Posted on 01/17/2020 10:21:09 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
There is no more sacred room for military officers than 2E924 of the Pentagon, a windowless and secure vault where the Joint Chiefs of Staff meet regularly to wrestle with classified matters. Its more common name is the Tank. The Tank resembles a small corporate boardroom, with a gleaming golden oak table, leather swivel armchairs and other mid-century stylings. Inside its walls, flag officers observe a reverence and decorum for the wrenching decisions that have been made there.
Hanging prominently on one of the walls is The Peacemakers, a painting that depicts an 1865 Civil War strategy session with President Abraham Lincoln and his three service chiefs Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter. One hundred fifty-two years after Lincoln hatched plans to preserve the Union, President Trumps advisers staged an intervention inside the Tank to try to preserve the world order....
Trump organized his unorthodox worldview under the simplistic banner of America First, but Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn feared his proposals were rash, barely considered, and a danger to Americas superpower standing. They also felt that many of Trumps impulsive ideas stemmed from his lack of familiarity with U.S. history and, even, where countries were located. To have a useful discussion with him, the trio agreed, they had to create a basic knowledge, a shared language....
Youre all losers, Trump said. You dont know how to win anymore.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Nothing distresses the perfumed princes and princesses on the Potomac more than the raw truth, plainly spoken. Is there anyone outside the swamp who can describe our Afghanistan campaign as a success?
One wonders if there would be a divided Korea, Cold War, Viet Nam, Iraq/Iran and other bs if Mac had his way?
Just the Obozo appointees and the Pentagon bureaucrats who are collaborating with the defense contractors to extend wars for financial gain. Those bureaucrats are the true soldiers of fortune in this mess.
As for Trump, if he really called our military leaders dopes and babies, that was disgraceful, and he should apologize. If this dust-up in The Tank actually happened, he should immediately try to make up with these people. Believe me, if I were the President, I would have plenty of disagreements with these military and civilian elites about our alliances and agreements, but I would never, EVER treat them like sh*t.
Just another reason why Trump is merely the prettiest horse in the glue factory going into Nov. 2020. And Vindman’s still a Dumbocrat activist, so I’m not really worried as much about him, but I would still treat him with respect.
PING!
Was Bernie young enough for Vietnam? 26 in '67 or there abouts. Was that within the window? I don't know. I seem to recall Biden and Trump getting mild grief for similar medical deferments. My point is that calling W a draft dodger for flying jets in the Guard begs the question for everyone else.
Well, they sound like a bunch of women already, specifically, women who teach 3rd grade and speak in hushed tones with their eyebrows raised.
Mattis opened with a slide show punctuated by lots of dollar signs.
What a jack ass.
For the next 90 minutes, Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn took turns trying to emphasize their points, pointing to their charts and diagrams.
Yeah, that's great idea. Lecture the new president for an hour and a half on how he needs to let you continue to set the agenda for the ENDLESS STALEMATE that keeps you in those cushy jobs.
Mattis wasnt trying to convince the president of anything, only to explain and provide facts.
Oh, please. Trying to explain "you need to listen to us," because the facts are "you need to listen to us."
Dunford tried to come to Nicholsons defense, but the mild-mannered general--
Oh, great, we have "mild-mannered" generals. Guiding our military.
I want to win, he said. We dont win any wars anymore . . . We spend $7 trillion, everybody else got the oil and were not winning anymore.
Hundred percent correct. Clearly these generals don't want to "win," they want to keep the status quo that is steadily draining this country of money and blood. They LIKE it this way.
Oh, the language of this pot-boiler. "This most sacred place..." oh yes, the pictures on the wall and the "gleaming" wooden tables... this is a sacred place. Gotcha.
How does the commander in chief say that? one thought. What would our worst adversaries think if they knew he said this?
They'd think, "He's right, and you paper-shuffling, eye-averting, pansy-a** b****es are no better." Oh, the language. They were STUNNED, they were SPEECHLESS, they were FROZEN!
Others at the table noticed Trumps stream of venom had taken an emotional toll. So many people in that room had gone to war and risked their lives for their country, and now they were being dressed down by a president who had not. They felt sick to their stomachs. Tillerson told others he thought he saw a woman in the room silently crying.
My God, THIS is our military? This emotional bunch of prissy, hushed-voice scolds with their little power-point presentations on "why we are always right?"
We were starting to get out on the wrong path, and we really needed to have a course correction and needed to educate, to teach, to help him understand the reason and basis for a lot of these things, said one senior official involved in the planning. We needed to change how he thinks about this, to course correct.
Translation: We like things just the way they are. Bleeding money. Bleeding troops. Bleeding more money. Yeah, we like this.
Dunford tried to explain to the president once again, gently, that troops deployed in these regions provided stability there, which helped make America safer.
Gently, he explained that we are the world police, except we do it for free because we are stupid.
Another officer chimed in that charging other countries for U.S. soldiers would be against the law.
Uh... what law? Is that an "international law?" Do you know a four letter word that starts with the letter after E?
By then, however, Trump had become a president entirely unrestrained. He had replaced his raft of seasoned advisers with a cast of enablers who executed his orders and engaged his obsessions. They saw their mission as telling the president yes.
Good. One part of the swamp drained. Hope you're sad, Carol & Philip. Hope you're taking lots of anti-depressants and crying to your therapist about it.
Interestingly, the military brass questioning Trump’s military acumen had no problem submissively taking orders from a community organizer from Chicago. Recall how obama humiliated McChrystal without any complaint from the military brass now attacking POTUS.
Given the disrespect shown the military during obama’s 8 years I find the backseat driving of the Trump admin breathtaking. Frankly, I”ve never seen a bigger bunch of ingrates.
The military is like most big government operations, inefficient and political.
Says the un-elected bathroom attendants looking out for their own self interests.
I agree. Respect the POTUS and follow orders given or resign.
It was amazing how quickly Truman changed after ending the War in Japan. I am pretty sure he had an intervention too. There would be no Nuclear North Korea if he hadn't of wussed out.
Mattis opened with a slide show punctuated by lots of dollar signs.
What a jack ass.
Seems par for the course with Mattis. It was reported the anonymous author who sought to damage POTUS was Mattis’s speech writer. No denials were given when he was outed.
Given the disrespect shown to the Constitution in the Age of Trump by the military brass I won’t be worrying the next time a Democrat POTUS eviscerates the military budget. They’ve earned it.
EXACTLY!
Obama famously micromanaged everything from the White House. Left our boys to die in Libya because of that, etc. His NSC staff bloated to 400 people I read. Military leaders didn’t have a problem with that, obivously. But Trump, OTOH, he’s the idiot according to these Never Trumpers. Trump massively increased the military budget and delegated authority to them. And this backstabbing is the thanks he gets? Breathaking.
Amazing there are still Bush bots on this site after the proven two incompetents proved to be disasters as presidents - GHW voted for Hillary and his dimwit son refused to vote for president. You can have ‘em.
Oh boy. Another book.
“
The plan by Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn to train the president to appreciate the internationalist view had clearly backfired. “
It’s been 2 generations since WW2.
It’s long past time for a change in strategy.
I was thinking the same thing. He has his own jumbo jet and has been flying around the world for decades. There is so much projection in this article. Yeah a guy who went to the schools he did has a crappy understanding of American history. I hope they really do think he is stupid... Very clumsy propaganda, by someone who doesn’t understand this nation and it’s people. When I see articles that have this type of tone deafness in regards to cultural literacy it’s screams to me Chinese propagandists
DITO
Please stop putting @ssholes on a pedestal just because they wear a military uniform. This country has been run into the ground by that mentality.
Clumsy propaganda. Perfect description.
This is exactly the stuff they said about Reagan, remember? He was an idiot. After he was out of office it came out how knowledgeable he actually was.
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