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Thanks for the ping. Great interview. A couple of minor compaints: Codevilla is speaking of the second and third Iraq Wars, not the first and second. The real first one was inextricably linked with world intelligence sources through the offices of one GHW Bush, former director of the CIA. It set up Saddam Hussein as the bad guy because (1) he really was (cf Halabja), and an idiot as well, for (2) crossing the oil interests of multiple Arab states including both Sunni and Shi'ite, cementing a very strange and powerful alliance against him. It is that, and not any dabbling in WMD, for which he was finally nailed by Bush II. The WMD controversy was nearly silent until it became a political weapon against Bush himself a little later.

The American intelligence business has been heavily blue-blooded from its very inception and especially so since the OSS days. It did not create a quasi elite ruling class, rather it is the product of one that started with power and has amassed a truly frightening level of it since.

If the behavior of what we have come to call Deep State with regard to the attempt to unseat Trump does result in a few bodies behind bars it will be because it revealed this cozy arrangement and in doing so threatens it. If the likes of Comey, Brennan, and Clapper go down it won't be because of the wrath of We The People, it will be because they blew the cover of their own machine. To come out into the light in the intelligence business is to squander power no matter who you're working for.

Lots more to chew over in this extensive piece. Thanks again for the ping!