The pieces of the Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin-Iran puzzle are fitting together now: Donald Trump is warming up to Russia for the specific purpose of gaining a temporary alliance against Iran. Once war on Iran is accomplished, there will be a double cross of Russia. This exact thing happened before, and it will happen again.

In the early morning hours today, Donald Trump issued another threat to Iran on Twitter:

Donald J. Trump

To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!

12:24 AM – 23 Jul 2018

ONE policy goal where Donald Trump has always been consistent is in his desire to bring down the government of Iran — both before the 2016 election and ever since. This is the standard insider Republican agenda at least since 2000 when its then-leading think-tank Project for A New American Century (PNAC) ordered large scale wars on several fronts. The PNAC agenda filled the cabinet of George W. Bush, and the wars began.

General Wesley Clark confirmed the plan: war was coming Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, “and finishing off with Iran.” In 2003, Republican George W. Bush abruptly escalated the ongoing slow boil of war in Iraq after multiple false charges that Iraq was acquiring weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Although Americans initially supported the war after it started, the people became fatigued at the endless fighting still going on long after George W. Bush declared “Mission accomplished.” In 2006, after six years of Republican rule of the national government, the people voted for a Democratic Congress to put a check on the White House.

Then, in early 2007, Democratic advisor and strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski warned Congress not to attack Iran. The PNAC agenda was cut off. But the wishes for war continued.

Although he did not explicitly say so, Brzezinski came close to suggesting that the White House was capable of manufacturing a provocation — including a possible terrorist attack within the US — to provide the casus belli for war. That a man such as Brzezinski, with decades of experience in the top echelons of the US foreign policy establishment, a man who has the closest links to the military and to intelligence agencies, should issue such a warning at an open hearing of the US Senate has immense and grave significance.

In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama won the election as the stock market was collapsing and the economy was losing jobs at all time record rates. There was to be ‘hope and change.’

The Barack Obama administration was willing to support the PNAC agenda in Libya, but drew a bright red line to stop before Iran. Bucking the Republican plan, Barack Obama spent pain-staking years working with multiple nations to make a peace deal with Iran.

Donald Trump campaigned on ending the Iran peace deal, and once in office, he summarily ended it rather easily.

Now, Donald Trump is stepping up his alignment with Vladimir Putin, the leader of Russia. Last week, the two leaders met together in Helsinki, Finland and spent hours behind closed doors talking about an opaque agenda. They emerged without any notes and little information. A few days later, Donald Trump announced on Twitter that Vladimir Putin will come to the White House for further discussions.

It is in this atmosphere that Donald Trump wrote the Tweet threatening Iran.

It appears now that Donald Trump is warming up to Vladimir Putin to persuade him to help or to stand aside as the United States turns on the heat against Iran. Then, there will be a double cross.

DOUBLE CROSS COMING

If Donald Trump can improve relations enough to get Russia to agree or to look the other way as Iran is attacked, the centerpiece of the old PNAC agenda will finally be achieved. Then, Donald Trump and his establishment friends in the Republican Party will double cross Russia. It happened before:

REPUBLICAN MODUS OPERANDI

In 1990, after Iraq invaded Kuwait, a series of United Nations resolutions insisted that Iraq ‘liberate’ Kuwait by January 15, 1991. Russia signed onto the resolutions.

By January, 1991, Russia took advantage of the American preoccupation with Iraq and stepped-up a crackdown on the Baltic states: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Fifty years earlier, Russia invaded these three nations and held them ever since. Defying long-standing American policy that Russia should leave these nations, George Bush offered only “thoughts and prayers” to the oppressed people. (These three nations were finally freed from Russia years later.)

It was more important to stay friendly with Russia in a relationship of convenience and get the Iraq war started. They called it “The Gulf War” in those days. George Bush declared victory as Kuwait was released from Iraq’s grip. Then George Bush and Paul Wolfowitz turned to preparing a post-Cold War policy concerning Russia.

Just as surely as Russia double crossed the United States by cracking down in the Baltic states, George Bush then double crossed Russia with a then-secret policy document called the 1992 Defense Planning Guidance. Rather then trying to work with Russia to modernize society, George Bush preferred expanding NATO and military operations to encircle Russia:

The most promising avenues for anchoring the east-central Europeans into the West and for stabilizing their democratic institutions is their participation in Western political and economic organizations. East-central European membership in the (European Community) at the earliest opportunity, and expanded NATO liaison. . . . To buttress the vital political and economic relationships we have along the Pacific rim, we must maintain our status as a military power of the first magnitude in the area. This will enable the U.S. to continue to contribute to regional security and stability by acting as a balancing force and prevent emergence of a vacuum or a regional hegemon. . . .

At the same time, president Boris Yeltsin was privatizing Russian resources at lightning speed. Regular citizens of Russia suffered terribly in the 1990’s, as Russia fell to near ‘third world’ status and life expectancy for men dropped to below sixty years old. [PDF]

These policies help lead to the discrediting of president Boris Yeltsin and the rise of intelligence spook Vladimir Putin whose claim to fame was essentially ‘Russia first’ against the United States. Call it blow back.

THE AFTERMATH

Of course, the exact tactics will be unknown until it is too late. But one thing is for sure: this is how establishment Republicans operate and this is exactly what to expect from ‘outsider’ Donald Trump as he continues the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush economic and military agenda.

Republicans play to the public by complaining about Donald Trump constantly, but they refuse to stop him. They want the war against Iran. That’s what matters. That’s what has mattered at least since 2000 when they wrote up the PNAC agenda. In the end, they may or may not be able to get the war. But the goal is clear now.

And while the public is misled, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are both highly aware of the risk of double cross. This is a dangerous game.