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.”
“Rand Paul is 100% correct on this.”
Indeed. Bolton is a Bushie neocon warmonger.
Rand Paul has been repeatedly opposed to Bolton being in the Trump administration in almost any capacity.
I’m starting to respect Rand Paul more and more with each passing day. Unlike that senile prick McCain, if Paul disagrees with President Trump he doesn’t attack Trump, but simply states his own position and why.
I wish someone would ask Panetta why the U.S. has been jointly working with this “adversary” to build, staff and operate the International Space Station for years.
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Because Republicans are in power. Did LEON say anything when the hot mic picked up Obama saying, “tell Vlad I’ll have more flexibility after the election”?
I don’t think Russia’s our friend, but I don’t think we need to go to war with them. If they were our friend, they probably wouldn’t be sailing so close to us with spy ships. But then, to quote Kay, in MIB, “There’s always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!”
Of course, if I thought like a democrat (shudder), I’d say Russia’s doing that sort of thing just to make it look like Trump and Putin aren’t in cahoots.
Swamp thing looks like a green McCain
So Linda is the girl is what you are saying.
good one!
Bolton wants to send US troops to fight everybody. He is the king of foreign intervention for no good reason, certainly nothing that benefits the US.
I wouldn’t trust Putin as far as I can throw him, but there’s no reason not to have a working relationship with him, of some sort.
And while it’s true they helped us defeat Germany in WWII, I don’t think they did it out of the goodness of their heart. Stalin knew Alger Hiss was going to see to it that the USSR got half of Europe for it’s trouble. He just saved him the job of having to fight for it (not that he had much left to fight with. And I’m pretty sure he knew we had the bomb.)
Russia may not be as bad as the USSR was, but Putin was a part of that system, and I don’t believe this, “He was just a lawyer” crap. I think he’s ruthless. Or do you suppose someone else is knocking off one “diplomat” after another?
If the Swamp Thing is smart, he’ll give Hillary a wide berth, especially when she’s having a bad day.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
He’s searching for the drain, so he can dispose of her.
As one of those three, I suppose I should take that as a compliment, being ahead of the pack. However, there were hundreds of other FReepers who also considered Iraq no direct threat to these United States. We were outnumbered--or at least outshouted, especially in the election year of 2008--by trolls who were as intolerant of other opinions as . . well, the so-called anarchists who shout down conservative speakers on college campuses have nothing on some of the former members of this forum. There was no point in trying to convince the unconvincible.
It was a hoot in the beginning, though, to read some of the posts about WMDs being discovered (but not reported), the three mystery ships taking their forbidden cargo to who-knows-where, and the truck caravans going west across the desert carrying CBWs that somehow got by the UN inspectors. There was even one poster who finally got outed as a fraud (can't remember his nick, though) after he'd gained a sizeable following among the gullible.
Too bad you weren't around for all those exciting times, John. Or were you?
Agreed.
The two of them are a pair of nuts.
That “Swamp Thang” looks like McInsane. The girl is Linda Graham in kinky role play.
"... and provides our military service members the necessary legal framework to carry out two critical missions after 2014: targeting the remnants of Al Qaeda and training, advising, and assisting Afghan National Security Forces."
The Status of Forces Agreement signed between the U.S. and Iraq in November 2008 didn't have this language. It explicitly called for the removal of all U.S. military forces by the end of 2011.
Actually, this country probably would have been better off if Donald Trump had been president on 9/11. The Bush administration's bungling of our foreign and military affairs after 9/11 is a big reason why Trump is the president now ... and why Jeb Bush's 2016 campaign was a complete 'effing disaster.
I'll stack my conservative credentials up against anyone here on FreeRepublic, so I don't know why you'd call be a "faux conservative." A lot of here on FreeRepublic back in 2001 looked at a 9/11 attack that was carried out by radical Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and had every reason to question a decision by the U.S. government to invade Iraq and topple a government that: (1) was brutally effective in suppressing radical Islam in its own borders, and (2) was one of the few countries in the Middle East that actually had a strong Christian presence.
P.S. -- I would have no interest in carrying George Bush's brief case. It was probably filled with Marvel comic books anyway.
I had a lot of arguments here on FR back in 2003 about that stupid invasion of Iraq. I don't take any of it personally, and I have plenty of respect for anyone who can stand here now and admit that it was a mistake.
I’m pretty impressed with McMaster. He has had his career almost derailed on more than one occasion because he refused to to accept the status quo and for questioning the decisions of his superiors. President Trump needs someone who will give him an honest and forthright answer on every issue, not someone who will give him what that person thinks he wants.
Bolton bad idea. CIA used him like a tool.
Don’t agree. Bolton is loyal above all, and fearless. Pretty good combination.
We should pull all troops out of middle east now!
McCain is ignorant and stupid. He gets away with it because 90% of the population is also ignorant and stupid. Rand is more knowledgeable and intelligent, but takes extreme positions to try and counter the McCain types; this fails because he is trying to edify the the 90% of the population who are ignorant and stupid.
Solution:
If you are ignorant and stupid, you don’t get to vote. 90% of the population should not be voting.
Are you too dumb to vote? Read up on the Dunning Kruger effect, and read up on the inability to understand figurative language. If you don’t get sarcasm, or aren’t often shocked by how bright some people are, you may be too dumb to vote.
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