The West's Gangster Oligarchy Is Psychopathic, in Denial...and On the Way Out

Rumble link Bitchute link Truth Jihad link

Press TV interviewed me and Clive Menzies on last night’s News Review. Below is a transcript.

Press TV: It’s a pleasure to have you. Thanks for your patience. Joining us from Morocco, Kevin Barrett. I put the first question about the International Energy Agency’s report just earlier today. A set of oil inventories, Dr. Barrett, plunged by 2.2 million barrels a day last month. It said shipping traffic through Hormuz has slowed with just 16 vessels transiting the Strait over the course of Monday and Tuesday, according to Kepler data. He said that that’s down from about 130 to 140 daily transits before the war, meaning before February 27th. Your initial thoughts, please.

Kevin Barrett: Well, this shows that Iran has managed to get control over the Strait, and that wouldn’t have happened if Trump hadn’t allowed Netanyahu to talk him into launching this disastrous war. He did a dastardly sneak attack on Iran under cover of negotiations, murdering the Supreme leader of Iran, members of his family, other leaders, and all sorts of other people, including lots of civilians, notably the 168 people killed at the school in Minab. So this war was launched under false pretenses, under the false notion that it was supposed to be over within a few days with a new pro-Israel leadership that would take orders from Trump and Netanyahu. And this was all a fantasy.

And that has forced Iran to basically go nuclear, not with a literal nuclear weapon, but with the equivalent, by seizing control of the Strait of Hormuz, which is what all of us predicted would happen if the Americans were ever stupid enough to actually attack Iran.

And so it’s clear, the handwriting is on the wall. Trump and his team are desperate. Their desperation is coming through in everything they do, whether it’s Trump screaming out obscene tirades on Twitter one day and then retracting them and saying that we’re on the edge of a peace breakthrough. The American leadership is showing that they’re completely discombobulated, confused, afraid, and they have no idea how to get themselves out of this predicament that they’ve gotten themselves into. Whereas Iran, which has been planning for this for decades, knows exactly what it’s doing. It has the Americans over a barrel, as John Mersheimer said in his video today.

The writing’s on the wall. The Americans are just going to have to accept that they lost, and they’re going to have to allow Iran to dictate the terms, and the terms are absolutely clear: Call off the war, give Iran back its money, pay reparations, and the war has to stop across all fronts, including in Lebanon and Gaza.

If Trump were smart, he would accept that. He would declare peace. He would claim credit for forcing the Israelis to make peace with the Palestinians, forcing them to withdraw to their pre-’67 borders. But he’s not smart enough to figure that out, apparently. So he’s going to keep muddling through and making these kinds of confused, irrational, lashing-out gestures for who knows how long, maybe a few more months, in which case he’s in serious trouble in the November elections.

Press TV: Thank you, Dr. Barrett. Mr. Menzies, the U.S. President today, again—I don’t know if you saw his tweet saying the U.S.—and you’ve seen him repeat this a number of times—the U.S.A. controls the Strait of Hormuz. But obviously that has not been corroborated.

Clive Menzies: People like Donald Trump are not in charge. They’re in office but they’re not in charge. They’re responding to the incentives and penalties. And the particular circumstances of their own situation. Trump is a notorious loose cannon who fires off in all directions. But essentially, I don’t think he has a lot of room to manoeuvre, other than to keep this stop-go war going, because that’s what the incentives are providing. I mean, your other guest said what would be sensible, but that has very little to do with what’s unfolding. As he said at the outset, if sense made any relevance for this, then the war wouldn’t start in the first place. So we’re in the throes of this structure shaking itself apart, and the actors, be they Israeli, American, Palestinian, Iranian, or whatever, are having to respond to the situation that arises. And those on the side of Israel, US, UK, Europe, are actually in a far greater state of confusion and control than Iran, which is primarily trying to look after its own interests and not seeking to interfere in other places around the world.

So that’s the difference. You have this meddling out of one’s jurisdiction, which is going on, whilst the the moral high ground, if you like, sits with those who are being attacked, not with those doing the attacking.

Press TV: All right. And Dr. Barrett, U.S. officials—I’m putting pretty much the same question to you. They’ve warned the continued shutdown of this critical waterway could lead to higher oil and gas prices. Despite Donald Trump’s insistence, the U.S. still has control over it. So my question to you, why the lies? Okay, to keep possibly public panic at bay. But that’s usually when you have a plan. That you’re going to implement to get to your objective. Not usually when you tried everything, it hasn’t gotten you the intended results and you’re just lying for the sake of lying.

Kevin Barrett: Yeah, that’s a good question. It’s sort of like