Date: Monday, 02 March 2026
https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/how-trump-has-been-cooked-by-iran
https://theduran.com/how-trump-has-been-cooked-by-iran/
HOW TRUMP HAS BEEN COOKED BY IRAN:
Alistair Crooke details U.S.-&-allied media-lies about this war
2 March 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
Intelligent readers here will want to know the background of Alistair Crooke; so, I have just linked there to the Wikipedia article about him, which is loaded with his relevant credentials and background, such as his having formerly been employed by UK’s MI6 (retired from it in late 2003 after a roughly 30-year career); and, from this background, it is clear that his personal contacts are top notch for him to be able to speak authoritatively about what he is speaking about here, and that his having turned against the very same Establishment for which he had long worked, is stunningly courageous — basically, he exposes here the profound fraudulence of the Israel-UK-U.S. empire for which he had devoted his entire professional career. Somebody should do a biography of him.
On February 19th, I said “I think that I was wrong when I headlined on February 16th “If U.S. or Israel will again invade Iran, Iran very possibly would win.”, due to what Alastair Crooke had said in one of the two videos I presented there; so, I agree with Ritter in the present video, that Khamenei is probably too stupid to do what must be done in order to protect Iran.” With Crooke’s latest video, highlights from which will here be presented, I am now convinced, by his explanation, that Crooke was right, and that Khamenei had, in fact, planned to become martyred so as to intensify the support, not only among Iran’s Shia, but among Shia also outside Iran, to give their all for their nation’s anti-imperialist cause, so as to defeat the Israel-U.S. empire (which most Iranians call “the great Satan”).
The great comedian Jon Stewart has humorously summarized the con that the Israel-U.S.-UK-and allied lying ‘news’-media and Governments and their 'historians' have been feeding to their populations ever since at least 1948, when Israel was founded (by Harry Truman). In the following, Crooke focuses his laser only upon the situation that Trump has now gotten the world into. But Stewart, in his 70-seconds-long, entirely truthful, historical account, has brilliantly encapsulated what had led up to this, ever since 1948.
——
https://www.youtube.com/live/cQi8exiUVVw?t=151s
“Alastair Crooke: Trump's Dangerous War of Choice”
2.March 2026, Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom
NAPOLITANO: Alastair. Uh, good day to you, my friend, and welcome here. Uh, what a weekend we've just had. I want to go
2:38
back to the beginning with you if I could. Do we now know when the decision
2:45
to commence this war was made? Surely it wasn't made at the last minute.
2:52
CROOKE: Uh no, we know clearly and this has been reported in the um in the Israeli press
3:02
um quite extensively. Uh it was made at that meeting uh at Mara Lago at the end
3:09
of the uh 29th of um December. Uh it was made there and indeed what the Israeli
3:15
press say the date or at least the week in which the war would start was set
3:21
then too. This is what the Israeli press are telling us, that the week that it
3:28
would start, I mean the week in which it has started, was set also at that time.
3:34
NAPOLITANO: Is it fair to say that the uh negotiations between the United States
3:40
uh and Iran were a fraud uh a subterfuge, a deception to lull the
3:47
Iranians for the second time in 8 months into a false sense of security?
3:53
CROOKE: Exactly. And that was, that was part of the exercise. And I think Rubio was
3:59
supposed to travel. There was also the setup of the meetings with Witkoff
4:06
and Kushner and Oman that were supposed to resume the negotiations on Monday
4:12
just as we saw uh in the previous occasion last June. Uh and so all of
4:18
that was entirely deceit. NAPOLITANO: Big picture: How dangerous for the United States, how
4:25
dangerous for the region, how dangerous for Israel, is this war?
4:34
CROOKE: Uh there is a great danger that is um just um
4:41
it's just enlarging out of control. It is moving out of control. So there is a
4:46
great danger now that it is is moving. We we can see um particularly
4:53
the assassination of the supreme leader who is the second
4:59
most um leader Maja in Shia Islam after
5:06
um he's number two after Sistani grand Ayat Sistani in Najaf but he is the
5:15
second and he was a much loved figure and what it has done is create a firestorm
5:21
amongst the Shia everywhere and what we are seeing are the consequences of that
5:28
there have been big attacks over the weekend on the American embassy in Baghdad storming it protests it's been
5:37
very violent against the embassy in the green zone the whole green zone is under attack by Iraqi Shia in Pakistan the
5:46
consulate was attacked uh by Shia um from Pakistan. Um we see
5:54
what's happening in um particularly Bahrain. So in fact the first regime
6:01
change possibly may occur in Bahrain rather than Iran. Bahrain is between 70
6:08
and 80% Shia but ruled by a Sunni um leadership uh an Emir king whatever
6:17
you would like to to call him and a security force which is also totally
6:22
Sunni uh a defensive protection force around him and there have been massive
6:29
demonstrations and attempts to crack down um on on the protests
6:36
Um, but it has a long history of having been very closely associated with Iran.
6:43
It was part of the Persian Empire. it's 80% that there are large sways of that
6:51
part of the coastline uh which have been essentially um incorporated or were part
6:58
of Iran for many years and now there is this big push in Bahrain. We see what's
7:06
happened to Dubai. We've seen it even in Cyprus. Um the Iranians have attacked um
7:14
the um the base in Cyprus. But what you have is a huge [up]rising. I haven't really
7:21
mentioned but most importantly in Iraq there's been the attacks on, on the air
7:30
defenses of America in Iraq, are being um,
7:36
is the response to the killing uh of the supreme leader. Uh it's it's created a
7:42
huge fast storm outside the country and created a huge wave of support for him
7:50
in the country. Tehran has just been packed
7:56
absolutely packed with mourners at his death. A bit quite extraordinary. Um, and
8:04
uh also partly because I think it's pretty plain now that the Supreme Leader,
8:11
he was in his home and I've I've seen the house at least if that's the house
8:16
the compound that he was killed in I think it probably is. It's a very simple building just next to some woods. Um,
8:25
and I it is not luxurious or lavish. It's just a very simple straightforward
8:34
building. He was a man a very humble humble man and he had elected to work uh
8:42
uh and to continue. So he was at his desk in his office when he was killed at
8:47
8:30 that morning. And people in West say well that how stupid. I mean why did
8:53
they why did they leave him there? Why wasn't he in some sort of protective
8:59
position some deep um if you like bunker somewhere? Well because he chose not to
9:05
be. And he said a little while ago he said very clearly he said look I am 86.
9:13
I am half crippled. Um I I have I have a
9:18
certain dignity but that dignity um was it is the dignity that you the Iranian
9:26
people have given me and so I fully accept to offer my life uh to the people
9:33
of Iran. So in other words, he elected, perhaps he thought he was serving
9:41
better the Iranian people that he was martyred in this way.
9:48
…
Millions of them [Iranians] are on the street calling for revenge and that has
14:39
set off a firestorm across the region um uh against American embassies and bases
14:47
in the region. And and uh Trump is in a terrible bind now because already we see
14:55
in this period the Gulf States have now um run out of their intercept missiles
15:01
um their defense missiles. Um they've run out of them. Uh and also um even in
15:09
Israel, I don't know how many, of course, it's classified information
15:15
they've been using, but I mean we can see from videos um with incoming Iranian
15:21
missiles coming in. Um the they are using 12, eight, 10 intercept missiles
15:29
for each incoming missile. And the incoming missiles are now using variable
15:36
um steering or at least variable ability to move. And so they are avoiding being
15:44
struck down by these missiles, but it's meaning that the Israelis are using more
15:49
and more missiles. We don't know how many have been used, but we are getting
15:54
through them. And they are getting through the Tomahawks. You remember I said at the beginning before the war had
16:01
started that on the on the um the the destroyers, maybe they had 600 Tomahawks.
16:08
Well, they've been using about 10 or 20% of those because
16:15
it's Tomahawks that are hitting these targets in in Iran. It is not that
16:22
there's a very misleading language used about how you know uh Israel and and the
16:30
United States are bombing Tehran. They're not. If you mean by bombing Tehran that
16:37
aircraft are flying over Tehran dropping bombs or B2s overflying Tehran and
16:45
dropping bombs. It's not the case. There has been no evidence of any overflight
16:52
by American or Israeli aircraft into Iranian airspace in this conflict. None.
17:02
…
Iran has made it clear it's not attacking the Gulf States per se,
23:37
but the um their provision of bases to America and to the military and to CIA
23:44
that it is those bases that are being attacked by Iran, but not the Gulf
23:50
States themselves. But the consequences are clear. You know, the whole idea of
23:56
the Gulf as this, you know, money center, tourist center, sun center, fun
24:03
and relaxation center is bust. I don't think it'll come back um very easily.
24:10
From what I've been seeing, people pouring out of Dubai, desperately trying
24:15
to cross the desert to get a plane out. All these, I mean, it's it's
24:21
really changed the whole process. So I think there's going to be enormous
24:29
financial consequences from that 8:30 in the morning attack on
24:37
the supreme leader um in terms when the markets open and I'm sure there will be
24:43
consequences there the oil price and also gas incidentally because gas prices
24:49
are already shooting up for Europe because much of the gas passes through
24:55
Hormuz uh too and that and so also the Iranians have attacked economic
25:01
targets in in places like Dubai not um if you like ordinary economic targets
25:08
but in Dubai Trump and his family have a number of investments and there's an
25:13
investment one of the hotels was the sort of center I believe of his um uh
25:19
investment empire, the CIA also had a base in other hotels, those hotels have
25:25
been on fire and have burnt out. So we are seeing a really massive response and
25:32
now of course others are joining in. Hezbollah has started firing missiles
25:37
in Tel Aviv and so they have joined in the attacks. The Iraqis have been
25:43
attacking air defense systems uh in um both in Erbil uh and in Iraq and
25:52
American bases there. And so I think we're going to see um heavy damage done.
26:00
…
I mean they can do this now because there are no defenses, the the Gulf used all the
27:04
air defenses they had [which are from America]. And so you can see signs of Iranian missiles just
27:10
flying overhead in places like Dubai. Um and no missiles, no defensive missiles
27:15
because they've all been used up. And so they are carefully attacking a whole
27:21
series of of um bases, military bases,
27:26
particularly in Bahrain. As I said, Bahrain is in a very precarious position
27:32
anyway. Uh but the the fleet there, the American fleet has been under huge
27:38
systemic damage. The question of course is how long or or how how can uh Trump
27:46
uh survive this sort of damage. I mean is what is being, happening, to put it very
27:52
bluntly, is [that] Iran is driving America out
27:58
of the Gulf and that [this] is going to provide a big shock. I don't think the Americans,
28:06
from what I've seen, expected such a big — I did say when I think even a week ago
28:13
that the Iranians would — attack, if you like, American bases first and foremost,
28:20
and of course Israel too. But they would attack American bases. Well, they are
28:25
doing that, and they have plenty they have plenty of short range
28:31
missiles. short range drones that they can they can use for that and keep their
28:38
more sophisticated weapons for the attacks on Iran. So these short range
28:43
missiles, some of them are old, but now there are no defenses. they can use them and they have um they've been very
28:51
carefully introducing first of all um some newer missiles and they say they
28:58
have some new missiles and we've seen some evidence one or two evidence of
29:04
these with cluster munitions as the warheads to hypersonic missiles which
29:10
are causing great damage in Tel Aviv and in Jerusalem. there were attacks in
29:15
Jerusalem too. So this is what's been unleashed and what will be the effect on
29:21
on Mr. Trump and on the um on the American military establishment on the
29:28
Pentagon and Hegseth. Uh I I don't know what they will do, but they dug in on this
29:35
a day or so ago. Um, Trump said, "Oh, uh, the Iranians want to speak to me."
29:44
…
“and I probably will talk to them.” Well, Ali Larijani, who is now um deputy, deputed
29:57
to be the uh one of the sort of temporary leaders, has said “we under no
30:02
circumstances are talking to the United States.” So, I don't think there's an
30:07
easy way out. I don't see that there is a a way that um um Trump can declare
30:15
victory and get out.
30:17
…
——
So, now, Iran has Trump’s fate in its hands. I am expecting that before this is all over, after Iran has used its older stockpile to eliminate the protective batteries around America’s three aircraft carriers there, Iran will sink those carriers and all the hundreds of aircrafts on them. But the great danger for the world would then be the possibility that Trump would then resort to at least attempting to nuclearly bomb Iran’s cities. At that point, both Russia and China would possibly nuke both America and Israel. But, presumably, Trump, Putin, and Xi, would first negotiate secretly, in order to find a settlement that would be acceptable to all three of them. I trust that whereas Xi and Putin represent their respective publics, Trump, at that time, will represent only himself (no longer only the billionaires who had funded him into the White House); so, Trump, as a pure psychopath, would be the big danger. Putin and Xi would therefore do all they can to provide to him a face-saving way out. As far as the populations throughout the Arab world (overwhelmingly Sunni and thus hating Shia) are concerned, they would probably revolt against their monarchs whom the U.S. regime has armed to the teeth against them, but there might be enough martyrs so that in some of those countries, the monarchs will be slaughtered or (like the hated Shah of Iran in 1979 ultimately did) fled to the U.S. And how much of the world’s populations then would continue to be fooled by the U.S. imperial regime that it represents “freedom and democracy” instead of the latest version of Hitler’s Germany? Quite possibly, Trump’s blunder in this instance will turn out to have been the U.S. empire’s culmination. It could go straight into World War Three, or else it could go, instead, into some sort of face-saving way out for Trump.
—————
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
