Reality check: a sober take on the Iran War

[Brian D'Agostino]

Dear colleagues,

Most of what I have been hearing and reading in the mainstream US media about the war seems to consist of group fantasies about US power.  I want to leave aside psychological and psychohistorical considerations for a moment and just put on the table what I consider to be a sober and lucid analysis of the military situation.  This is presented in a 43 minute YouTube dialogue between independent Norwegian scholar Dr. Glenn Deisen and retired US Army Colonel Dr. Douglas Macgregor, an insider in Republican and Trump circles who nevertheless provides a remarkably candid analysis of the suicidal nature of Israel's and Trump's war against Iran. The video is entitled "A New World Emerges: Iran Will Win & Israel May Not Survive:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd_uJiRcl0Q  I won't say more at this point, except that I am confident that watching this will be a good use of your time.

Warm regards,

Brian

https://bdagostino.com/

[Michael Britton]

Thanks, Brian.  I worry about you tube videos being genuine, not AI fakes.  I was recently completely deceived by a Rachel Madow broadcast and a George Will extended statement, both on youtube, which both turned out to be AI fakes!  My stepson tells me youtube is rife with these 'deep fakes.'  But not everything on youtube can be a deep fake (a term I didn't even know existed before this).  All that said, thanks for the tip to check this out!

And it was great seeing and hearing you again, and again I admired your clarity of thinking in the meeting, your skill with crafting how to say things and what to do, and your attention to all points of view being represented.

Michael

--
<><><>
To post to this group send to: clios...@googlegroups.com
Clio's Psyche is sponsored by The Psychohistory Forum. For questions visit: cliospsyche.org
Digest is available on request and sends no more than 1 email a day.
Home: http://groups.google.com/group/cliospsyche
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clio’s Psyche" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cliospsyche...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cliospsyche/CAPm4jpkZjNdpn%3DkAs8ty0M457amE36VksmxetFb0QcMovML%2Bag%40mail.gmail.com.

[Brian D'Agostino]

Thank you, Michael.  Yes, we need to be mindful about fake videos on the internet.  In this case, however, I know both of the persons in the video that I am recommending (not personally, but I am familiar with their thinking) and the authenticity of the video rings true to me.  And in the very unlikely event that the video actually is fake, the content stands on its merits.  I have been using AI a lot these days to probe the internet for information.  I am amazed at how you can Google the most conceptually sophisticated questions about history, science, mathematics and most anything, and get a sophisticated AI-generated answer that is highly responsive to the question and in most cases seems to be valid and well-documented.  It is like having an omniscient intelligence at your fingertips.  That said, AI is still very much a work in progress and I think the US economy is in the midst of a massive AI bubble, but that is another discussion.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cliospsyche/CAOd-ijPXye5Q3PmVLhC4PO%3Dr9DhjiTx%2BCH1%3D0m2xzjiOgtZvJA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Michael Britton]

🙂🙂🙂

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cliospsyche/CAPm4jp%3DDravGpD%3DamKG%2BMd3QyN9g_H4adb_5z1kozjnKfGirzg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Brigitte DEMEURE]

Douglas Macgregor wikipedia's page : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Macgregor

This part is worth reading :

“Underclass” and slavery

In a 2013 radio appearance, Macgregor spoke of an “entitled” " underclass “ of people that were concentrated in ”large urban areas", and the threat he said they posed: "And when the food stamps stop, when the free services end, when the heating bills aren't paid and the heating doesn't come through in many of these large cities—Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles—this underclass that resides in these places, I think could become very violent."^[9]

In 2019, he argued that there were more mostly Irish “slaves” than African slaves in America in the late 1700s.^[42]

Immigration

A CNN report in 2020 said Macgregor had often used racist comments and had “demonized immigrants and refugees”. It quoted Macgregor as alleging that Mexican cartels were "driving millions of Mexicans with no education, no skills and the wrong culture into the United States". It noted that Macgregor had "repeatedly advocated instituting martial law at the Mexico–United States border and to 'shoot people' if necessary".^[43] Another CNN report said he had described Muslim migrants in Europe as “unwanted invaders”, arriving “with the goal of eventually turning Europe into an Islamic state”.^[9]

In 2019, on the Conservative Commandos radio show, Macgregor alleged that George Soros was financing the transportation of foreigners to the United States, purportedly to destroy American culture; he made similar claims about Soros on Lou Dobbs ' Fox show.^[24] In April 2021, on Frank Morano's radio show, Macgregor blamed the Democratic Party for non-European immigration purportedly to “outnumber the numbers of Americans of European ancestry”.^[44] Such comments by Macgregor were described by Maddow Blog, Media Matters for America, and Insider as a version of Great Replacement Theory.^{[45][46][47][48]}

Kosovo War

In 2014, Macgregor went on Russian state-owned RT and criticized U.S. intervention in the Kosovo War in the late 1990s.^[9] He described the results of US intervention in Kosovo as to "put, essentially, a Muslim drug mafia in charge of that country".^[5]

(...) 

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Macgregor appeared on three Fox News programs in February and early March to speak in support of Russia's actions. Three days after the war began, he said, "The battle in eastern Ukraine is really almost over,“ and predicted ”If [Ukraine] don't surrender in the next 24 hours, I suspect Russia will ultimately annihilate them." Macgregor said he believed Russia should be allowed to seize whatever parts of Ukraine it wanted. In his second appearance, he revised his prediction: "The first five days Russian forces I think frankly were too gentle. They've now corrected that. So, I would say another 10 days this should be completely over. ... I think the most heroic thing he could do right now is come to terms with reality. Neutralize Ukraine." After one of his appearances, Macgregor's comments were characterized by veteran Fox News Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin as “distorting” and " appeasement “ and that he was being an ”apologist" for Putin. After Griffin's remarks, Tucker Carlson —who hosted Macgregor on two successive nights—remarked, "Unlike many of the so-called reporters you see on television, he is not acting secretly as a flack for Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon. No, Doug Macgregor is an honest man." Trey Gowdy, another Fox News host who interviewed Macgregor, said his viewpoint was “stunning and disappointing”.^{[7][57][58][59][8][60]}

Russian state television channels RT and VGTRK broadcast excerpts of Macgregor's second Carlson appearance, which included a characterization of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a "puppet,“ that Russian forces had been ”too gentle" in the early days of the invasion and that Russian president Vladimir Putin was being “demonized” by the United States and NATO.^[7][61] His opinions on Russia and Ukraine have caused controversy, with some including Liz Cheney describing Macgregor as being a member of the " Putin wing of the GOP."^{[62][63][64][65][66]}

In a fourth appearance in early March, Macgregor said a ceasefire was close as Ukrainian forces had been "grounded to bits. There's no question about that despite what we report on our mainstream media".^[7] He also defended Russia's invasion in an interview on The Grayzone, saying Putin had taken great care with civilians and this was delaying his victory.^[67]

In July 2022, on Real America's Voice he told Charlie Kirk that: "The war, with the exception of Kharkiv and Odesa, as far as the Russians are concerned is largely over. There is no intention to do anything else because the Russians don't have a very large army. ... This nonsense that Putin wants to conquer all of Ukraine was never true. All he ever did in the Minsk agreement was ask that Russian speakers, Russian citizens inside Ukraine be treated equally before the law. That they not be penalized for being Russians."^[68]

In September 2022, he again predicted on Carlson's show that “this war may be over soon”^[69] and later in the month "the Ukrainian army is bled white, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded, Ukraine is really on the ropes". Liz Cheney tweeted in response: " Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch – Why do you continually put Douglas MacGregor on @FoxNews to spread Putin's propaganda and lies? This is absolutely not in America's interest."^{[70][additional citation(s) needed]}

“Cosmopolitans” trope

In an October 2021 speech to the Serbian American Voters Alliance, Macgregor blamed America's problems on what "the Russians used to call certain individuals many, many years ago, rootless cosmopolitans". Commentators noted that " rootless cosmopolitans " (Russian: Безродные Космополиты) was a Soviet antisemitic trope.^{[71][72][73][74]}

Women in combat

Macgregor opposes diversity and affirmative action programs in the military.^[75] In a 2021 interview, while serving on the West Point board, he said: "What we call diversity—in the extreme. In other words, affirmative action programs for every conceivable category of humanity that the left wants to come up with. Whether it's someone who is a gender neutral or homosexual or whatever else, the left loves to put us into categories and push this. And the people that went along with it and said, 'sure, let's put women into the combat forces. Let's have women everywhere.' Let's do whatever we want to do. We're going to create this brave new world where everyone is the same. There are no differences, nothing matters. So I think that's where we are."^[44]

envoyé : 3 mars 2026 à 14:00
de : Brian D'Agostino <bdagost...@gmail.com>
à : clios...@googlegroups.com
objet : Re: [cliospsyche] Reality check: a sober take on the Iran War

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cliospsyche/CAPm4jp%3DDravGpD%3DamKG%2BMd3QyN9g_H4adb_5z1kozjnKfGirzg%40mail.gmail.com.