Posted on 12/22/2018 5:10:53 AM PST by reaganaut1
...
The more lasting damage will derive from the shoddy, humiliating way Mr. Trump treated the secretary and his generals on such a core military issue as deployments in Syria. Jim Mattis is not some neoconservative bent on staying in Syria for years. He is less hawkish on Syria and Iran than national security adviser John Bolton or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Yet in deciding to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, Mr. Trump acted on his own impulses with little more than cursory consultation with his military advisers. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has let it be known he wasn’t consulted at all. A month ago Gen. Dunford told Congress that Islamic State wasn’t defeated, but on Thursday Mr. Trump declared victory.
It’s one thing to advise a President and be overruled. But it undercuts the Pentagon’s authority to learn after the fact that the Commander in Chief has acted without so much as fare thee well. As Gen. Dunford’s immediate supervisor in the chain of command, Mr. Mattis must have been embarrassed as well.
This is about more than two egos, though both the general and Mr. Mattis are modest men. This is about the message Mr. Trump is sending to the men and women under their command. He is telling soldiers that he will act on uninformed impulse, after a phone conversation from a Turkish dictator, without deliberation or due respect. Mr. Trump should know that tens of thousands of his “deplorables” are in uniform or are veterans. He has stuck a finger in their eye.
Then there is the disdain his Syrian withdrawal shows for allies, especially the Kurds and Arabs in the Syrian Democratic Forces. These have been our ground forces in clearing out the Islamic State caliphate.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Them’s some good apples! :-D
The concern is that Syria and Russia will handle them with gas. We are their to “referee” the disparate players...bahhh let them kill each other. Besides we’re still in Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, ect.
If they blow each other away then they can all celebrate being in Allahs heaven and we’ll be rid of them....Besides any who wanted to be ‘free’ are living now in Europe etc. And they won’t be going back any time soon. Those that still want to be in the clutches of Islam .well they had their chance.
Trump just lost the support of the military. If he ever had it.
Not saying that they wanted hillary, but they have expectations of being heard.
Wouldn’t you like to take that to them? Buford Pusser style!
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