CN Live!’s second season premiered on Saturday night with an in-depth discussion on the Crisis with Iran, with Scott Ritter and Giorgio Cafiero.
After the illegal U.S. assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani on Friday morning the region is on edge, fearing for the worst. Join our discussion with Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, and Middle East analyst Giorgio Cafiero on the reasons for the assassination, its timing and its possible consequences. Ritter predicts that the killing will set off a chain of events that will lead to the U.S. military leaving the region.
Watch the 1 hour 18 minute replay here with your hosts Elizabeth Vos and Joe Lauria:
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There is a country in the Middle East that has been actively seeking to get the US to bomb the hell out of Iran for decades. Some people say that Admiral Fallon kept the W admin from starting a war with Iran. I imagine there are hardliners in Iran who are arguing for a non restrained retaliation that would be the spark. There is also the possibility that Israel would create a false flag attack to be the spark. Or even elements in the US. Plus there will be attacks on the US people in Iraq. Any attack will be blamed on Iran It feels like the time before WW! (of course I wasn’t around them) but just from what I have read. I was very saddened when I read the US assassinated Suleimani and the Iraqi millita leader and the others in Baghdad airport. I don’t remember the Nazis doing anything similar in so called peacetime.
I appreciated Scott’s sane analysis from a mainly military viewpoint.
but the results are against the dark force’s interest. not to Trump’s credit, but nonetheless.
Thanks for another knowledgeable, in-depth discussion.
“Somehow this president got briefed that killing Qassim Suleimani was a good idea, and he went along with it. There’s an abject failure. Is it with the CIA? Is it with the Pentagon? Is it with both? Is it the fact that we don’t have a functioning National Security Council anymore?” – Scott Ritter at about 55:00.
There is powerful, accumulated evidence that Trump has sold America’s Middle East policy to Israel, and this was an Israeli operation, merely carried out by its American dumb muscle. Trump met with Israelis beforehand, but with no European allies, and executed an assassination planned by the Israelis.
“Israel figured in US decision to assassinate Iranian general”
mondoweiss (dot) net/2020/01/israel-played-a-role-in-us-decision-to-assassinate-iranian-general/
“Killing Suleimani appears to be a means to an end, but we don’t know what the end is. … All it’s done is really pissed off a lot of people.” – Scott Ritter at about 1:07:00.
More war may be Israel’s goal. There is a case that Israel was established by war profiteers precisely to provoke profitable wars in the Middle East. e.g. “War Profiteers and the Roots of the War on Terror” Israel’s power over America stems not from Israel itself, but from the financial and political power behind Israel. e.g. “War Profiteers and Israel’s Bank”
This is excellent! Now that more info has come out I would like to suggest a further motive. First of all, Trump has surrounded himself with armageddenists. Throughout history, religious fanatics have always tried to hasten the end times and I believe this time is not an exception.
I am certain that Israel and the US had knowledge that Soleimani was working on trying to broker peace (or at least better relations) with Saudi Arabia. Any kind of peace is something that US and Israeli religious zealots cannot tolerate. It is also something that war contractors will not tolerate.
Trump is a very venal man and it takes very little to whip him into grandiosity and willingness to murder. I believe his natural venal and murderous tendencies were “nurtured” by those who have the most to gain from continual war and those looking to end the earth itself-namely war contractors and religious zealots.
Looking at the insanity of Trump’s tweets since this assignation, I wonder if his natural tendencies are being “helped”along by injections of drugs. Not that he needs those, but these tweets are so insane that it does come to mind.
Thank you for the informative interview. It was so worthwhile and helpful.
When the system is collapsing, someone starts a war. Trump has lost it totally.
Well Consortium News, I want to welcome you back and frankly, I had some withdrawal symptoms while you were taking time off. This was a stupendous program and I am deeply grateful to both Scott Ritter and Giorgio Cafiero for their deeply incisive analysis of this very scary situation. It’s hard to be an Earthling these days with so much drama and trauma, so often caused by our own boneheaded choices. And they are choices, certainly not necessities. All of us will have to pay for the bad choices of this out-of-control government. I wish I could say that simply electing a Democrat out of the mostly motley crew arrayed before us, would actually change much for the better immediately, but the damage is wide and deep. Your programs keep despondency at bay for me because as as bad as the stark reality is, knowing is better than not knowing. And Consortium News is a bastion of thorough geopolitical understanding. Thank you for keeping us informed!
Interesting how it’s possible to read narratives at least a couple of different ways. There’s the official good guy-bad guy version that, as Joe notes, MSM mouths uniformly right out of the gate without, as Giorgio points out, serious context or analysis.
Myself, I bow to Scott Ritter’s extensive & thorough read of the overall situation from, as he says, a military standpoint. It’s still possible though to wonder if, for example, t-Rump is steered to that place where his self-referential (read: political) thoughts, instincts & twitter thumbs run wild with the simplest possible story.
Steered by whom, you might ask? Well, which instigators wouldn’t mind sowing confusion & discord by exaggerating a minor dust-up into a deadly response? Wouldn’t mind if a bitter enemy who stymied an imperial take-over of the Middle East and who was actually, as Ritter says, the most steadfast force in the region for avoiding all-out war, who wouldn’t mind if that guy gets assassinated or the fallout that blows back? And which mob, just theoretically mind you, could cock-up enough pretext to threaten a Senate conviction unless (q-p-q) war is amped-up against the final target on the PNAC list?
Or, I guess this political hit could be just a Don-Pompeous brainfit.
Thank you very much for the in-depth discussion that helps to bind together many loose strings in such a convoluted narrative.
I would say the odds of Iraq ordering the u.s. out of their country is about as likely as them successfully demanding Isis leave. And Using their success at dealing with ISIS in the beginning as an example, I would say Iraq is going to do nothing except complain. Iraq is a conquered country as far as the U.S. government is concerned. They don’t have much of a say.
America has turned to crumbs and Australia has turned to soot no leaders here at this point in time My condolences to Iran for having a great leader taken from them
Yes.
Oui, bon appetit!