The Iran war has ushered in the “end of American Empire,” conservative host Tucker Carlson said on his podcast on Thursday, April 2. The admission that the U.S. cannot protect the Strait of Hormuz “proved that Washington could no longer function as the world’s policeman,” Tucker said.
Far more powerful and truthful was the interview of Scott Ritter by Consortium News editor Joe Lauria. Ritter reported back on his visit to Russia and Chechnya over the past weeks (together with Garland Nixon), where he called on Russia to intervene diplomatically to stop the illegal war on Iran, and prepared a video on the role of Chechnya in ending the war with Russia and rebuilding the country. Ritter met many Russian officials and held a book event for his 2023 book, translated into Russian, with other Russian scholars.
Ritter praises Putin for his “patience, not falling into the trap of escalation.” Despite the current severe crisis, he said Putin still has the best chance of getting through to Trump to stop this war, because Trump and Putin are still in contact through the Dmitriev-Witkoff discussions. (He thinks the China-Pakistan peace proposals are not likely to function due to the lack of connection to Trump, and worries that Trump is in the process of cancelling his visit to China.)
On Trump, Ritter said he has studied Trump closely, from his former TV show to his speeches and books (if they are actually his). He calls Trump a narcissist who is only capable of “counter-punching” and insulting, who knows nothing about the subjects he discusses, and who is now in a “panic” about the collapse of his “cult followers” in MAGA. They are “ignorant, pathetic, they worship Trump and stroke his ego.” But, he adds, even the MAGA base is abandoning him now to the point that Trump cannot even hold his regular rallies, which he treasures for the adulation he receives.
On Iran: the fact that Hegseth is dropping 1,000 bombs per day on Iran, but they are still fighting successfully, shows how weak the U.S. is, and that the military is an “empty shell.” We have even stripped our allies—South Korea, Japan, and European nations—of their defensive weapons, so we can’t even claim that we’re defending them anymore. “The Empire is finished,” he declared, but it still has nuclear weapons.
