Pepe Escobar — ‘Resistance’ runs amok in the US Deep Throat War

The current Deep Throat War is more like the case of a fractioned Deep State out for revenge on Trump via its media arm. The one-two tie-in – Woodward’s book and the “resistance” Op-Ed – looks increasingly like a sophisticated psy-ops – a prelude for a Deep State white coup....

It would be hard to dismiss the President when he says: “I’m draining the Swamp, and the Swamp is trying to fight back.”

It would be hard to dismiss the President when he says: “I’m draining the Swamp, and the Swamp is trying to fight back.”...

Asia Times
‘Resistance’ runs amok in the US Deep Throat War

Pepe Escobar

Henry Kissinger and Donald Trump

Fort Russ

TRUMPS SECRET PLAN? Turn Russia into ‘battering ram’ against China
Paul Antonopoulos

See also

Counterpunch
Trump, Putin & Helsinki: Henry Kissinger Still Calls the Shots
Rajai R. Masri is a former lecturer of Finance at McGill University and Boston University.

Related

Sic Semper Tyrannis
Let Mikey do it? Maybe not.
Col. W. Patrick Lang, US Army (ret.)

At the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lang was the Defense Intelligence Officer (DIO) for the Middle East, South Asia and counter-terrorism, and later, the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. At the DIA, he was a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service. He participated in the drafting of National Intelligence Estimates. From 1992 to 1994, all the U.S. military attachés worldwide reported to him. During that period, he also briefed President George H. W. Bush at the White House, as he had during Operation Desert Storm.

He was also the head of intelligence analysis for the Middle East for seven or eight years at that institution. He was the head of all the Middle East and South Asia analysis in DIA for counter-terrorism for seven years. For his service in the DIA, Lang received the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive. — Wikipedia

See also

Jacksonian populism. Should read.

Truthdig
American History for Truthdiggers: Andrew Jackson’s White-Male World and the Start of Modern Politics

Danny Sjursen | Major, U.S. Army, formerly assistant professor of history at West Point

M. K. Bhadrakumar — Trump Has a Grand Strategy, He Wants to Do a 'Reverse Nixon' -- Partner Russia for an Alliance vs China

Pulling a Kissinger. But coming from a country that can't keep an agreement…?

And if an agreement were viable, what could go wrong? Bhadrakumar explains.

Russia Insider
Trump Has a Grand Strategy, He Wants to Do a 'Reverse Nixon' -- Partner Russia for an Alliance vs China

M. K. Bhadrakumar

See also

While Trump Has Been Running His Mouth on the New Nuclear Arms Race Russia Has Quietly Taken the Lead

Scott Ritter

also

Like Chuck Schumer said would happen.

"Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you." —Sen. Charles Schumer to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow

Trump Has Been Set Up, Framed and Relentlessly Persecuted by the American Intelligence Community
Sidney Powell

Pepe Escobar — Why Jihadism Won’t Be Allowed to Die

Geopolitics and geostrategy.

Russia Insider
Why Jihadism Won’t Be Allowed to Die

Pepe Escobar

Eldar Mamedov — Kissinger’s Dangerously Flawed Views on Iran

How can a person who was so wrong so much still be considered an authority?

LobeLog
Kissinger’s Dangerously Flawed Views on Iran
Eldar Mamedov

Charles Glass — Syrian Archives Add New Details to Henry Kissinger’s Disastrous Middle East Record

Lots of good stuff.

Teaser:

Kissinger surprised [Hafez Assad] with the claim that his major obstacle emanated from those who control “the financial capital and means of communications” in the U.S., not so subtle code for the Zionist lobby that had yet to achieve the influence it would wield in later years. The Syrian transcripts contain Kissinger’s numerous disparaging remarks about the lobby, but, Shaaban writes, “The U.S. record makes no mention of him citing ‘financial capital’ or ‘means of communication’.”

The Intercept
Syrian Archives Add New Details to Henry Kissinger’s Disastrous Middle East Record
Charles Glass

Gareth Porter — The Kissinger Backchannel to Moscow

Major U.S. media outlets insinuate that President Trump’s advisers are traitors for secretly talking to Russians, but they ignore the history of Henry Kissinger doing the same thing for Richard Nixon, writes Gareth Porter.

Kissinger is at least an informal Trump adviser, which account in part for Trump's foreign policy realism. I would not be surprised if it was his idea. This report casts a whole new light on the matter if Kissinger was actually involved. He had done it himself when named the prospective national security advisor after Nixon was elected and before he was inaugurated.

But the real issue is this:

But Moss warns that the underlying political crisis in American society is a formidable obstacle to any shift by Trump in relations with Russia. Trump “feels he won the election fairly and that unelected bureaucrats are working against him,” Moss observed, but “The people who suspect possible collusion between the Trump and Russian interference in the election may feel Trump is an illegitimate president.”

Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn are obviously no Kissingers. But the insinuations from Brennan and others that Trump’s advisers may have somehow crossed the line into treason is itself the crossing of a dangerous line into McCarthyism. And the mainstream U.S. news media is participating enthusiastically in the campaign to impugn the loyalty of Trump’s advisers, even though there is still no public evidence to support such suspicions.

This is an extra-constitutional crisis in the works, that has morphed into a soft coup.

Consortium News
The Kissinger Backchannel to Moscow
Gareth Porter, independent investigative journalist and winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for journalism

Moon of Alabama — Trump Dumps Pretension Of Altruism From U.S. Foreign Policy

For decades the U.S. foreign policy elite and its presidents played the farce of an altruistic United States that acts for the global good and in the interest of humanity.
That was always a lie. Wherever one takes a deeper look the U.S. acted solely in its (perceived) self interests. But the rhetoric helped to drag others along. Tributary governments could pretend they worked for the "universal good" when they in fact just followed orders from Washington DC. U.S. pressure was applied behind the curtain - through bribes, threats of revealing private secrets or, if necessary, via well managed "democratic" coups.

Those times are over. Thanks to the honesty of the Trump administration the foremost positions of hard U.S interests and deadly threats are now openly declared fundamentals of U.S. foreign policy.

The neo-conservative chaperone in the White House, National Security Advisor General McMaster, and the Goldman Sachs veto holder in the White House, economic advisor Gary Cohn, penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that reveals the new true face of the U.S. empire:

The president embarked on his first foreign trip with a clear-eyed outlook that the world is not a “global community” but an arena where nations, nongovernmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage. We bring to this forum unmatched military, political, economic, cultural and moral strength. Rather than deny this elemental nature of international affairs, we embrace it.

Translation: "Power is with the strong. We feel strong. Screw you!"

At every stop in our journey, we delivered a clear message to our friends and partners: Where our interests align, we are open to working together to solve problems and explore opportunities. We let adversaries know that we will not only take their measure, deter conflict through strength, and defend our interests and values, but also look for areas of common interest that allow us to work together. In short, those societies that share our interests will find no friend more steadfast than the United States. Those that choose to challenge our interests will encounter the firmest resolve.

From now on the U.S. will only engage in selective, temporary friendships. "Where our interests align", and only there, will the U.S. be friendly because it obviously serves U.S. interests. Wherever a country deviates from that, even partially, it will "encounter the firmest resolve." That is as clear a threat as it can be.

I would not call this a threat. Not only it is finally telling the truth instead of larding it with BS. But it is also straight up Realpolitik that could have been penned by Otto von Bismarck, or Henry Kissinger. Oh, wait. Isn't Kissinger a key Trump advisor?

The McMaster/Cohn op-ed ends with this:

America First signals the restoration of American leadership and our government’s traditional role overseas—to use the diplomatic, economic and military resources of the U.S. to enhance American security, promote American prosperity, and extend American influence around the world.

Cue: USA! USA! USA!

Moon of Alabama
Trump Dumps Pretension Of Altruism From U.S. Foreign Policy

b

Pepe Escobar — Lots of shouting, tiny stick

Donald Trump won't be winning any wars against Islamist terror if he imagines dismantling the Russia-China-Iran alliance is possible. His sabre-rattling against Iran is pointless.

Asia Times

Lots of shouting, tiny stick

Pepe Escobar

See also

Escobar is not only an analyst but also a litterateur.

Counterpunch
Age of Anger

Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar — Trump Will Try to Smash the Russia-China-Iran Triangle. Here Is Why He Will Fail

The strategy of Henry Kissinger, Trump’s unofficial foreign policy guru, is a mix of “balance of power” and “divide and rule”. It will consist of seducing Russia away from its strategic partner China; keeping China constantly on a sort of red alert; and targeting Islamic State while continuing to harass Iran.

All this has the potential to backfire splendidly.

South China Morning Post

Trump Will Try to Smash the Russia-China-Iran Triangle. Here Is Why He Will Fail
Pepe Escobar

Katehon — Alexander Dugin: China, the Great Game, and Globalism

Geopolitics as Trump takes over in the US from the vantage of Alexander Dugin:  Trump sees China as the primary threat to the US and not Russia.

Katehon
Alexander Dugin: China, the Great Game, and Globalism

Pepe Escobar — Shadow play: the New Great Game in Eurasia

So, right in the heart of Bali, spellbound after a serious conversation with a dukun — a spiritual master — it struck me: this should be the new Yalta, the perfect setting for a Trump-Xi-Putin summit setting the parameters ahead for the ever-evolving New Great Game in Eurasia.

Balinese culture makes no distinction between the secular and the supernatural — sekala and niskala. Sekala is what our senses may discern. Niskala is what cannot be sensed directly and can only be “suggested”. Massive geopolitical shifts ahead could not be more shrouded in niskala.

Captive to the vertiginous velocity of the here and now, the West still has much to learn from a highly evolved culture that prospered 5,000 years ago along the banks or the river Sindhu — now Indus — in what is currently Pakistan, and then migrated from the Majapahit empire in Java to Bali in the 14th century under the pressure of advancing Islam.

So, right in the heart of Bali, spellbound after a serious conversation with a dukun — a spiritual master — it struck me: this should be the new Yalta, the perfect setting for a Trump-Xi-Putin summit setting the parameters ahead for the ever-evolving New Great Game in Eurasia.

Balinese culture makes no distinction between the secular and the supernatural — sekala and niskala. Sekala is what our senses may discern. Niskala is what cannot be sensed directly and can only be “suggested”. Massive geopolitical shifts ahead could not be more shrouded in niskala.

Captive to the vertiginous velocity of the here and now, the West still has much to learn from a highly evolved culture that prospered 5,000 years ago along the banks or the river Sindhu — now Indus — in what is currently Pakistan, and then migrated from the Majapahit empire in Java to Bali in the 14th century under the pressure of advancing Islam.

With the Trump era about to begin, our current geopolitical juncture looks and feels like a massive Wayang kulit — a Balinese shadow play.

The historical origin of the shadow play lies most possibly in India, although it has been performed all across Asia. Good and evil coexist in shadow play — but Hinduism seeks to depict the clash as a sort of quirky partnership.

Kulit means skin, covering. Wayang is the puppet, made out of cow hide, painted and braced with sticks that the dalang — the puppet master — manipulates at will....

Asia Times
Shadow play: the New Great Game in Eurasia

Pepe Escobar

Gilbert Doctorow — Letter from India: Local and global speculation about Henry Kissinger

While these two posts are not must-reads, they are important for understanding the subtext rather in order to avoid being taken in by flawed analysis and propaganda. Most Westerners don't understand the Russian world view, which is called Russkiy mir (Русский мир) in Russia. Failure to get this difference in understanding, based on cultural bias, results in the US foreign policy establishment, the US government, and US media in taking a confrontational attitude toward Russia that is based more on imagination than reality.

And this lack of understanding of other cultures doesn't apply only to Russia. Americans generally project themselves on the world and wonder why their analysis doesn't work out as planned, as in Iraqis greeting their liberators with flowers, instituting a Western-style democracy and everyone living happily ever after. Even the American cultural myth of falling in love, marrying a person of one's own choice and "living happily ever after" is fiction instead of reality, judging from divorce statistics and domestic violence.

The first post is a backgrounder on history, international relations, Henry Kissinger and the Realist School (Realpolitik) by an expert and scholar in foreign affairs. Detailed.

The second is a backgrounder on Russia and Russkiy mir (Русский мир) by the Saker, who is from a White Russian emigre family. Detailed.

Une parole franche
Letter from India: Local and global speculation about Henry Kissinger
Gilbert Doctorow | European Coordinator of The American Committee for East West Accord Ltd.

The Vineyard of the Saker
Could there be a grain of truth in the Ukrainian propaganda? (repost with new introduction)
The Saker

Henry Kissinger — “Trump Turned The American System Around”

SouthFront
Henry Kissinger: “Trump Turned The American System Around”

Appeared in Bulgarian at A-specto, translated by Valentina Tzoneva exclusively for SouthFront
Posted by lkb22

WaPo — Donald Trump to meet with Henry Kissinger

Burnishing credentials.

Donald Trump is scheduled to meet here Wednesday with former secretary of state Henry Kissinger as the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee looks to develop his foreign-policy expertise, according to three people close to Trump.…

Last week, during a visit to Washington to meet with party leaders, Trump met with James A. Baker III, another former Republican secretary of state.

The Washington Post
Donald Trump to meet with Henry Kissinger, GOP’s foreign-policy eminence

Robert Costa and Philip Rucker

Gunnar Bjornson — Trump Doctrine explained, with another view by Paul Pillar

Parsing Trump's foreign policy speech.

Katehon
Gunnar Bjornson: Trump Doctrine explained

See also

Consortium News
Trump’s Foreign Policy Mishmash

Paul R. Pillar

F. William Engdahl — Washington Again Underestimated the Iranian Mind

De-dollarization.

NEO
Washington Again Underestimated the Iranian Mind
F. William Engdahl

Dan Sanchez — They Sow The Cyclone - We Reap The Blowback

How the US created jihadism beginning over forty years ago under the aegis of Henry Kissinger and then Zbigniew Brzezinski down to the present. A sordid tale of intrigue, deceit, and mayhem. You can't make this stuff up.

AntiWar
They Sow The Cyclone - We Reap The Blowback
Dan Sanchez
Also published at DanSanchez.me and Medium.com

Gilbert Doctorow — The Unipolar World Is Ending

At the same time, the de facto division of the world into two poles of self-interest is consolidated by overarching competing ideologies. The ideologies are not as comprehensive as the Communism/Free World ideologies of the Cold War. But they are crisply defined and effective rallying points nonetheless. And like the ideologies that were supposedly made irrelevant with the Cold War’s demise in 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992, the new ideologies deal with how human society shall be organized and what are its highest values.

On the side of the EU and the USA, democracy, precisely as practiced in America, neo-liberal economics, and human rights in their latest and most expansive edition that has barely taken root among US and European progressives, are the defining elements of what constitutes a good society. By definition, only such societies are stable and peace-loving. Those countries which differ with the golden standard must be brought into line to ensure a peaceful world. This can be done any which way: by subversion or non-military coercion to bring about regime change, or by pure military force if non-military methods fail to bring about the desired results.

On the side of Russia and China, there is the belief that for nation-states true freedom means freedom to follow their own development course and to organize their societies in keeping with national traditions. Moreover, they staunchly defend the principles of Westphalia, meaning the equality of sovereign states and non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states.

For all of these reasons, the Concert of Powers that the global leading minds have been invited to discuss by the Valdai Club this week is an irrelevancy. We are well and truly back on track to a bipolar world, which, in any case, many IR experts have long believed is more stable, hence more promising of global peace, than an ever shifting balance of power among five or six major players.…

This is an assessment of international relations and geopolitics that I basically agree with. Good history lesson as backgrounder, too.

Russia Insider
The Unipolar World Is Ending
Gilbert Doctorow

See also for another backgrounder.

Irrussianality

Russia And The East

Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

Robert Parry — The Riddle of Obama’s Foreign Policy

Rather than "the riddle of Obama’s foreign policy," I would say "the enigma that is Barack Obama." In my estimation, the president is a thorough-going pragmatist who doesn't stand for anything, so it is difficult to characterize him. 

Many view this a sign of weakness in comparison with someone like G. W. Bush, whose stood by principle regardless of what others through of his "principles." But I don't see Obama as particularly weak. For example, he took a big chance politically and reputationally on the operation that took out Osama, certainly fully aware of how that kind of move had worked out for Jimmy Carter in the attempt to rescue the embassy hostages being held in Iran and for Bill Clinton in sending Rangers into Mogadishu.

Pragmatism is a strategy just like standing on principle and presenting a strong front is. The difference between someone like W and Barack Obama is W's principles were clear and consistently adhered to, whereas Barack Obama only enunciate principle when it is pragmatic to do so and reserves the right to change his mind when the so-called principle no longer seems pragmatic. To many the former comes across as strength and conviction, and the latter as either weakness or lack of principle as defects in a leader.

As it turns out, pragmatism was what candidate Obama meant by bipartisanship.

Consortium News
The Riddle of Obama’s Foreign Policy

Robert Parry