Alastair Crooke: Decline, Irrationality and War on Iran

Alastair Crooke says the US is pursuing the strategy of a business hostile takeover in both Venezuela and Iran, and as it has done in Syria and elsewhere. You buy out the armed forces at the command level, send special forces in to take out the CEO (head of State) . In this case, the armed forces and air defense was stood down. Not a single shot was fired at low-flying helicopters, which brought in the special forces and bombed various targets, killing over 80 people. Maduro, however, had a Cuban bodyguard of about 30 soldiers, and they did defend Maduro and were all killed. Cubans are real Communist revolutionaries who cannot be bought out and will fight to the death if they must. The question is whether the US will succeed in buying out Venezuelan “management” and whether there will be guerilla resistance. Vice President Celia Rodriguez has a father who was a dedicated revolutionary who was tortured to death in prison, which means she is probably not thrilled with being under the thumb of the US, and there is another potential leader of the resistance named Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s Minister of the Interior, Minister of Justice and Minister of Peace, with solid revolutionary credentials, who has been in Cuba recently but has now returned to Venezuela. All I can say is “Viva la revolucion!”

On the subject of Iran and Israel, Alastair says that Netanyahu got the go-ahead from Trump for an attack on Iran in their last meeting in Mar-a-Lago at the end of the year. Bibi is getting additional pressure from a new scandal dubbed Qatargate, in which senior members of his staff took money from Qatar. They sure have a lot of oil money to spread around, especially to Trump’s family businesses, so much so that Israel is getting worried they are buying Trump’s loyalty. Following the same old time-tested strategy, the imperialists use sanctions to cause inflation. The resulting hardships cause complaints. Then they orchestrate demonstrations in Iran where legitimate protestors are mixed with agent provocateurs who commit violent acts, forcing the government into responses which are then denounced as repressing legitimate protest. This is not working. The protests are dying down. In the 12-day war last June, Israel never flew over Iranian airspace. Since then, with Russian and Chinese help, Iran has been beefing up its offensive and defensive capabilities. All the real damage that Israel did came from saboteurs within Iran. These saboteurs have all been arrested or killed. Israel’s defense has been proved completely incapable of stopping modern Iranian missiles. Last time, Iran pulled its punches. This time, they will demolish and destroy Israel. It seems rather likely to me that these apocalyptical Zionists will take the Samson Option and use their nuclear weapons.