The signal being sent here by Bolton and Pompeo (Bolpeo? Pomton?) is that no one willing to talk to the West will be allowed to, forcing the hard liners to the fore, since the hard liners are easier to set up as comic book villains, so as to rush everyone into a war against Iran.

Germany, at least, understands exactly what is going on, and if Berlin can’t stop it, at least refuses to be part of a plot to stage a war of aggression. Germany remembers the crime it itself committed in Poland in 1939, even if Americans seem to have forgotten it, starting with the Bush war of aggression on Iraq in 2003. That was another one Germany sat out.

Ironically, it was in Poland that German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas made the announcement that Germany would reject participation in the American Gulf force.

Germany knows fascism when it sees it.

via Iran: Germany and France Refuse to be Inducted into Trump’s Gulf Naval Operation against Tehran