Posted on 10/04/2017 6:10:55 PM PDT by grayhog
Op Ed from West Va Sec. Of State, retired Army LTC, West Point Grad
Chaos Theory and Leadership By Mac Warner, West Virginia Secretary of State
A butterfly flaps its wings in New Mexico causing a hurricane in China – so goes “the butterfly effect.” It’s a dramatic example of chaos theory wherein our world goes nonlinear. Sometimes the results are good, sometimes the results are bad.
We are now in the midst of a national chaos moment, and where it stops one can only guess; but indications are, it won’t be good. Colin Kaepernick takes a knee in San Francisco causing a Hurricane Harvey in the National Football League (NFL).
The sad thing is, this one was preventable. The antidote: leadership.
During my Army career, I witnessed two of the most catastrophic butterfly effects the world has known. The first was in 1979 when 52 U.S. diplomats in Tehran were held hostage for 444 days. Then-President Jimmy Carter did not recognize the volatility of the situation, and spent months hand-wringing before authorizing an ill-fated rescue attempt. Ayatollah Khomeini sensed Carter’s paralysis, and exploited the President’s weakness to humiliate the greatest country and military force on the face of the earth. President Ronald Reagan, with a reputation for restoring American greatness, resolved the crisis within hours of taking office. Everyone knew the military option was on the table; Iran released the hostages on Inauguration Day, 1981. ... The connection in all this to a flap over taking a knee in the NFL? Vision and leadership. Chaos theory from student antics in 1979 led to terrorists emboldened around the world, releasing an evil genie that now cannot be put back in its bottle. Had Carter taken quick, decisive action, the Islamic Revolution would have probably never... ...
(Excerpt) Read more at mailchi.mp ...
Very good read
“Sometimes when I try to understand a person’s motives, I play a little game. I assume the worst. What’s the worst reason they could possibly have for saying what they say and doing what they do. Then I ask myself: how well does that reason explain what they say and what they do?”
It started before the students took over the embassy. It started when Carter undercut the Shah and let the mullahs take over. Modern Islamic radicalism really got rolling big from that point.
what these kneegros fail to understand is when you goto war, you need a definitive goal and a tangible metric to prove you've met that goal and won the fight unfortunately these geniuses have neither and now their silly little tantrums only outcome will be the destruction of the nfl
die nfl die.
Yes. I just finished the research for my biography of Ronald Reagan (due out next year) on the 1980 campaign. What stood out to me was how incredibly consistent the CIA was in being WRONG.
They were wrong about the USSR’s economic power; they were wrong about the Sandinistas in Nicaragua; they were wrong about Cubans in Grenada; they were wrong about the “students” working for the Ayatollah and about undercutting the Shah; they were wrong about the Mayaguez, then about where the crew was during the rescue.
In short, I cannot find one major issue in the 1970s where the CIA was correct in its general assessment of the situation or in its recommendations for action (or inaction).
That all sounds about right.
They were probably wrong on all sorts of assessments about Vietnam in the 1960s.
Very good!
Alfred Pennyworth: “Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
These words may be from a movie, but it makes them no less true and I am surpised how many don’t believe that there are such people in the world.
You presume that being right was their goal...
What is most interesting about this is not what _they_ are doing, it is what _we_ are doing.
The boycott is not about Trump and it is not led by Trump.
It is a leaderless citizen boycott.
Those are impossible for anyone to control.
It is a true wildfire.
The NFL still doesn’t know what hit them—they won’t figure it out until long after the damage has been done.
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