Is There a Path Out of Ratcheting Mid-East and Geo-Strategic Tensions?

Click here to access article by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. (Because the author was a former MI-6 employee, he has obviously written this for other political analysts who follow events closely in the Middle East. That means he frequently uses abbreviations that may make reading difficult for you. "MBZ", "MBS", "GNA", and "AKP".)

... circles close to Erdogan see the noose tightening around Turkey’s neck, and view this Kurdish ‘project’ as ‘a platform’ from which to penetrate and weaken Turkey itself. For the leadership, this amounts to a conspiracy, standing in open view, to undermine Turkey.

This piece of political analysis illustrates the real dangers of hyper-aggressive negotiating strategy that Trump clearly uses. But do his key players in his administration take them seriously? This question is not only relevant in connection with the Deep State's strategies against Turkey, but on all other foreign policy matters.

... those who see the bellicose language uttered from Bolton and Pompeo as simply a negotiating strategy are perfectly free to continue in that opinion, but others may view it as the piece-by-piece construction of a narrowing tunnel that ends with only one exit: forever escalation against ‘malignity’.

The real issue is, does Trump see and understand this? Or has he convinced himself that the Administration’s wider bluster is actually winning: Making America Great Again? On this question, hangs our joint futures.