where he writes a great deal about the need to cut military spending drastically and send the savings back to save our cities. Philip has an internet interview show, "It's the Empire... Stupid" with producer Chuck Gregory, and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.