The conspiracy to overthrow a sitting US President extends far beyond our own “Deep State.” As I’ve been saying in this space for quite some time, it’s been an international team effort from the beginning. Setting aside the British origins of the obscene “dossier” compiled by “ex”-MI6 agent Christopher Steele, we now have further confirmation of foreign involvement in President Trump’s decision to delay (perhaps indefinitely) the declassification of key Russia-gate documents. While US intelligence officials were expected to oppose the move, “Trump was also swayed by foreign allies, including Britain, in deciding to reverse course, these people said. It wasn’t immediately clear what other governments may have raised concerns to the White House.”

But of course the Washington Post knows perfectly well which other governments would have reason to raise “concerns” to the White House. It’s clear from the public record that the following “allies” have rendered the “Resistance” essential assistance at one time or another:

United Kingdom – This entire episode has Her Majesty’s Secret Service’s fingerprints all over it. Steele’s key role is plain enough: here was a British spook who was not only hired by the Clinton campaign to dig up dirt on Trump but was unusually passionate about his work – almost as if he’d have done it for free. And then there was the earliest approach to the Trump campaign, made by Cambridge professor and longtime spook Stefan Halper to Carter Page. And then there’s the mysterious alleged “link” to Russian intelligence, Professor Joseph Mifsud, whose murky British-based thinktank managed to operate openly despite later claims it was a Russian covert operation.

It was Mifsud who orchestrated the Russia-gate hoax, first suggesting that the Russians had Hillary Clinton’s emails, and then disappearing into thin air as soon as the story he had planted percolated into plain view. Some “Russian agent”!

Australia – Why would the former Australian High Commissioner to the UK seek out George Papadopoulos, a low-level semi-advisor to the Trump campaign, and milk him for information while getting him drunk?

Israel – So how did Papadopoulos find himself spilling his guts at a bar with a top Australian intelligence figure? The Times reports that “The meeting at the bar came about because of a series of connections, beginning with an Israeli Embassy official who introduced Mr. Papadopoulos to another Australian diplomat in London.”

Estonia – The Times and other outlets report that a “Baltic intelligence agency” was the first to relay “concerns” about Russian influence over the Trump team. I’m willing to bet it was the Estonians, who have always been the most actively anti-Russian actors in the region.

Ukraine – Democratic National Committee members actually met with Ukrainian government leaders in an attempt to uncover dirt on Trump. Working together with the DNC, Democratic official and Ukrainian lobbyist Alexandra Chalupa received active assistance from the Ukrainian embassy, which became a veritable locus of Clintonian campaign operations.

This is part of the price we pay for our vaunted “empire,” and the “liberal international order” the striped-pants set is so on about. As that grizzled old “isolationist” prophet, Garet Garrett, described the insignia of empire at the dawn of the cold war:

“There is yet another sign that defines itself gradually. When it is clearly defined it may be already too late to do anything about it. That is to say, a time comes when Empire finds itself –

“A prisoner of history.

“The history of a Republic is its own history…. A Republic may change its course, or reverse it, and that will be its own business., But the history of Empire is a world history, and belongs to many people.”

A Republic may restrain itself, wrote Garrett, but “Empire must put forth its power” – on whose behalf? There are many claimants whose wealth, position, and prestige depend on the Imperial largesse. When that claim is threatened, the “satellites” turn against their protector. This is what the Russia-gate covert action — carried out by coordinated action of our “allies” – is all about. We now have clear evidence of just how far our “client” states are willing go to ensure that the American gravy train of free goodies continues to flow.

Trump’s decision to walk back his announcement that the key Russia-gate intelligence would be declassified tells us almost as much as if he’d tweeted it out, unredacted. For what it tells us is that public knowledge of the contents would constitute a major break in relations with at least one key ally.

So here we have it at last, the final truth of Russia-gate: yes, there was indeed foreign collusion in the 2016 election, but it came from the opposite direction than the media are telling us. We weren’t attacked by Russia: a few thousand dollars in Facebook ads that nobody saw did not put Trump in the White House. Our democratic process was undermined, not by the supposedly omnipotent Vladimir Putin but by the intelligence agencies of some of our more beloved “allies.” We were attacked by a tag -team, both foreign and domestic, intent on ousting a democratically-elected President by any means necessary.

Here is the final irrefutable argument against America as the “world leader,” designated champion of the “liberal international order” – we become, as Garrett noted, a prisoner of history. Indeed, we are no longer entitled to write our own history, but must endure the lobbying and aggressive interventions of our ungrateful and spiteful “allies,” whose welfare states could not exist without generous US “defense” subsidies.

When those subsidies, subventions, and special privileges are threatened, as they are by the nationalist cheapskate Trump, who would gladly demolish the whole decrepit, dated, and dangerous cold war architecture with a wave of his hand. A US President who puts America first? They can’t allow it.

And that’s really the essence of the fight, the issue that will determine the woof and warp of American politics in the new millennium. The global Establishment has risen up against the People. There’s no telling what the outcome will be, but one thing I know for sure: I know what side I’m on. Do you?

A Special Note to My Readers

Shortly after delivering this column, I was asked to include a fundraising pitch. I immediately rebelled against the idea: I had barely been able to write my column, given my physical condition, let alone anything extra. Am I to be spared nothing? I thought, as I struggled to catch my breath. I lay in bed trying to find a position where I wouldn’t cough incessantly, I thinking to myself: what if the fundraiser goes badly? What if …? And then, mercifully, sleep overtook me.

I feel better this morning, and so here I am, at the same old stand, making the case for Antiwar.com.

We’ve been manning the barricades for the Peace Party online for over twenty years, fact-checking the War Party so you don’t have to, and holding up the propaganda that comes out of the “mainstream” media to the most rigorous scrutiny. I almost feel as if I don’t have to make the case for donating because it’s so glaringly obvious that to do so insults my readers’ intelligence.

No one else does the job we do. Nowhere else can you find the comprehensive coverage and fine-tuned fact-filled analysis of what’s happening in the world of foreign policy. And if you think that world has no effect on your life, think again – and remember the after math of 9/11, and the decades of war that followed.

Could it have all been avoided? Could things have turned out differently? Is there an alternative to our foreign policy of global intervention?

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NOTES IN THE MARGIN

You can check out my Twitter feed by going here. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.

I’ve written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Foreword by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).

You can buy An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here.