Ex-CIA Agent: US ‘Lashing Out’ Like Flailing ‘Drowning Man’ in Sowing Middle East Chaos
© AFP 2023 / JACK GUEZ
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The US is growing increasingly desperate, flailing around like a “drowning man in the ocean” and creating chaos around the globe, a former CIA agent and US State Department official told Sputnik. That creates an opening in which Russia and China can become peacemakers in such conflicts, including in the Middle East.
In comments during a government meeting on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the US thrives on “constant chaos,” which it has stirred up in the Middle East, most recently in supporting Israel’s war in Gaza, but also with its support for the far-right nationalist government in Ukraine.
“They don’t need lasting peace in the Holy Land, they need constant chaos in the Middle East, so they do their best to discredit those countries that insist on an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, on stopping the bloodshed, and are ready to contribute to resolving the crisis. Even the UN, which clearly expressed position of the world community, is subject to attacks, real persecution, and attempts to discredit it," Putin said.
He also connected both conflicts to the incident at Makhachkala airport in Russia’s Republic of Dagestan on Sunday, in which hundreds of rioters stormed the facility in an attempt to attack a plane of Israeli Jews. Police have detained 83 people in connection with the attack, which they have connected to Telegram channels linked to Ukraine.
30 October 2023, 18:32 GMT
Larry Johnson, a retired CIA intelligence officer and US State Department official, told Sputnik that Putin had “correctly framed the issue as one of growing desperation on the part of the United States to try to stir up trouble in as many places around the world as possible.”
“It’s sort of like the drowning man in the ocean who’s frantically, without a life jacket, trying to grab ahold of something - anything - to stay afloat,’ Johnson said. “And in this kind of desperation there is lashing out, creating dangers for others.”
Johnson said Putin was “exactly correct in noting the need to ensure that nobody in the Russian Federation is attacked because of their religion or their ethnic background, that all will be treated equally.”
“He also, by underscoring the need to peacefully end what’s going on in Gaza, the Israeli offensive, underscores that both Russia and China may be in a unique position to try to help bring peace to that conflict,” Johnson noted. “But at the same time, I think he is cognizant that with the massive military buildup of US naval forces in the Mediterranean, that this represents a potential serious threat to Russian interests in Syria as well as to Russia’s relationship with Iran. So unfortunately we are living in a very dangerous time and it’s my hope that cooler heads will prevail.”
On October 7, militants from Gaza broke through the Israeli border fence and attacked nearby Israeli settlements, killing more than 1,400 Israelis. In response, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) declared a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, cutting it off from the rest of the world and launching a bombing campaign that has killed more than 8,000 people. Last week, the IDF severed Gaza’s internet connection ahead of ground operations, for which it has amassed more than 300,000 troops.
