Alastair Crooke, former senior British diplomat had an interesting exchange with Judge Andrew Napolitano today in his interview, “Are the U.S. and Russia Going Eyeball to Eyeball?” Crooke’s latest column, which provided the basis for his analysis of the West’s dangerous disconnect from reality, is entitled “The Brink of Dissolution: Neurosis in the West as the Levee Breaks.”
Crooke followed up the question in his title with a second one: “If so-going eyeball to eyeball, who is going to be the first one to blink?” But the most important question Cooke admitted he didn’t know the answer to was, is the Western narrative about threatening Russia and “going to war” merely a “deception,” a bluff to force Russia to accept U.S. terms of negotiation to end the war in Ukraine. Along these lines is the recent story that Russia was ready to accept the “existing lines of battle.” Another case is the creation of the narrative for the population in the midst of the U.S. election that the U.S. was doing everything to force Russia to the negotiating table while defending Ukraine. Or, does the West really intend to go to war with Russia? He admitted he didn’t know the answer.
However, he provided the basis for figuring out the answer when he was asked by Judge Napolitan, what about the role of Rishi Sunak? He replied that Sunak didn’t make any of the decisions; rather, “the deep state behind the deep state makes the decisions. Sunak said he didn’t want to be a ‘'war Prime minister,’ so he’s planning to get out.”
He underlined the big question again: “Is this a big deception"- like the Iraqi WMD—or does NATO really going eyeball to eyeball, intending to push for war?
Crooke then referred to the attack on the Russian early warning radar and posed once again, is this a bluff, a deception, to force the Russians to negotiate, or is NATO really planning to go to war?
In regard to the question of whether we can force Russia to negotiate a peace on the U.S. terms, he gave an emphatic “No!” Judge Napolitano then played a clip of Putin saying Russia was willing to negotiate a peace, starting with the agreement in Istanbul that was initially agreed upon. Then he played a clip of Dr. Gilbert Doctorow saying that this meant Putin would agree to freeze the conflict on the existing battle lines.
