"All Fall Down"

Over the weekend I finished reading Gary Sick's All Fall Down (1985), the insider account (Sick was a Zbigniew Brzezinski underling on Jimmy Carter's National Security Council) of the Iranian Revolution. It's a book one could always find in the dollar bin back when used bookstores were common. I decided to read it now because the Iranian Revolution is a key event at the beginning of the neoliberal age, and that age is under enormous strain as it appears to be fixing to die (that, and the Trump administration seems hellbent on destroying the Iranian Revolution). I chose Sick's book because it has been around so long and so widely available I thought it might represent sort of a basic American understanding of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

One of the book's big takeaways is just how much coordination and information processing governmental decision making requires. Carter was an able chief executive who could speed read, worked incredibly long hours, but he had no trouble delegating and making quick decisions.

If Kim Darroch is right, and the Trump White House is totally inept, then things should be starting to fall apart by now.

And I think that the burgeoning Japan-South Korea trade war is evidence of that.

Bolton is Trump's Brzezinski; Pompeo, his Cyrus Vance; both spend all their time ginning up conflict. Managing relationships with allies is not on their radar, unless that ally is Saudi Arabia or Israel.