Chas Freeman is an interesting guy. Made man in the deep state, as i mentioned, but sharp as a razor, polyglot, very clear sighted and always worth reading. You may not agree with his motives and agendas, but i think one needs to read him.
This link might go in many places, like the "Must read" thread, but it is a fascinating look at the inner workings of Empire. This guy was there at pivotal moments, for example, quite early in his career the guy was interpreter in Nixon's china meetings ...
"I should say that there is a family tradition, on my mother’s side, going back at least to the time of my great grandfather, which would be the late nineteenth century, of conversation twice a week at the dinner table in a foreign language. "
" It essentially became difficult, if not impossible, for Foreign Service officers dealing with the Arab world, or with the Middle East generally, to take anything other than a stance that was assertively loyal to causes espoused by the Israelis ... an atmosphere of intimidation, worthy of the McCarthy era, in many respects, imposed on Arabists."
" ... the Arab specialists there were operating under extraordinary political constraints, really worthy, in many ways, of those that apply in totalitarian countries. They could not speak, even privately to friends, an ill word of Israeli actions, let alone Israeli policy, without fear of consequences to their career. "
"I personally collected $16.9 billion from King Fahd, including $3.2 billion that he had never agreed to…."
"When I left Saudi Arabia, in my farewell call on the finance minister, I treasured his remark when he asked me what I was going to do when I left. I said that I thought I had done enough government service, and I planned to go to the private sector. He said, “Well, I don’t know what you’re going to do, but if you ever need a letter of recommendation, say, for example, you decide to become a mafia bill collector, I will provide the letter,” which, unfortunately, I never did get from him, but I would have treasured such a letter.
So I found myself in the odd position of arguing with Washington that Saudi Arabia was strapped, and arguing with the Saudis that they could and should pay more. And I was more successful, I think, with Saudi Arabia than I was with Washington…. "
" there are several foreign services of which I know that are very self-consciously professional, some of them very effectively so, some of them less so. I think of the French foreign service, which is quite self-consciously professional; of the German foreign service; of the Brazilian foreign service; of the Ghanaian foreign service; of the foreign service of Singapore, which I think is probably, pound for pound, by far the most effective in the world. "
https://adst.org/oral-history/fascinating-figures/chas-freeman-the-u-s-values-amateurism-over-professionalism-in-diplomacy/I end with one of my favorite quotes from C. S. Lewis:
"The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices."
Chas Freeman is one such. But read him nonetheless.
sidd