EP:52 - Neocons Lose Another War

The neoconservative foreign policy establishment is losing its grip on Washington. In this episode of Provoked, Darryl Cooper and Scott Horton track three simultaneous developments that signal a potential shift in U.S. Middle East policy: a leaked CIA assessment warning that Israel will sabotage any Iran deal, a binding War Powers Resolution passed by the Senate, and direct military-to-military communication between CENTCOM and Iran’s IRGC. The hosts read these as signs that the consensus is cracking—not just within the Trump administration, but deeper in the intelligence and military bureaucracies.

The CIA Leak and the War Powers Vote

The Washington Post published a story citing a U.S. intelligence estimate that Israel is likely to undermine any prospective peace deal with Iran. Cooper and Horton treat this not as a neutral leak but as a deliberate signal from the intelligence community. “The story is not the story,” Cooper says. The real story is that the CIA wanted this out there, likely to put the Israelis on notice and to shape the political space for a withdrawal.