Posted on 02/24/2016 2:01:38 PM PST by MeanWestTexan
Donald Trump, the undoubted Republican front-runner after winning the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, is — there is no way to sugarcoat this — a liar, an ignoramus, and a moral abomination. I have never previously described any presidential candidates in such harsh terms — not even close — but there is no other way to accurately describe him. There simply isn't. This past week, the week culminating in his big South Carolina win, provided yet more evidence, as if any were needed, of the validity of all these words to describe him.
Start with the lying. Trump has consistently claimed that he was the "only" Republican candidate who opposed the Iraq War from the start. Until recently, commentators could do no more than note there was no evidence of his opposition. Now we can go further because, thanks to the ground-breaking work of BuzzFeed reporter Andrew Kaczyinski, we know that Trump actually supported the invasion.
On September 11, 2002, Trump told Howard Stern "yeah I guess so" when asked if he supported an invasion of Iraq. Why his hesitation? Only because he thought it should have happened sooner. As he said: "I wish the first time it was done correctly," suggesting, as he had previously written, that George H.W. Bush should have toppled Saddam in 1991.
After the invasion started, on March 21, 2003, Trump called it a "tremendous success from a military standpoint." He did not come out in bull-blown opposition until April, 2004, calling it a "terrible mistake," by which time the Abu Ghraib excesses had been revealed and the U.S. was suffering battlefield reverses in Fallujah and elsewhere.
Asked now to explain his quotations from 2002-2003, Trump can only say: "I really don’t even know what I mean." That's a pretty weak way to explain away a blatant lie, and one that has been at the core of his claim to possess the kind of foreign policy judgment we need in a president.
It should be added that this is hardly only lie that Trump has brazenly peddled. Other doozies include his claim that "thousands" of Muslims in New Jersey cheered 9/11 and that he had no idea that a reporter whose disability he ridiculed was actually disabled — he claimed to have no memory of meeting him (which he had done many times). Ironically Trump’s greatest lie of all is his claim to have "the world’s greatest memory."
But wait, as they say on late-night TV, there is more. Trump's ignorance was revealed yet again this past week with his bizarre praise of General John J. Pershing whose supposed example he cited as a model in the war on terror. Here is what Trump said:
"General Pershing was a rough guy, He caught 50 terrorists who did tremendous damage…and he took the 50 terrorists and he took 50 men and dipped 50 bullets in pig’s blood. You heard about that? He took 50 bullets and dipped them in pig's blood [which is considered haram]. And he has his men load up their rifles and he lined up the 50 people and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said, you go back to your people and you tell them what happened. And for 25 years there wasn't a problem. We've got to start getting tough and we’ve got to start being vigilant and we've got to start using our heads or we’re not gonna have a country, folks."
There’s only one problem with Trump's inspirational tale: There is no evidence it ever happened. Snopes.com describes this as a common urban legend. It is actually far removed from the way that Captain Pershing dealt with the Moros, the Muslims in the Philippines, in the early years of the 20th century. As I wrote in my book The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power, "Captain Pershing preferred to win over the Moros with outstretched hand rather than mailed fist. So successful was his campaign that he was made a datto, or chieftain."
In other words, Pershing's approach was the very opposite of what Trump claimed. Although Pershing was not afraid to use force if necessary, he understood that the Moros could not simply be terrorized into acquiescence to American rule and that excessive brutality could backfire.
It is offensive that Trump is praising Pershing for war crimes he didn't commit and simply gobsmacking that Trump thinks that Pershing could have ended the Moro insurrection for 25 years simply by executing 49 prisoners. In fact, while Pershing did help to quell the Moro uprising using a balanced counterinsurgency approach, it never truly ended; the Muslim insurrection in the Philippines continues to this day, a fact of which Trump is undoubtedly unaware.
The larger point is that Trump is wrong to claim that we can defeat ISIS and al-Qaeda by emulating their tactics. The more likely outcome is to create more enemies than we eliminate. Even the Nazis couldn’t pacify the Balkans in World War II by using scorched-earth tactics.
It is hard to think of another major party presidential candidate in our history as ignorant, mendacious, and offensive as Trump. And yet a significant share of the GOP electorate, amounting to roughly a third of early state voters, has been supporting him in no small part because they think he is telling it "like it is." No, he isn't. What he is saying bears no relation to basic truth or common decency.
If Das Boot thinks Trump is dishonest, wait until he get a load of what the Canadian has been spewing.
“The larger point is that Trump is wrong to claim that we can defeat ISIS and al-Qaeda by emulating their tactics. The more likely outcome is to create more enemies than we eliminate.”
No Max. The larger point is Odumbo has been appeasing them for seven years and look what we have. Time to go Patton on them.
At least she would not pretend to be a Republican.
You got it. The FACT is that, “Thank you sir,
may I have another?” has worn out its welcome.
If you keep voting for what you’ve been voting
for, you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting.
I don’t think Max Boot is a Cruz fan, actually.
************
Member of The Council on Foreign Relations and an advisor to Marco Rubio.
http://www.cfr.org/experts/national-security-warfare-terrorism/max-boot/b5641
I’ve listened to Trump on his Stern appearances too many times over the years to have illusions about the man. But what I have heard convinces me that he’s got a far better chance of finally getting a manned border fence constructed than any other candidate. Trump has shown the ability to set the agenda and drive the MSM conversation on topics that the weak-sister GOP will not touch. The last GOP president who could do that was Reagan. Trump is not Reagan, but if he can drive the conservative agenda forward, he’ll have done more for the nation than any president since Reagan.
Max’ first mistake was to think anyone gives a sh!t about his opinion.
That “pretend Republican” is further to the right than Cruz on immigration, trade, and taxes.
That “pretend” dog don’t hunt.
Then why isn’t he in prison?
Is that all you got? Her history of sleaze, lies, deaths, and corruption weigh as for nothing? I suppose you could say, “Vote Hillary. You know what you’re getting.”
Sorry, I’ll take door number two.
This is tiresome. Max wrote a few books. Trump has a world wide organization that contributes substantially. Max calling Trump an ignoramus is really taking inflated self importance to new levels.
Doesn’t matter to those who think he is the next coming. They have sacrificed their reason for a guy whose entire history is replete with progressivism. They wouldn’t see it if it was a freight train approaching them. And it is.
Well...at least she is covering half of them this time.
It’s called terminal convulsions...
Donald J. Trump is the very epitome of the anti-social-justice-warrior, and he’s galvanized an entire nation of the like minded who have been desperately waiting for years for a leader who could lead them from the desert of political correctness.
Only a few weeks ago, Trump singularly upset the whole election apple cart! That’s what he’s done!
Trump set the national agenda by opposing illegal immigration and bringing up other issues that the GOPe and their allies desperately wanted to avoid, and now they can’t. No one would even be talking about illegal immigration today if Trump hadn’t forced the issue.
The GOPe was not prepared for this, and as a consequence they don’t have a clue about what to do, hence their almost universal collapse into a pile of quivering jello, flip-flopping like a bag of Mexican jumping beans dumped on a hot griddle. That’s what Trump has done.
Trump has exposed those who pretend to be conservative but are really just fronts for big money establishment campaign donors who purchase their candidates with campaign “donations”. That’s what Trump has done.
Trump, by actually being a real man, has exposed the other candidates and their allies for the weak little sniveling sellouts that they really are.
Trump’s vociferous truth-telling and fearless neutering of the kommie media have been the catalyst that triggered a massive revolt amongst conservative voters who are infuriated at the GOPe Congress doing absolutely ZERO to stop Obama’s agenda, and suddenly the GOP RINO leadership is in full blown panic mode and in full blown retreat, and the SMALL conservative House contingent smelt blood in the water, took heart, and charged in against a weakened, frightened and paralyzed GOPe leadership, and Boehner was taken out as a sacrificial lamb. That’s what Trump has done.
Without Trump taking on the enemedia and beating them, the first time this has been done since Reagan, Cruz and the rest would be quivering before their concerted assaults and spending all of their time apologizing for having accidentally strayed into the shallows of political correctness and saying something Black Lives Matter or the Southern Poverty Law Center hate groups hated with consequent massive amplification by the enemedia as they pounded their PC drums against the GOP. That’s what Trump has done.
Trump is absolutely correct when he says that without Trump in the race, everything would be same-ol’, same-ol. The Joyful Tippy-Toes Turtle would be creeping closer to the finish line, Boehner would still be safely ensconced as Speaker, and there would be no mention of illegal immigration are any of the issues surrounding it by any politician in either party, other than possibly how critical it would be to pass immigration “reform”. That’s what Trump has done.
After only four state primary elections, Trump has already taken out all but one GOP RINO candidate. That’s what Trump has done.
Trump has used the enemedia against itself, exposed FNC for being Rupert Murdoch’s personal propaganda channel, and made the other cable networks realize they can grow their ratings by playing more fairly. That’s what Trump has done.
Trump has attracted the “big tent” coalition that the GOPe always professed it wanted, but never really did, by appealing equally to all demographic groups, whether they be rich or poor, educated or uneducated, old or young, male or female, blue collar or white collar, north or south, east or west. That’s what Trump has done.
The media are loath to make the connection, but it’s obvious that the Boehner resignation was yet another falling domino, toppling due to the Trump Effect, because Trump’s unabashed truth-telling and fearless neutering of the kommie media triggered a revolt amongst the great unwashed GOP masses which emboldened a few conservative Congress critters to grow a few pairs. That’s what Trump has done.
Trump’s coalition of voters have panicked the Senate into growing a backbone and standing up to Obama by refusing to consider any Supreme Court nominee until the next President is in office. That’s what Trump has done.
And our nation wouldn’t even be having ANY of these conversations about illegal immigration and the myriad of other Obammunist issues destroying our country if it wasn’t for Trump. Instead, we’d simply be debating which RINO, GOPe squish would be least likely to be stomped by Hillary, and the GOPe would once again be exhorting the “base” about how critical it is for us to once again vote for the “lesser of two evils”, that is, vote for the GOPe side of the Uniparty coin. That’s what Trump has done.
And do note that ALL of the oligarchs and plutocrats are frightened to death of Donald Trump because the billionaires and millionaires can’t buy him like all of the other politicians they routinely purchase, because Trump doesn’t need nor want their money, and the kommie media is frightened to death of him because he isn’t afraid of them either, the bottom line being that Donald Trump can not be controlled by the rich and powerful or the corrupt media, so for anyone who is truly for campaign finance reform and wants to take money out of politics, voting for Trump is the only reasonable choice. That’s what Trump has done.
President Trump is really the last hope for this country: if he can’t undo any of the damage wrought by the Obammunists, the U.S.A. is done.
So least we forget, the above, and much more, are called “The Trump Effect”.
Many millions will choose “none of the above”, sad to say. They loathe Trump, as I do, but they will stay home, unlike me. I will vote for the lesser sleaze, Trump, if he wins.
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