An article by Alastair Crooke on his ConflictsForum Substack examines where Trump’s latest “total economic destruction strategy” against Iran could lead the United States. Crooke—who is a former British diplomat and former MI-6 intelligence agent—usefully reminds readers how rapidly, and inexorably Israel’s war against Gaza and Palestinians has become a war against Lebanon and Syria, Israel-U.S. war against Iran, and now Trump’s war of desperation, which has made the entirety of Southwest Asia a tinderbox. The war may also be leading Trump to use nuclear weapons—something he brought up with Cabinet members Rex Tillerson (State) and Gen. Mark Milley (Defense), Crooke says, as long as a decade ago, when Trump opted for pulling out of the JCPOA during his first presidential term..
Now with Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby having taken the point for using nuclear weapons, “This debate,” assesses Crooke, “has not yet been finally settled.” But he notes that “Colby argues that US failure in the conventional military arena (i.e. in Iran), could justify the use of tactical nuclear weapons—to compensate for the loss of US conventional deterrence.”
In the course of the piece, Crooke increasingly focuses on the Treasury Secretary, who has to execute the “economic destruction” strategy, Scott Bessent. Hegseth is eclipsed; Bessent is now propping Trump up. It’s worth noting that the arrogant Bessent’s last “great move”—the escalation of Treasury buybacks by the Treasury to keep dollar interest rates from rising—has failed in less than a week, with those rates having regained, and in some cases surpassed, their “alarm” levels of Aug. 17.
