It has become received wisdom among the blathering classes that George W. Bush and his administration is hopelessly incompetent. The idiot in chief who careened out of the jaws of victory into the quagmire of defeat. He has played the guileless fool (Parzival) quite famously. But, like the Hitler before him, was this a part played to hi-jack the Great Game from the big boys, to pull the rug of their Master Plan right from beneath them, much to their chagrin? It is a thesis worth entertaining.

I found considerable support for this thesis in the testimony of Zbigniew Brzezinski, long an arch-eyed champion of the American stratagem in the Great Game, before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week (2/1/07). When Zbig talks, pay close attention.

"If the United States continues to be bogged down in a protracted bloody involvement in Iraq, the final destination on this downhill track is likely to be a head-on conflict with Iran and with much of the world of Islam at large. A plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran involves Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks; followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure; then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist attack in the U.S. blamed on Iran, culminating in a "defensive" U.S. military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan."

Surely he fathomed, in suggesting that a terrorist attack in the U.S. would be "blamed on" - not necessarily having been executed by - a foreign enemy (indeed emphasizing this by saying "quote unquote" out loud to challenge any "defensive" U.S. military action in response to such "provocation"), that this would raise eyebrows amongst, if not the blathering classes, then certainly the chattering classes. Take this subsequent exchange with reporter Barry Grey of the World Socialist:

Q: Dr. Brzezinski, who do you think would be carrying out this possible provocation?

A: I have no idea. As I said, these things can never be predicted. It can be spontaneous.

Q: Are you suggesting there is a possibility it could originate within the US government itself?

A: I’m saying the whole situation can get out of hand and all sorts of calculations can produce a circumstance that would be very difficult to trace.

Will Zbig be the next confessor on the Alex Jones show? Doubtful, but it's not out of the cards. I sense exasperation on his part. He said to the senators: “I am perplexed by the fact that major strategic decisions seem to be made within a very narrow circle of individuals—just a few, probably a handful, perhaps not more than the fingers on my hand. And these are the individuals, all of whom but one, who made the original decision to go to war, and used the original justifications to go to war.” Is his concern with the number of individuals, or with the fact that the individuals in question do not gravitate within his familiar circles of strategic philosophy (Trilateral Commission, Council of Foreign Relations). That is to say, United States foreign policy has effectively been hi-jacked from the policy establishment that he helped shape over the past half-century. And, he is rather miffed to be out of the loop...

"I think our policy has unintentionally -I hope unintentionally, maybe it was devilishly clever!- but I think unintentionally helped Ahmadenijad consolidate himself in power..."

Devilishly clever! In which case he would jealously admire it.

As would I, if from a distance.