This may be one of your best yet. Good to see the Mahan doctrine get exposed here. The Boxer Rebellion is an excellent place to show how Mahan had its limits. It didn't take long after TR's Great White Fleet hit a few snags. It reminds me of the 1975 Movie, loosely attributed to a true story from 1904. The movie was "The Wind and The Lion"
I think the ending dialogue sums up what you have described of the players in this "Great Game"
"To Theodore Roosevelt - You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you, like the wind, will never know yours. - Mulay Ahmed Mohammed El Raisuli the magnificent, Lord of the Rif, Sultan to the Berbers."
This is going to go full retard ground war stupid.
The Banksters want any new tech the Iranians may have GONE.
And they won’t think twice about sending our boys ashore to find it.
This is going to leave a nasty mark on the American psyche and turn the entire world into terrorists (or just ordinary people) who will want to kill us all.
Oh, and this will drag on for years and years and years in a near vacuum of good solid information. .... You know, wartime National Security DoW blanket censorship.
The problem with your linked article is that the author has the temperament of a spoiled brat. When anyone suggests that his motives may be skewed by his idiology…or for any other reason… he bans them, crushing dialog. He sounds like a Zionist. Ive read many of his pieces over the years and most have the same vibe.
I assume that those really calling the shots are intelligent and well-informed, as no matter how stupid something may seem it always works out to their advantage. Many talked about how the gov action and inaction that lead to the 2008 Meltdown were stupid, but gov and Big Money made out like bandits while we suffered. Many have talked about how stupid the response to Covid was, yet Gov and Big Money made out like bandits while we suffered. Largest wealth transfers in human history.
So how does this war work out in their favor? Is it yet another of Orwell's predictions coming true, 3 global superpowers in a permanent state of war in order to create domestic stability? Perhaps it's a massive chevauchee, with those behind Trump realizing we won't be able to hold Europe as our satrapies another decade or 2, so we are going scorched earth on their economies by gimping their supply of energy while ours remains strong.
Many of the predictions of what is to come economically remind me of the situation at the end of WW2, where the US was the only major industrial power and so could force through the Bretton Woods Agreement. When the globe is suffering and the US is untouched (in comparison), will we be magnanimously proposing another Marshal Plan/ Bretton Woods 2.0?
One thing that should go without saying is that domestic turmoil will be taken advantage of, with the usual suspects "buying when blood runs in the streets."
Around February 28th I began to get really nervous. I started to feel the same way I did during Covid in March of 2020. At that time I knew there was something that I could not put my finger on, but whatever it was it was dark. Took a couple of years to shake that feeling.
Back to Feb 2026. I have come to realize with all these potential tangible catastrophes (fertilizer, oil, sulfur, and even war) there was something bothering me above all else. It’s the intangibles, in this case it’s Trump’s political capital taking a hit. Turns out it’s not just his but ours as well.
Turns out Matt’s article outlines how we kept countries in check for centuries. That’s going away and maybe it should. It’s going to be tough but in the end it will harden us. I have to try and find something positive.
It also means these mother fuckers are going to lose!! This is the darkness I sensed in 2020. This is the real enemy!
Professor Alfred McCoy explains the origins of the science of geopolitics and prophesied this current shitshow in an interview with the amazing Scott Horton back in 2015.
Great article as usual and thanks I caught you on infowars and love that movie but couldn’t remember the name since the last time I watched it was before info on what was on tv and I still would just have an antenna if my son didn’t buy me something to watch
The Fourth Turning is approaching a climax. It's going to be epic.
This may be one of your best yet. Good to see the Mahan doctrine get exposed here. The Boxer Rebellion is an excellent place to show how Mahan had its limits. It didn't take long after TR's Great White Fleet hit a few snags. It reminds me of the 1975 Movie, loosely attributed to a true story from 1904. The movie was "The Wind and The Lion"
I think the ending dialogue sums up what you have described of the players in this "Great Game"
"To Theodore Roosevelt - You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you, like the wind, will never know yours. - Mulay Ahmed Mohammed El Raisuli the magnificent, Lord of the Rif, Sultan to the Berbers."
Great piece, Matt.
My semi-educated opinion;
This is going to go full retard ground war stupid.
The Banksters want any new tech the Iranians may have GONE.
And they won’t think twice about sending our boys ashore to find it.
This is going to leave a nasty mark on the American psyche and turn the entire world into terrorists (or just ordinary people) who will want to kill us all.
Oh, and this will drag on for years and years and years in a near vacuum of good solid information. .... You know, wartime National Security DoW blanket censorship.
Sorry about all the bad news in one post.
~ SE
"sending our boys ashore"
Our boys, never theirs.
Mr. Bracken thank you for this writing. Yesterday I came across the following article that is different from everything else I have seen on the subject. Have you seen it and do you have any thoughts to share? In any case, thank you again https://korybko.substack.com/p/irans-petroyuan-tollbooth-inadvertently?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
The problem with your linked article is that the author has the temperament of a spoiled brat. When anyone suggests that his motives may be skewed by his idiology…or for any other reason… he bans them, crushing dialog. He sounds like a Zionist. Ive read many of his pieces over the years and most have the same vibe.
You keep calling these “regional conflicts.”
But in a globalized system, there is no such thing as a local war anymore.
The Russia-Ukraine War didn’t just move borders.
It moved:
global energy prices
food security
supply chain stability
migration flows
That’s not spillover.
That’s system exposure.
Here’s the contrarian truth:
The problem isn’t that conflicts spread. It’s that the system is designed to transmit shock instantly.
We built a world optimized for efficiency:
just-in-time supply chains
concentrated energy routes
tightly coupled economies
And then we acted surprised when disruption travels faster than control.
So the real question is:
Are you trying to contain conflicts or redesign a system where conflicts don’t trigger global instability by default?
Because in today’s world,
a war doesn’t need to expand geographically to become global in impact.
I assume that those really calling the shots are intelligent and well-informed, as no matter how stupid something may seem it always works out to their advantage. Many talked about how the gov action and inaction that lead to the 2008 Meltdown were stupid, but gov and Big Money made out like bandits while we suffered. Many have talked about how stupid the response to Covid was, yet Gov and Big Money made out like bandits while we suffered. Largest wealth transfers in human history.
So how does this war work out in their favor? Is it yet another of Orwell's predictions coming true, 3 global superpowers in a permanent state of war in order to create domestic stability? Perhaps it's a massive chevauchee, with those behind Trump realizing we won't be able to hold Europe as our satrapies another decade or 2, so we are going scorched earth on their economies by gimping their supply of energy while ours remains strong.
Many of the predictions of what is to come economically remind me of the situation at the end of WW2, where the US was the only major industrial power and so could force through the Bretton Woods Agreement. When the globe is suffering and the US is untouched (in comparison), will we be magnanimously proposing another Marshal Plan/ Bretton Woods 2.0?
One thing that should go without saying is that domestic turmoil will be taken advantage of, with the usual suspects "buying when blood runs in the streets."
Around February 28th I began to get really nervous. I started to feel the same way I did during Covid in March of 2020. At that time I knew there was something that I could not put my finger on, but whatever it was it was dark. Took a couple of years to shake that feeling.
Back to Feb 2026. I have come to realize with all these potential tangible catastrophes (fertilizer, oil, sulfur, and even war) there was something bothering me above all else. It’s the intangibles, in this case it’s Trump’s political capital taking a hit. Turns out it’s not just his but ours as well.
Turns out Matt’s article outlines how we kept countries in check for centuries. That’s going away and maybe it should. It’s going to be tough but in the end it will harden us. I have to try and find something positive.
It also means these mother fuckers are going to lose!! This is the darkness I sensed in 2020. This is the real enemy!
https://gaiusbaltar.substack.com/p/the-epstein-civilization-and-the?r=nvvvu&utm_medium=ios
Your best yet.
Professor Alfred McCoy explains the origins of the science of geopolitics and prophesied this current shitshow in an interview with the amazing Scott Horton back in 2015.
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/6915-alfred-mccoy/
Great article as usual and thanks I caught you on infowars and love that movie but couldn’t remember the name since the last time I watched it was before info on what was on tv and I still would just have an antenna if my son didn’t buy me something to watch