I encountered this article on Monday the 25th of March, but I didn't realize the full significance that it had. It appears to me that Crooke sees a series of bumbling attempts by the Trump administration that risks calamitous consequences for the Empire in their strategy to weaken Iran. Poised against this strategy is the China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Characterizing BRI as a "far-reaching geopolitical strategy" is perhaps an understatement as to its ultimate effects.
As we saw yesterday in Escobar's article and commentary I posted yesterday, President Xi of China is in meetings with the presidents of France and Germany to clear away their objections to BRI. It is also very clear that both Macron and Merkel are very concerned about the tempting incentives presented by BRI for their own European capitalists. Thus, the meetings are critically important in this giant struggle for the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire to maintain their dominant position in the world. (See also an article by Deena Stryker.)
If President Xi should succeed, it will have a number of very adverse consequences for the Empire's anti-Iran strategies. Iran, as Crooke points out, is a key participant in China's BRI. Thus the Empire's transnational capitalist class would not only incur a devastating setback in its project to punish Iran, but far worse. China's BRI would link up Asia, Russia, and Europe and thus consolidate a victory for a multipolar world. Keep in mind that the Empire has already suffered a defeat in its Syrian campaign which struggle was really against Russian efforts to link Europe's economy with that of Russia.
Muddying this picture is the US Deep State's concern about their long favorable relationship with Saudi Arabia following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, an important Saudi citizen employed by the Washington Post, a key Empire newspaper. As Crooke points out, there is a section of the Deep State that is very worried about their longstanding relationship with Saudi Arabia which has been essential to supporting the US dollar as the primary world's currency following the Vietnam War when USA went off the gold standard.
Thus, Crooke concludes his article with this insightful statement:
Well, the pivot for countering this unfavourable US conjuncture rests on one man: MbS. America’s entire foreign policy, and that of its ally, Israel, has pivoted around this erratic, highly-flawed, psychologically-impaired figure. The NYT leak from CIA officials, with its unqualified endorsement through a NYT board editorial, suggest that the CIA and MI6 have concluded that US global interests cannot be left in such unreliable, unsafe hands.
What this ultimately might mean is unclear, but such a leak would suggest that it stems from a concerted CIA professional assessment (i.e. that it is not just a partisan party warfare). Trump may not concur, or like it much, but the CIA when it does form such a definitive view, is no force to be lightly trifled with.
