Posted on 02/19/2017 6:49:29 PM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
Nearly a week since U.S. President Donald Trump fired national security adviser Michael Flynn, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul advised against appointing former U.N. Ambassador and White House Chief of Staff John Bolton.
Trump’s first choice, retired Navy special forces officer Robert Harward, who served under Defense Secretary John Mattis, turned down the position last week and reports say the White House has ruled out former CIA Director David Petraeus, who was ousted as the nation’s top spy amid a scandal over his sharing confidential documents with his mistress.
Flynn resigned last week amid questions on whether he discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Trump is scheduled to meet Sunday with four possible replacements: Bolton, retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who is acting national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster and the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said other interviews also could be scheduled.
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Paul, R-Ky., a Libertarian who lost the 2016 Republican presidential nomination to Trump, said Bolton would push a foreign policy closer to that of Sen. John McCain,” R-Ariz.
“John Bolton still believes the Iraq war was a good idea, he still believes regime change is a good idea, he still believes that nation building is a good idea,” Paul said, adding, “My fear is that s secret wars would be developing around the globe. … I think he would be a bad choice.”
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said he is “fully aware” of the facts that led up to Flynn’s ouster after less than a month on the job.
Some point after we were first tipped off and got to the point of reviewing whether he was being honest or not, after we got the report back from the White House counsel, that's when we looped in, or that's when the vice president was brought into the conversation more fully in regard to whether or not Michael Flynn was honest,” Priebus said.
Priebus added, however, he didn’t think Flynn’s actions rise to a criminal violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from engaging in foreign policy.
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta, who served as Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, said Trump needs to recognize that Russia is “an adversary, not a friend.”
“Their main purpose is to destabilize the United States and Western democracies. And they've shown that in everything they've done. So the president, I think ultimately must recognize that his first responsibility is to protect this country. And one of those you have to protect this country from is Russia,” Panetta said on “Meet the Press.”
strange that there are so many recent converts to the liberal dogma on the GWoT here at this conservative discussion forum.
very strange, indeed.
Did the U.S. sign a Status of Forces Agreement with the government of Afghanistan that has a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces?
Reading websites like the Assyrian News website: http://aina.org/ and researching Christians in the area really does show that persecution of Christians started very early on after the invasion. Christians are always persecuted some over there but it revved it up. So I do have my complaints on how the invasion was done. That is a topic in itself.
you obviously slept through the Obama administration. I’m just not sure I can help you with your seriously, seriously flawed understanding of the history of the Iraq war.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. You can see my posting history, and I’ve been saying this for years. Do you even know what people were saying here in 2003?
I do remember that George W. Bush left office in disgrace. Even many of his supporters here on FR couldn’t defend him anymore. When a U.S. president pisses away hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of American lives in a Third World sh!t-hole, while allowing a full-scale invasion across our own southern border, is it any wonder that he left office with the approval rating of a child molester?
Sorry, but you would not do that ? Allowing Iran nukes is a death sentence to millions.
Oh Adrienne..........
Yes! I think he knows something.
http://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-when-tokyo-rose-ran-for-president/
George Bush’s critics aren’t qualified to carry his brief case. Yourself included.
Perhaps faux conservative like yourself would have preferred Al Gore to have been president on 9/11. Maybe that would have made the BDS crowd happy — but I doubt it. They don’t seem to be happy unless they’re condemning someone for something that they really don’t understand very well.
And the fact that he happened to be president when Barney Frank’s housing bomb went off was sheer cuicidence — it certainly wasn’t a “disgrace”.
Well said indeed.
New Bolton thread to me at least, based off a tweet; I’m mulling over it.
https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/832747056879919104
Thoughts on Rand Paul`s views on John Bolton?
>>Anyone who still thinks the invasion of Iraq was a good idea shouldn’t even be allowed to clean the toilets in the White House.<<
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It was a huge mistake that had disastrous consequences for America.
I supported Bush at the time, BUT I WAS WRONG.
The democracy he forced on Arab countries led to disastrous outcomes every time, and IRAN was the big winner.
Despite heroism of American armed forces, WE LOST.
Obama made it WORSE by withdrawing, but there was no good outcome by the time he took office.
America was diminished in so many ways by this bad war.
Everyone should admit this now.
My guess is that Trump will appoint Kellogg.
We are now finding out that our technology is falling behind.
Even North Korea could wipe out LA, for example.
I like Rand Paul when I agree with him. I don’t know enough about Bolton to know if he’d be ok, but I love what RP said about McCain!
You're confusing Donald Trump with Barack Obama, it seems.
Trump has been all of the map on the Iraq War and didn't run on the issue since it was old news by 2016. Obama, on the other hand, made his opposition to it the centerpiece of his campaign and ran as the anti-GWB candidate.
Old news by 2016? He went after hillary for her support of the war. He went after much of the establishment gop for supporting the war. He might not really believe it, but he used part of his campaign to be against it, even though he was all over the map as you say.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.